Painting: Emulsion to Walls & Ceilings – cost per m² – UK 2026 Rate Guide

Budget rate for supply & lay · typical budget rate before your adjustments

Labour, plant, materials, outputs and waste — yours to edit, as an Excel. Three free.

Rates are UK national (non-London): central London and constrained urban sites typically run dearer — adjust the labour, plant and access lines in the build-up accordingly.

Painting — emulsion to walls & ceilings

per m² · supply & lay

£14 – £20 / m²

What is it

The supply and application of emulsion decoration to plastered walls & ceilings — light prep & filling of minor defects, cutting in to edges, reveals & ceiling lines, a thinned mist coat to seal new or prepared plaster and two full coats of vinyl-matt emulsion, roller-applied — priced per m² of finished surface. Trade vinyl matt is the mainstream UK budget wall & ceiling emulsion. This rate prices the EMULSION to walls & ceilings only — the joinery gloss, external decoration, spray application and wallpaper are separate rates. The rate carries three operations:

Prep & cut in — light abrasion and filling of minor defects, then cutting in to edges, reveals and ceiling lines with a brush.
Mist coat — a thinned first coat rolled on to seal new or prepared plaster and bind the surface.
Two full coats — two full coats of vinyl-matt emulsion, roller-applied to an even, opaque finish ready for handover.

Rate range by paint system

Vinyl matt£14 – £18 / m²

Vinyl matt (standard)£15 – £19 / m²

Durable / washable matt£16 – £20 / m²

Budget rate per m².

3 key cost drivers

Surface condition, prep & coats

New or sound prepared plaster taking a mist coat plus two full coats rolls fastest; heavy filling & making good, a dark-over-light colour change (an extra coat), cut-up rooms with many edges and restricted access all slow the painter and can add coats. The London & South-East market runs dearer. It is the key driver of the labour per m²; region rides this note, not a dropdown.

Paint system & finish

Priced on a trade vinyl matt emulsion. The published band already spans the usual trade paint choices — a contract matt for new plaster through a durable / washable matt for high-traffic areas — and since labour dominates the m² rate, the paint spec moves the figure only modestly, well inside the band. There is no product-scenario switch here, so no calculator: the band is the answer.

Location

London and the South East typically add around 20% to labour.

Estimator

Budget rate generator

£15 – £19 / m²

Covers a mist coat + two full coats of emulsion to walls & ceilings, the paint, sundries, the painter and O&P · excl. joinery gloss, external, spray, wallpaper & VAT

Exclusions

Lifting & material distribution — telehandler / forklift, hoist and site-distribution labour (an attendance, in main-contractor prelims)
The joinery decoration — knot, prime, undercoat & gloss to skirting, architrave, doors & frames (a painter’s rate per m)
External masonry & render decoration (a separate exterior rate) & external woodwork, spray application, wallpaper / lining paper, the plaster background itself and access / scaffold
Scaffold supply (usually in preliminaries)
Preliminaries — main-contractor site set-up, management & welfare
VAT