You can't compare an hourly rate with a tradesman/lawyer..... Sorry! And this is where many members are clueless with regards to manual labour and sitting in an office all day!

I do it myself, keeps me lean & mean

• My house was repainted 4 years ago using best quality JOTUN external paint , labour cost 30k ,done by one of the most reputable local contractors , now 4 years later its all falling off the walls and needs to be done again,, because they cheated and short cut the preparation of the under surface ,,,next time I will have the outside blasted and tiled then it will NEVER need painting again. probable cost 100k .

You can use the best paint there is, if the prep works not done properly prior its pointless!

Painting/decorating is 70% prep work

Why do people here talk about an amount per day for labour? Decorating is a skilled profession. I did a 4 year painter & decorator apprenticeship to get my city & guilds qualification.

People talk about an amount per day because a day is a set number of hours and that allows you to calculate the length of the job. Most decorating jobs take more than one day but you could just as well give a price per hour if you prefer.

Lawyers and other professionals also charge by the hour, as did I when I was still working, so that's no insult.

And here the qualification for being a decorator is often just that you own a paintbrush.

Nothing wrong with paid by the hour and you're quite correct, lawyers do it but that's so they can rip the arse out of their clients with billing! No the word I wondered about was "labour". You wouldn't engage a lawyer at 250 baht an hour for his "labour". (you're right about the decorator - actually, in Thailand it would be "painter" as there is no other element to the job such as wood staining, paper hanging or marbling - qualifications, turning up with a brush seems to hack it for other Thais!) and to say such a thing implies any old labourer could do the job.

normally the ask 150 to 200 baht pro sqm

undercoat,primer and 2 layers of paint will cost a little bit more

paint cost 1700 a bucket a good primer 2500 a bucket

for 250 sqm you need about 15 buckets of paint

that means the price is olmost ok

And you know wen you pay peanuts you get monkeys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes but it is the price of the peabuts that is the problem. If we wanted to pay western rates, we would have all stayed where we came from. Labour costs are outrageous lately. I wonder how much work you are getting at those rates.

OP I live in Pattaya and only had the outside of the house done 6 months ago - 2 story, 3 beds and bought all the paint ourselves. Using a quality solvent based primer and good quality colour top coats meant we ended up spending over 25,000 baht on paint and fillers. They had to use a lot of filler!

The painters had their own tower so no bamboo scaffolding and the labour charge was about the same again. They did a very thorough job on the outside and there were 3 main colours used.

If your estimates are for recommended people and they include the inside as well then it does not seem out of sorts - but as others have indicated it all depends on how thorough they will be.