Painting: External Joinery Gloss & Stain – cost per m – 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 — external joinery gloss

per m² · supply & lay

£14 – £20 / m

What is it

The supply and application of a full weatherproof decoration to external softwood joinery — fascias, bargeboards, external doors & frames — with knots spot-treated, the timber primed, undercoated and finished with one to two coats of exterior gloss or wood stain, brush-applied and de-nibbed between coats, priced per metre of run. A trade exterior gloss or 10-year woodstain is the mainstream UK budget system. This rate prices the EXTERNAL JOINERY decoration only — the external masonry & render decoration, interior emulsion & joinery gloss, spray application and wallpaper are separate rates. The rate carries three operations:

Prep & knot — light abrasion & de-nib, spot-treatment of knots, and filling & making good of gaps & defects with exterior filler and flexible weather caulk.
Prime & undercoat — prime the bare or weathered softwood and apply an undercoat, cutting in to edges and features.
Gloss or stain — one to two full coats of weatherproof exterior gloss or wood stain, brush-applied to an even, weatherproof finish.

Rate range by exterior-coating system

Contract exterior system£14 – £18 / m

Trade exterior gloss / 10-year woodstain£15 – £19 / m

Solvent-based weatherproof system£16 – £20 / m

Budget rate per m².

3 key cost drivers

Surface condition, prep & access

New or sound prepared softwood joinery at normal working height coats fastest. Weathered or previously-coated timber needing sanding-back and making good, a moulded or large-section profile with more girth per metre, and high or restricted access on ladders or a tower all slow the painter and lift the rate per metre. The London & South-East market runs dearer. It is the key driver of the labour per m; region rides this note, not a dropdown.

Exterior-coating system & finish

A trade exterior gloss or 10-year woodstain is the default. A basic contract exterior system is cheaper; a durable full solvent-based weatherproof system runs dearer. It is the driver of material cost — the published band already spans it. Labour dominates the per-metre rate, so the coating spec is a modest lever, and 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 / m

Covers knot, prime, undercoat + two weatherproof gloss or stain coats to external joinery, the coatings, sundries, the painter and O&P · excl. external masonry, interior decoration, spray, the joinery supply & fix, scaffold & VAT

Exclusions

Lifting & material distribution — telehandler / forklift, hoist and site-distribution labour (an attendance, in main-contractor prelims)
The external masonry & render decoration (a painter’s rate per m²), the interior emulsion & interior joinery gloss, spray application and wallpaper
The supply & fix of the joinery, fascia or door itself, major timber repair or replacement, and access / scaffold above normal working height
Scaffold supply (usually in preliminaries)
Preliminaries — main-contractor site set-up, management & welfare
VAT