Room painting

Because most of painting is not painting. Two crews can quote the same square metres and mean completely different amounts of preparation. Preparation is filling, sanding, caulking the gaps along skirting and architrave, washing down where there is grease, and spot priming the patches so they do not flash through. That is where the hours are, and it is the difference between a room that looks good in the evening light and one that looks fine only from the door. Ask any quote what preparation is included, and ask how many coats. The second variable is what is underneath. Fresh plaster takes a mist coat first, a watered down emulsion that soaks in and gives the full coats something to hold. A wall that has been papered takes longer than anyone expects, because the paste has to come off and the surface is rarely flat afterwards. A dark colour going to a pale one needs an extra coat, sometimes two, and a strong colour on top of white needs a matched primer to stop it looking patchy. Woodwork is its own job again: degreasing, sanding, filling, priming bare timber, then two finish coats, with drying time between them that cannot be rushed in a damp house. Third is the paint. Cheap trade emulsion covers less, marks easier and cannot be wiped, so a hall or a child’s bedroom in the cheap tin costs more within two years. We price with a mid range trade paint by default and tell you where it is worth going up, usually the hall, the stairs and the kitchen. If you want a specific brand or colour system we will use it and the price follows the tin.

Can you paint around us while we live here?

Yes. We work room by room, move and sheet the furniture, mask the floors and put things back at the end of each day where we can. Modern water based paints have little smell and are touch dry in hours. If there is a baby in the house or someone with a sensitive chest, say so and we will use low odour products and keep the room ventilated.