House painted the wrong colour... maybe... advice?

[jonshutt2]

Hi. We got a local painting company to paint the exterior of the house - window frames, gutters, gables, fascias, eves, soffits etc etc.

We requested 'white gloss for all the woodwork, and grey for the gutters'. But they've painted everything grey except the window frames which they're painted white. It was initially grey but a grey so light that I thought it was white until I looked closely. Now it's battleship grey - it looks neat and well painted - but not quite what we had in mind, and contrasts with the gable/fascias on the other part of the building which are white (some are also green - it an old house of many parts)

They came back basically saying that the word 'woodwork' only applies to window frames, and the word 'gutters' refers to soffits, eves, gables etc.... is that true?

I would have thought that 'woodwork' applies to all the wood, and gutters means gutters. If I ask someone to paint the gutters I don't expect them to paint all the gables soffits fascias as well...

or this terminology that's standard in the painting world?

 

[Ian H]

Everyone could interpret it differently.

 

[Bosswhite]

As a retired decorator at the estimate stage I would ask if the Guttering should be picked out and the woodwork Fascia, gables etc a different colour .

 

[Notch7]

Hi. We got a local painting company to paint the exterior of the house - window frames, gutters, gables, fascias, eves, soffits etc etc.

We requested 'white gloss for all the woodwork, and grey for the gutters'. But they've painted everything grey except the window frames which they're painted white. It was initially grey but a grey so light that I thought it was white until I looked closely. Now it's battleship grey - it looks neat and well painted - but not quite what we had in mind, and contrasts with the gable/fascias on the other part of the building which are white (some are also green - it an old house of many parts)

They came back basically saying that the word 'woodwork' only applies to window frames, and the word 'gutters' refers to soffits, eves, gables etc.... is that true?

I would have thought that 'woodwork' applies to all the wood, and gutters means gutters. If I ask someone to paint the gutters I don't expect them to paint all the gables soffits fascias as well...

or this terminology that's standard in the painting world?

No, I would definitely say that gutters, means gutters.

They've made a mistake and are trying to cover up their error.....their explanation is bulls hit!

white gloss for all the woodwork, must encompass all of the exterior woodwork. If they wanted 'guttering' to include fascias, soffits, barges, etc they should have specified those separately.

They will have to come back and re-paint. I hope the scaffold is still there?

 

[Yafo]

If what you have said is the full story then it sounds straight forward.

They have not done what you requested.

Have you paid them yet ? If so why? If not, inform them why not.

 

[jonshutt2]

Cheers folks. If it was standard 'trade' terminology, like @Bosswhite says - good to clarify at quote stage

Yup that's about the full story - I've got an email chain of the chat, so that's all documented. On a previous email I wrote the following: 'was this quote for white glass all round? Currently the eaves are a light grey. If we wanted grey would that affect the price much?', the I messaged saying 'By glass I meant gloss' and got the response 'No problem, yes its all gloss.'. That and the quote in the first post were the only mentions of colour we had.

It was all done by ladder as it's not a particularly high house
No - not paid yet - more than happy to pay - for the job we wanted! They've done a good quality job - just not quite the right job! Happy to pay a proportion for the windows. Just have to decide how much want it white... grey looks ok, but it's a bit, how can I put it... grey...


I can understand them trying to convince me that it meant grey all along - its easier for them that way.

 

[mattylad]

Ask them "Now you have done the undercoat, when are you going to finish the woodwork in white?"