I’m going to be honest

during times when work is quieter we use lead generation sites such as Bark, My Builder, Local Heroes and Bidvine etc. These sites all work basically the same way, you (the customer) place a request for a quote or estimate for the work you require. We (the supplier) then receive either an email or text informing us of your request, if the work is something we can do, we then have to pay a fee to enable us to obtain the customers contact details. The fee charged can be from as little as £5.50 up to £75.00 plus in some cases, it very much depends on the work needed.

Now we have won some nice quality work from these leads and they are generally a very cost effective way of filling up our less busy times.

However there is one type of lead that we never look twice at. They are the ones (and I have noticed them increasing over the past few years) that say……..

“we (the customer) will supply the materials”

The reasons we dont consider these leads is to begin with

What are Materials?

We can reasonably understand it would include emulsions, undercoats and topcoats. However does it include items such as filler, caulk, knotting, stain block, tack clothes, sand papers, driers, white spirit, putty, masking tapes, plastic sheeting, protective floor covering etc? In our opinion it leaves to many grey areas for confusion to arise.

What is the quality of the materials being supplied?

This is the one choice  where supplying materials can cost you money. Our business is decorating we do it every day of the week. We know what products work really well together and which ones to avoid, not that we will mention any names here (email us and we will may tell you) In some cases if we cant use certain products we would be unable to supply our 2 year Guarantee. Materials as a general rule of thumb are only around 15% to 25% of the job cost, the most expensive part of any decorating work is the labour. Therefore if additional coats of paint are required to achieve a good standard of work, the money saved supplying the paint will be lost in the extra labour charged for the additional work.

Your paying for a professional why not trust their opinion?

You are not just paying for a decorating job. Included in the price are years of experience, problem solving and knowledge. Would you go to a restaurant with a bag of shopping from Waitrose and ask for a cheaper price because you’ve brought your own ingredients?

Dont save money on Materials, save it on Labour

As mentioned earlier labour is the most expensive part of any decorating job. Forget trying to save pence on materials, save pounds on labour.

• If wallpaper needs stripping, strip it

• If your replacing the carpet, remove it

• If the walls and ceilings are rough, sand them down (but please dont fill them, leave that to us)

• If the walls and ceilings need washing down, sugar soap them

I’m sure you get the idea?