Home DIY

I've got a mix of clients, most I've been working with for years and we've arrived at the point where I know what they want, what they're sensitive to and they know how to get the most out of the time I spend on their decorating.

It's not difficult to find out the techniques for successful decorating, it's having the time and energy to apply them. I've given advice to friends on materials and tools and how to achieve the finish they want and they are meticulous and achieve a very high standard. I wouldn't say I'm a natural for decorating but I've learnt over a long time, sometimes I wish I hadn't!

My parents used to get a guy called George Lees in to decorate. I’m genuinely astounded at the quality of his work - it’s lasted so long and the quality of the prep and his process really stands out. They tell me they definitely paid for it tho.

And my mates who are painters say that one of the big problems is that people often don’t want to pay good money because they believe they can do it themselves.

I have 5 crittall windows to completely strip and repaint, one of them is 5m long. It’s taken literally a week so far and they are not all ready for primer yet.
I’ll do it properly with degreasing, mordant solution, zinc plumbate primer and metalshield but to pay someone to do this job would be a big chunk of refurb budget and I would imagine it’s several £k to do.

Doing it properly as I never want to do it again.

Edit, that’s not to say I don’t appreciate top quality work, quite the opposite.
Have worked with tradesmen in my youth and am self employed so get the ‘can you just’ and ‘it’s a bit expensive’ all the time and that’s dealing with businesses not the general public.