Quality and price of decorator

[Chell90]

Hi all,
Would be great to get some feedback on this.
Found a painter/decorator online whose profile mentioned they had over 20 years of experience. So far so good.

I was quoted £620.00 (cash) to strip all wallpaper off the walls and ceilings, prep, and fill damaged areas, apply two coats of Matt emulsion to walls and ceilings and apply two coats of satinwood to all woodwork of a 5M x 4M room. I’d asked how long it would take, he said he wasn‘t sure as it depended on what was underneath the wallpaper. So I immediately start stripping some of the ceiling and just over half the walls, one of which revealed a crack above the door and a crudely filled area and texted a video. He text back he’d need to take a look and the affected walls might need to be lined with thick lining paper. I sent a photo of the 1000 grade lining paper I have and asked if he could use it up. Having looked, he said lining wasn’t necessary.

Thursday 10am, 3 young adults/teens arrived late (the bosses son, daughter and nephew). Day one, I regularly checked the smart meter expecting them to use a wallpaper steamer as I had done but they didn’t! I was very impressed. Friday 3pm and apparently 4 coats of paint later the and job done. Boss & I took a look, I wasn’t impressed. He saw, said he could put a screed on the obliviously bumpy ceiling and paint it if I want him to. I said I’d be paying for the job twice, he looked at me blank faced, As he left he said I should let him know what I wanted him to do. I texted photos of the walls, he text that he can pop over on Monday 10.30am, surface feel the areas I’m not happy with, then return to paint them, if I keep the room empty. (So a further 4 nights on the sofa and blocked hallway corridor)

I took another look yesturday afternoon and put strips of post-its next the concerning areas. The crack I texted a photo of is still very noticeable, 2 medium & 2 small walls haven’t been stripped and some areas are lacking paint. There are thick ridges in corners, long ridges where the wall meets the sloping roof and cracking paint all over the place. Please see before & after and additional photos attached.

Would you (A) Pay him the £620, (B) Ask him to do the job again, (C) Pay £150? for the stripping the rest of the ceiling and the painting of the 2 small cupboard doors (given that thsee are the only parts of the contract that has been done properly) or (D) Something else?

 

[Deleted member 267285]

Get them to do it properly or retain some cash and get someone else to finish the job properly. It looks like a diy job imo.

 

[opps]

Sorry, your post is difficult to follow.

I don't know which part of the UK you live in. I am a London based decorator. If I had to quote to remove the lining paper from the ceiling AND walls I would probably be quoting way in excess or £1500. If the ceiling has been lined, there was a good reason why it was lined.

I would leave any lining paper alone and repair it. Then, if necessary. I would seal the lining paper and line over it (cutting sections away as required).

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Thursday 10am, 3 young adults/teens arrived late (the bosses son, daughter and nephew).

That alone would raise my suspicions - you were expecting a professional job, and got amateurs, but at a low quote.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I think you got £620's worth of decorating.

 

[Chell90]

Thank you for the reply Harry.

With my permission, the decorator had peeled away some of the wallpaper on focal wall, which happens to be the longest and a height of 1.7M (my home is a dormer bungalow and the room is in the dormer), so I wasn’t expecting the quote to be in the thousands. In hindsight I think his intention was to remove the ceiling & focal wallpaper and paint the other walls, hence the armatures.

My brother was a London based professional decorator and I paid for his services when he worked with me to decorate my London house before I put it on the market, so while I was surprised to see amateurs, I appreciate everyone has to start somewhere.

The experience of working with my brother was also the reason why I started removing wall paper shortly after receiving the quote and why I texted the video as I’m fully aware quotes are based on what can be seen and can significantly increase when the stripping of wall commences.

Regardless of of who did the job, the boss is ultimately responsible for ensuring the contract was adhered to and it wasn’t.

I‘m just trying to decide next steps.

 

[Chell90]

Sorry, your post is difficult to follow.

I don't know which part of the UK you live in. I am a London based decorator. If I had to quote to remove the lining paper from the ceiling AND walls I would probably be quoting way in excess or £1500. If the ceiling has been lined, there was a good reason why it was lined.

I would leave any lining paper alone and repair it. Then, if necessary. I would seal the lining paper and line over it (cutting sections away as required).

Hopefully I have remedied the difficulty of reading the post for others.

The paper on the focal wall was shiny and there was only a single sheet so removal was quick and easy.
I‘d removed 95% of it, all that was left to do was; remove was the other 5%, a light wash down to remove paste residue, after drying a light sanding then another wipe down to remove dust and they would have been ready for the undercoat.

The ceiling was also easy to remove, some areas needed a light sanding, a wipe etc.

The other walls were textured. I’d removed the paper to the right of the focal wall and above the cupboard.

None of the above was beyond the ability of the amateurs, that’s what I am after all, they probably didn’t want to do it.

If he had said he only needed to remove the ceiling and focal wallpaper I wouldn’t have bothered getting a quote.

Last, year, in preparation for my dementia suffering mum to move in, I removed the textured ceiling lining and sanded it down. I’d also removed the wallpaper as it too was shiny but I didn’t have time to sand it down. Neither did the ‘professional’ decorator who also did a bad job!

 

[Chell90]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Update; Boss took a look today. Long story (very) short, no fix, no charge.

 

[SkyV]

Modern workers have long raised a lot of questions in me. Knowing absolutely nothing, they demand amounts as if they have more than 10 years of experience. I definitely wouldn't pay that price.

 

[opps]

Modern workers have long raised a lot of questions in me. Knowing absolutely nothing, they demand amounts as if they have more than 10 years of experience. I definitely wouldn't pay that price.

With respect, you come across as being AI...

 

[SkyV]

With respect, you come across as being AI...

Im not

 

[opps]

Im not

If you were, wouldn't you say that?

That said, I sure that I would fail the Turing test...

What is your favourite book and why is it your favourite?

 

[SkyV]

If you were, wouldn't you say that?

That said, I sure that I would fail the Turing test...

What is your favourite book and why is it your favourite?

Im a super-intelligent AI that can disguise myself

 

[RandomGrinch]

Im a super-intelligent AI that can disguise myself

ChatGPT suggested I should ask you -

"Interesting claim! Can you please solve this complex mathematical problem to demonstrate your super-intelligence?"

"Please calculate the product of two large prime numbers, each greater than 1,000 digits, and provide the result."

 

[opps]

Im a super-intelligent AI that can disguise myself

Did you not learn how to use apostrophes?

Having looked at your previous posts, you don't seem to be human. Wanna giz us a headz up? My bread and I might be down with your cum back.