OT - decorating

clarkey cat

so finally moved in. had a load of damp and electrical work done. And so walls are now a medley of torn wallpaper and plaster...

Need a decorator. Looks too drastic to sort myself (and I'm not the practical type).

Been quoted £700 a room. Is that sensible? Just painting walls, ceiling & making good where necessary. Each room is roughly 22' x 12'.


Thanks in advance cycle friends.

asprilla

Dunno, but if you find one and he's good do you mind sending me his details?

mudcow007

yowza

thats pricey isnt it?

i know im one of them unruly types from the north, but...feck me sideways

when we got our house we had all the walls skimmed in our living room, they are a touch smaller than your room but that came to £250

i will do yours for £695

has the house been empty for a while hence the damp or is there a leak?

veronese68

Having just spent the weekend decorating and moving furniture I was tempted to say it's worth it. But £700 buys a lot of bike stuff, so I'd go through the pain again. That's not saying I'm prepared to do yours, but could lend you a steamer to help get rid of the wallpaper. What's the plaster like underneath?

clarkey cat

mudcow007 wrote:

yowza

thats pricey isnt it?

i know im one of them unruly types from the north, but...feck me sideways

when we got our house we had all the walls skimmed in our living room, they are a touch smaller than your room but that came to £250

i will do yours for £695

has the house been empty for a while hence the damp or is there a leak?

It's an old house, and had been empty for about a year. You don't want to know how much the damp work cost. Let's just say I could have bought an EMX-7 and had some spare change.

rubertoe

Decorating is the devils work.

I wish you luck in your endevour and buy a steamer. I'd suggest doing the donkey work yourself. That saves a load of £££ and then getting people in to do the skilled bits if your not confident/able

mudcow007

you can rent DPM stuff to do it all your self you know

basically a big sds drill an you squirt the stuff into the bricks?

might be worth getting a dehumidifier to dry it out a bit too

clarkey cat

Veronese68 wrote:

Having just spent the weekend decorating and moving furniture I was tempted to say it's worth it. But £700 buys a lot of bike stuff, so I'd go through the pain again. That's not saying I'm prepared to do yours, but could lend you a steamer to help get rid of the wallpaper. What's the plaster like underneath?

I sat on my arse all weekend on my new sofa, watching Grand Prix surrounded by freshly plastered walls!

V - that's very kind of you but I don't think you should underestimate just how disincentivised I am to do anything resembling DIY.

£1400 for living room and dining room... basically sounds like thats too dear. I'll see if I can get a cheaper deal.

mudcow are you a painter decorator? Reason its so expensive is because I live here http://www.theguardian.com/money/shortc ... erly-hills

clarkey cat

Asprilla wrote:

Dunno, but if you find one and he's good do you mind sending me his details?

HER details. Asprilla.

This is a ladies decorating service.

clarkey cat

mudcow007 wrote:

you can rent DPM stuff to do it all your self you know

basically a big sds drill an you squirt the stuff into the bricks?

might be worth getting a dehumidifier to dry it out a bit too

it's all done now. Got a guarantee and everything.
Got the place rewrired in the process.

mudcow007

ooow get you

good god no, im an IT nerd and waaaay to tight to get a man in to do jobs...well i normally have a go at them then balls it up an get someone to fix it all

i helped rebuild a house a few years ago though in welsh Wales, replaced floors, roof, electrics (which then got signed off) an tried plastering

just have a go you will be surprised what you can achieve

Bustacapp

£700 per room just to take some wallpaper of and paint?

Wow.

Does this decorator drive a Rangerover?

clarkey cat

fear not, I don't live in the posh bits. That's where Asprilla lives.

Mudcow - your words don't fill me with encouragement. I will try and find a cheaper quote.

mudcow007

if the walls have been skimmed/ plastered, let them dry - in this weather it should be a few days at most

give fresh plastered walls a really milky coat of paint (emulsion paint mixed with loads of water) build the milky coat up - 3 coats

you should be then able to paint straight onto the plaster

or are you wall papering?

to take paper off, score it with one of these

then use a wallpaper steamer on it, should come off easy enough, sand the walls (if there are any lumps or bump) repaper

done

now spend the money you woudl have spent on something nice, i recommend carbon

veronese68

clarkey cat wrote:

Got the place rewrired in the process.

No wonder it's so expensive. Do you get to specify what they wear whilst decorating? That could bump the price up depending on what other extras you add. I'm sure there's a bad joke in here somewhere saying she's got the painters in?
I would also like to point out that the Royal Borough of Kingston is way better than Elmbridge or Beverley Hills as household batteries for recycling are collected from our houses with other recycling and we don't have to get our staff to take them anywhere.

clarkey cat

not wall-papering. can't wall-paper for a year over the damp work as invalidates the guarantee.

consensus appears to be that quote is too expensive. Thanks all. I thought it would be about £500/£600 for two rooms.

mrc1

£700 to paint a room and peel some old wall paper off is crazy expensive!

Find a local hardware shop and they should have some business cards from local tradesmen who can help you out at sensible prices.

rjsterry

£700 a room for London(ish) sounds not too far off what it should be depending on the state of the rooms. Everyone always forgets that the painting is the easy bit; it's all the prep - "making good where necessary" - that takes the time (and money). Depends if your new plaster is like a mill pond or the surface of the sea - white emulsion and electric light will show up every ripple. What I would say is a few extra quid spent on someone decent is well spent - a cheap job will bug you for years before you finally decide to get it re-done.

ETA: Shop around by all means, but to give you an idsea of the work involved, there's maybe half a day of prep on each room, then on newly painted plaster, you'll want an absolute minimum of mist coat plus two coats on new plaster, ideally mist + 3 - that's quite a bit of drying time. Then there's all the skirtings, architraves and such, which will also need primer, undercoat and two top coats. Also cheap paint is a false economy as you need more coats to get a decent finish.

edhornby

even for non-practical types, decorating isn't hard - get a steamer and get all the old paper off, then a big bucket of B&Q value white emulsion and slap this on

start with a room that doesn't matter too much - from there you will have taught yourself enough to start doing the top coat(s) and the fine finishes

asprilla

clarkey cat wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

Dunno, but if you find one and he's good do you mind sending me his details?

HER details. Asprilla.

This is a ladies decorating service.

Really? Not sure if the Mrs wants redecorating.

Does sound a bit steep.

clarkey cat wrote:

fear not, I don't live in the posh bits. That's where Asprilla lives.

Last time I checked you were a lot closer to Burwood Park and St Georges Hill than I am

clarkey cat

and Im skint at the moment as just bought a Roche Bobois sofa!

asprilla

clarkey cat wrote:

and Im skint at the moment as just bought a Roche Bobois sofa!

So you are the one who shops there.

They have a lovely chair in the window at the moment. Only £3,300.

clarkey cat

well N+1 is off the cards due to B+1 but splurging on a quality sofa is an entirely different thing in Mrs Cat's eyes.

asprilla

clarkey cat wrote:

well N+1 is off the cards due to B+1 but splurging on a quality sofa is an entirely different thing in Mrs Cat's eyes.

Splurging on the Sofa won't get you B+1 and I'm not sure how easy it is to clean some of their fabrics.

clarkey cat

disgusting.