Exhibition Furniture Hire: What to Choose and How Much You Need
8 September 2026
Why nobody gives you a number
Ask most stand builders what a stand costs and you will get "it depends", followed by a request for your phone number. It genuinely does depend — but that is not a reason to keep the mechanics secret, and waiting two days for a callback to learn whether you are looking at roughly £2,000 or roughly £20,000 wastes everybody's time.
So here is how the arithmetic actually works. The figures below come from the same estimator that powers our online stand builder, so once you have read them you can put your own dimensions in and get a number on screen — no callback, no haggling.
Wall area, not floor area
Perimeter multiplied by height. The biggest single line in most estimates.
How many sides are open
Each open side removes a wall. Island stands have less structure to build.
Height
Taller walls cost proportionally more, and may need structural sign-off.
Finishes
Flooring, lighting, printed graphics and any raised platform.
The four things that move the number
Stand cost is driven by surface area rather than by floor space, which is why the answer is less intuitive than people expect. A bigger stand is not automatically a more expensive one.
Three worked examples
These come straight from our estimator, using carpet, lighting and — on the larger two — printed graphics.
A 3m by 3m shell-scheme-sized stand with one open side, carpet and lighting comes out at roughly £1,030. Step up to a 6m by 4m island with two open sides, carpet, lighting and printed graphics and it is roughly £3,400. A 9m by 6m with three open sides, same finish, is roughly £3,900.
That last jump is the interesting one. The floor area more than doubles between the second and third example, but the price barely moves — because three open sides means only one wall left to build, and walls are the single biggest line in the estimate.
What those figures cover, and what they do not
Worth being precise about, because quotes from different suppliers often include different things and are almost impossible to compare as a result.
Covered: the stand itself
Walls, flooring, lighting, a raised platform if you want one, and graphics.
Not covered: your space
The organiser sells you the floor. That invoice is separate and often larger.
Not covered: furniture and AV
Hired separately, and priced for the full duration of your event.
Check what a quote includes
Suppliers draw the line in different places, which makes comparison hard.
Why the same stand costs more at some shows
The structure is only part of your total. The show organiser charges for the space itself, and usually for power, and sometimes for rigging, waste removal or a compulsory contractor for certain trades. Those charges vary enormously between shows in the same building, let alone between venues.
Build constraints add cost too. An upper-level hall where everything arrives by goods lift caps component sizes and slows installation. A city-centre venue with tight vehicle windows costs more in crew time than a site where you drive to the hall floor. It is worth reading the exhibitor manual before you finalise a budget rather than after.
Power and services
Ordered through the organiser, cheaper in advance, dear on the day.
Graphics artwork
Print is in the estimate. Someone still has to design what goes on it.
Storage between shows
Cheaper than rebuilding, but it is a real line if you plan to reuse.
Staff, travel and hotels
Frequently larger than the stand, and almost always forgotten.
Where budgets get eaten
None of these are the stand itself. All of them are routinely left out of the first budget and then found later, which is how a project that looked affordable stops being one.
Custom, modular or shell scheme?
A shell scheme is the package your organiser sells: walls, a name board, usually a light and a socket. It is the cheapest way to exhibit and it looks like everyone else, because it is the same shell every other exhibitor has.
A custom stand is designed and built for you and typically used once, though we store and reuse them where the design allows. Modular sits between the two — a reconfigurable system that travels well and pays back across a calendar rather than a single show. If you exhibit two or three times a year, modular is usually the better arithmetic even though the first invoice is higher than a shell scheme.
How to reduce the number without it looking cheap
There are sensible savings and there are false economies. These are the sensible ones — none of them make the stand look like you spent less.
Take a corner or island plot
Fewer walls to build, and better visibility for the same money.
Spend on lighting before finishes
It changes perceived quality more than any material upgrade.
Build it to travel
One structure across three shows beats three separate builds.
Fewer, bigger graphics
A single strong message costs less to print and works harder.
Get a figure for your stand
Rather than asking you to guess from someone else's examples, our online stand builder gives you an instant estimate from your own dimensions — height, width, length, how many sides are open, and which finishes you want. No callback, no form-filling before you see a number.
We design and manufacture in our own workshop in Redditch and install across the UK, Ireland and Europe with our own crew. If the estimate looks workable, we can turn it into a proper quote with drawings; if it does not, at least you found out in a minute rather than a fortnight.
Previous Post
Next Post
Touchscreen, iPad and AV Hire for Exhibition Stands
8 September 2026
Need an impressive, exhibition stand? Let's talk!
Expert craftsmanship underpins every exhibition stand we build — combining precision construction, premium materials, and many years of hands-on experience to deliver stands that look exceptional and perform flawlessly on site.