Professional Decorating

Walls, ceilings and woodwork, plus the filling, sanding and priming that goes before them. Skirting, architrave, doors, window reveals, staircases, hallways and landings are all part of it, quoted together or separately depending on what you want done.

Fresh plaster is porous and drinks the moisture out of a full-strength emulsion before it can bond, which is why a wall painted straight after plastering can peel off in sheets a year later. A thinned mist coat soaks in and gives the following coats something to hold on to. Skipping it is the single most common cause of a failed interior finish.

Not if they are dealt with properly first. Filled areas are sanded back flat and spot-primed, because filler is more absorbent than the wall around it and will otherwise dry as a dull patch that shows through in side light. That step is exactly what gets skipped on a rushed job.

Ceilings and woodwork are completed first, with the walls finished last.

Two full coats as a minimum. Deep colours, strong colour changes and anything going over a much darker existing shade need more, and that shows up in the time and in the quote rather than being absorbed by thinning the paint out.

Eggshell or satin on skirting, architrave and doors. They take handling and cleaning better than a flat finish, and they show fewer defects than gloss, which magnifies every ridge and every bit of old brushwork underneath it. Walls and ceilings are normally matt, since a flat finish is far more forgiving over older plaster.

Clearing small items and anything fragile helps. Larger furniture is either moved clear or covered where it stands, and floors are sheeted and sockets, switches and fittings masked before any tin is opened. What is needed gets confirmed for your specific rooms at the quote stage.

Yes, and most jobs are done that way. RS Spray Decor generally prefers to complete the relevant areas together rather than working strictly one room at a time, and working hours are agreed in advance, which matters if you are working from home or have young children about.

They need fixing at source first. Damp, an ongoing leak and a live movement crack will all come back through a new finish, usually within a season, and painting over them only hides the problem for a while. Richie will tell you if that is what he is looking at rather than take the job and paint over it.

A long way, yes. Filling, sanding and priming will improve a tired wall far more than most people expect. There is a point though where re-skimming is the honest answer, and it is better to hear that at the quote than to pay for a finish that will still show every dip.

It depends far more on the preparation than on the painting. A room in sound condition moves quickly, one with a lot of filling, sanding and priming to do takes longer, and drying time between coats sets a floor on it either way. You will get a realistic figure per room in the quote.

Yes. The useful step is getting samples onto your own wall and looking at them in your own light at different times of day, because a colour on a card in a shop tells you very little about how it will read in the room it is going in.

Richie Crathern. RS Spray Decor is a one-person business, so the person who quotes the job is the person who does it, and nothing gets lost between an estimator and whoever ends up on site.