Would you know how to spot a good decorating job from and bad one?

In my expericence not a lot of people can recognise the diffrence.

My aim with this quick guide is to help you the homeowners make sure you are getting the right quality for the money you are giving to your painter and decorator.

Please bear in mind if you decide to go with the lowest quote for the job then you are going to have to make compromises on the quality of the finishes.

Here is what they said you should be looking for…

Clean lines

Every line a decorator makes should be clean and sharp. That goes for walls, ceilings, and woodwork.

Paint only where it’s supposed to be

There should never be paint on hinges, door handles, light switches, plug sockets or anywhere else you didn’t pay for it to be!!

This also includes paint splatter on the floor, windows or anywhere else, as these areas should be adequately protected with cotton dusheets, plastic floor protection or sheeting before the decoratring work began.

The easy way to spot a professional Decorator is one who removes your door furniture and places it in a safe place or container to be clean and refitted when the decorating is completed.

Solid colour

Deeper colours nearly always take more coats to get a solid colour, but a good decorator will always ensure you are left with a solid wall of colour.

If the colour seems patchy in any way, or you can see signs of the prep work grinning through then you should be looking to have another coat put on.

NB: The colour and quality of the paint has a large impact on how many coats are required. As a homeowners should be expected to pay for additional labour costs if more coats are required than usual.due to a poor quality paint choice

Blemish free / smooth surfaces

A professional painter and decorator will often spend the majority of their time preparing the surfaces by filling and sanding. Sometimes it is not possible to get every wall, ceiling or piece of woodwork perfectly smooth, however as a general rule of thumb the surface should look much better than when it started.

When looking at a perfectly smooth and blemish free wall it will almost make your eyes go funny as there is nothing to draw your attention.

If a decorator makes your walls look like this then you know they’ve done a great job.

No gaps or cracks

Gaps and cracks are very common around door frames, skirting boards and window cills. A good decorator will always look to fill and make good on these issues. A good Decorator will have an eye for detail, any gaps or cracks in the paintwork will drive them mad and they know it takes away from the overall look of the finished job..

Wallpapering

A good paperhanger is a joy to watch at work. When having wallpaper hung, you should be checking that the seams are perfectly butted and completely adhered to the wall. No peeling edges, all the cuts are clean and there are no jagged edges, finally the pattern should be matched in perfectly.

On a side note when buying oyour wallpaper Please Please buy one or two more rolls than you need!!!

It can always be taken back for a refund. On the last two jobs we have completed we have been short of wallpaper. The last job we had to wait three days for another roll. That is bad enough as the customer incured additional costs.

However the job before was a feature wall in a bedroom. After hanging the wallpaer on a Saturday morning I was one drop short. After a few emails and phone calls the customer discovered that they were unable to purchase the same batch number of the already hung wallpaper.

Therefore I went back REMOVED the already hung wallpaper and then applied the new wallpaper. This time there was enough!!! This whole proces took TWO MONTHS to sort out and DOUBLE the original cost.

All because not enough wallpaper had be ordered originally. BUY MORE WALLPAPER PEOPLE!!!

No flashing / patchiness / roller lines

These issues are most commonly spotted on flat ceilings. Especially nearer to a window. A professional decorator will know how to avoid these issues and make sure you have a perfectly smooth surface with no roller marks, missed bits or flashing.

Well adhered paint

After the paint has fully cured (this can be up to a month or so) you should be able to gently scratch the surface with your fingernail without the paint coming off.

NB: Certain paints are less durable that others. For example, dead flat chalky matt paints may not be able to withstand this, but generally it should not be a problem for correctly applied paints.

You certainly shouldn’t be seeing paint easily scratching off or even peeling off on it’s own.

No paint runs

Runs in the paint can happen, even to the most professional Painter and Decorators.

However the key is that a good professional Painter and Decorator should be rubbing them down and re-painting so that there are none showing at the end of the job.

Summary

If a good quality Painter and Decorator has done their job correctly, your space should feel almost brand new again.

When you walk into the room it should have that wow factor. The room should feel clean, crisp and have none of the issues mentioned above.

If you need to discuss any of the issuse mention please get in touch and we would be happy to help.