Painting: External Masonry & Render – 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 — external masonry & render

per m² · supply & lay

£15 – £20 / m²

What is it

The supply and application of exterior decoration to rendered & masonry walls, fascias & soffits on a masonry substrate — a fungicidal wash & treatment of organic growth, filling & making good of minor cracks & defects, cutting in to edges, verges, reveals & features, and two full coats of exterior masonry paint, roller & brush-applied — priced per m² of finished surface. Trade smooth masonry paint is the mainstream UK budget exterior coating. This rate prices the EXTERNAL MASONRY decoration only — the external joinery gloss, interior emulsion & joinery gloss, spray application and wallpaper are separate rates. The rate carries three operations:

Wash & prep — a fungicidal wash and treatment of organic growth, filling and making good of minor cracks and defects, and stabilising where needed.
Cut in & first coat — cutting in to edges, verges, reveals and features, then the first full coat of exterior masonry paint.
Second coat — a second full coat of exterior masonry paint, roller and brush-applied to an even, weatherproof finish.

Rate range by masonry-coating system

Contract smooth masonry£14 – £19 / m²

Trade smooth masonry£15 – £19 / m²

15-year weatherproof system£16 – £20 / m²

Budget rate per m².

3 key cost drivers

Surface condition, prep, texture & access

Sound smooth render taking two coats at normal working height rolls fastest. A heavy fungicidal wash, crack-filling and making good, a rough render, pebbledash or roughcast (which drinks far more paint and has to be worked into every low spot), cut-up elevations with many features and high or restricted access all slow the painter and lift the rate per m². The London & South-East market runs dearer. It is the key driver of the labour per m²; region rides this note, not a dropdown.

Masonry-coating system & finish

A trade smooth masonry paint is the default. A basic contract smooth masonry is cheaper; a 15-year weatherproof, flexible or textured system runs dearer. It is the driver of material cost — the published band already spans it. Labour dominates the m² 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 / m²

Covers a fungicidal wash, prep + two full coats of masonry paint to external walls, the paint, sundries, the painter and O&P · excl. external joinery gloss, interior decoration, spray, the render background, scaffold & VAT

Exclusions

Lifting & material distribution — telehandler / forklift, hoist and site-distribution labour (an attendance, in main-contractor prelims)
The external joinery & woodwork decoration — knot, prime, undercoat & exterior gloss or stain to fascias, bargeboards, external doors & frames (a painter’s rate per m)
Interior emulsion & joinery gloss, spray application, the render / masonry background itself, major crack / render repair and access / scaffold
Scaffold supply (usually in preliminaries)
Preliminaries — main-contractor site set-up, management & welfare
VAT