Painters and Decorators in Kingswood (KT20)
On the larger houses built out across the Kingswood Warren estate, the gap between two decorating quotes is almost never the paint. It is how many days sit in the price before a finish coat goes anywhere near a wall.
Preparation is the price
Filling, sanding, sealing, priming, caulking the joint where joinery meets plaster, then sanding again between coats on the woodwork.
On a high standard of finish that preparation is more than half the labour on the job, and it is the half nobody can see once it is done well. Which is precisely why it is the half that gets quietly dropped out of a cheaper quote. A wall filled but not sanded flat, or woodwork recoated without being abraded, looks perfectly acceptable on the day and looks wrong within a year.
Brush, roller or sprayed
Spraying gives joinery a finish with no brush marks in it, which on panelled doors, fitted units and painted panelling is usually the difference people are paying for. What it costs is preparation time, because everything not being sprayed has to be masked and the masking is most of the work. Brushwork still wins on mouldings, on repairs, and anywhere a small area has to be worked in beside something already finished. Sheen level matters as much as method does. A flat matt is forgiving and hides a good deal; a higher sheen on woodwork throws light along the surface and shows every ripple in whatever is underneath, which means the substrate has to be genuinely flat before it is used. Choosing sheen and method together at the survey is what keeps expectations and price in the same place.
Decorating a house that is still being lived in
These are big, generously sized houses on mature, well-screened plots, and the household is usually still in residence while the work runs.
So it gets programmed room by room: which rooms are out of use and for how long, where materials are stored, how dust is contained, and how drying and smell are managed overnight. Floors, stair runners and anything left in a room are covered before a lid comes off a tin. None of that is complicated on its own, but on a job measured in weeks rather than days it is the difference between an inconvenience and a genuine imposition, and it belongs in the programme you are shown at the start rather than in an apology later.
More in Kingswood
Everything we do in Kingswood is on the Kingswood area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the decorating page.
Common questions
Q.01Why is one quote so much higher than another?
Nearly always preparation. Ask each quote what it says it is filling, sanding, sealing and priming, and how many coats of what go on top. Compare those and the difference usually explains itself. Ours covers our own plasterers and carpenters under the surface and the decorators we bring in and manage on top of it, in one price.
Q.02Should the doors be sprayed?
If you want a finish with no brush marks, yes. Bear in mind the masking is most of the labour, so it costs more than it sounds, and it is worth spending on the joinery that gets looked at closely.
Q.03How many coats will you put on?
It depends on the surface and how big the colour change is, and we put the number in writing rather than leaving it open. Two finish coats over a properly prepared and sealed surface is the usual answer.
Q.04Can we stay in the house throughout?
Yes, and it gets planned that way from the start. We agree an order of rooms so you keep the use of the house, and everything is covered and dust contained before work begins. We are based at 27 High Street, Godstone, and have been building since 2005.
Thinking about decorating in Kingswood?
Tell us what you are planning. We come out, look at the job properly and give you a price for it.