Interior and exterior decorating across Maldon, Chelmsford and East London. Walls, ceilings, woodwork, hallways, stairs and landings, and full exterior repaints on render, masonry, fascias and front doors. Everything is filled, sanded and prepared before a brush comes out, dust sheets go down before we start and the room gets put back the way we found it before we leave.
Filling, sanding, caulking and sealing happen before any paint does, because a finish only ever looks as good as the surface underneath it.
Rooms, hallways, stairs and landings inside, and render, masonry, soffits, fascias and joinery outside, all from the same team.
Dust sheets down, floors protected, edges cut in by hand and everything cleared out at the end of each day rather than at the end of the job.
You get a written price for the work described after we have seen it, so there is no drifting figure once the job is under way.
It depends far more on the state of the walls than on the size of the room. A room that is sound and only needs two coats is a straightforward job, while one with cracked plaster, blown filler, old woodchip or heavy nicotine staining needs preparation that can take longer than the painting itself. We come and look, tell you honestly what it needs, and give you a written price for that work. A number over the phone would be a guess and guesses are where disputes come from.
Yes. Render and masonry, soffits, fascias, barge boards, window frames, garage doors and front doors are all regular work. Exterior painting lives or dies on the weather and the preparation: anything loose has to come off, bare timber needs priming and nothing gets coated onto a damp surface. We plan exterior jobs around a dry spell rather than pushing on through drizzle for the sake of finishing on a particular day.
Yes, and it is part of the job rather than an extra. Furniture gets moved to the middle of the room and covered, floors get sheeted, sockets and switches are masked and we clean down at the end of each day. If a room has to stay usable overnight we will tell you before we start how much of it we can hand back.
A single room is usually a day or two depending on the preparation, a hallway, stairs and landing typically runs to several days because of the access and the amount of cutting in, and a whole house is normally a couple of weeks. We give you a realistic run of dates at the quote rather than an optimistic one, and if something opens up when we strip the walls back you hear about it the same day.
Either works. Most customers are happy for us to supply, which means the right product for the surface and trade prices on it. If you have a particular colour or brand in mind, buy it and we will use it, though we will tell you honestly if what has been chosen is not going to cover or is not suitable for the surface it is going on.
Sometimes, and sometimes it is the wrong answer. Painting over textured wallpaper or artex is quick and cheap but the texture stays, so if you want a flat wall the right route is stripping or overboarding and skimming first. We will tell you which of the two you are looking at and what each one costs, and you decide rather than us deciding for you.