MeNext / Decorating
The finish is decided before the tin is opened.
Almost all the time on a good decorating job goes into the part you never see. That is not a saying. It is where the days actually go.
People judge decorating by the last hour of it, which is the only hour that looks like decorating. Everything that makes it good or bad happened before that.
Take kitchen doors, which I get asked about often, because replacing a kitchen costs many times what changing its colour does. Painting them on their hinges with a brush gives you runs at the bottom edge, brush marks that catch the light along the rails, and a hard line wherever the brush met the frame. So I do not do that. The doors come off. The handles come off. They get flatted back, laid horizontal on trestles, and sprayed, because paint sprayed onto a flat surface has nowhere to run to. Then they go back on, and the difference between that and a brush is not subtle.
Spraying indoors makes a fine mist that will find every surface in the house if you let it, so I build a tent out of polythene on site and work inside it. Sheeting the room is not a formality. It is what makes spraying possible at all.
The same principle applies to walls. Paper comes off properly rather than being painted over. Filling gets sanded back flush rather than left proud, which is the single most common thing I have to put right on somebody else's work — a filled crack that stands up in the light like a scar. Edges get cut in by hand, because tape lifts on old plaster and takes the wall with it.
None of this is difficult. It is just slower than people assume, and the slowness is the product. If somebody quotes you two days for a room and I say four, we are not describing the same job.
I paint and decorate as part of a refit and on its own. Full rooms, kitchen doors and units resprayed, woodwork, ceilings, and putting right work that has failed.
People judge decorating by the last hour of it, which is the only hour that looks like decorating.
How the job runs
- Look at the surface, not the colour — old paper, distemper, failed filler or bare plaster all change what has to happen first.
- Protect the room — full sheeting, and for spray work a polythene tent built on site.
- Strip and fill — paper off, cracks cut out and filled, and sanded back flush rather than left proud.
- Take doors off for anything sprayed — flat and horizontal, so nothing can run.
- Prime for the surface it actually is — new plaster, bare wood and old gloss all want different things underneath.
- Finish and rehang — coats given proper time between them, doors and handles back on last.
What goes wrong
Bad decorating is not usually bad painting. It is painting done on top of something. Paper painted over rather than stripped will bubble and lift within a year and take the new paint with it. Filler left proud and unsanded catches every bit of side light for the life of the room. New plaster painted before it has finished drying will flake off in sheets, which means the room is done twice. Doors brushed on their hinges run along the bottom rail and show brush marks along the grain, and once that is dry the only route back is flatting the whole door down again. In every case the work looked finished on the day it was finished.
Questions people ask
Can you paint my kitchen doors instead of replacing them?
Yes, and it costs a fraction of a new kitchen. The doors come off, get flatted back, laid horizontal and sprayed, then rehung. Sprayed flat there is nowhere for the paint to run.
Why does spraying need all the sheeting?
Because spray indoors makes a fine mist that will find every surface in the house. I build a polythene tent on site and work inside it. The sheeting is what makes spraying possible at all.
Can you paint over wallpaper?
You can, and within a year it usually bubbles and lifts and takes the new paint with it. I would rather strip it properly and tell you that at the quote than at the end.
Why is your quote longer than the other one?
Almost all the time on a decorating job goes into preparation, which is the part nobody sees. If somebody quotes two days for a room and I say four, we are not describing the same job.
If a room needs doing, or a kitchen needs a colour rather than a skip, I will come and look at what is on the walls now. Call Andrew on the number at the top of this page.