If you’ve ever paid professional decorators ? Where you pleased with the job? Do they do all the cleaning beforehand ?

[Lardlizard]

And do they spend much time on the cleaning beforehand, like sugar soaping the walls in a kitchen, and cleaning banisters etc

Also roughly how much per day would you say they charge for labour?

No! It was probably a different scenario though as we were working overseas so had rented our house out. (with a view to return) they were horrendous and actually painted around the appliances in the kitchen. No one told us though so we only found out on our return. It was so bloody expensive too. I now only go with people I actually know. But I know that is hard.

They don't clean, you need to do that. Plus you need to clear the rooms.

They'll do the prep eg filling and caulking but then of course they'll quote more for the job since it will take them longer.

We are currently getting our bedroom ready for wallpapering once the lockdown is over. We are doing everything we can ourselves to get the room ready and so I spent yesterday with DH and the DC cleaning the walls, caulking, bleaching around the window frames, scraping off old lumpy paint on skirting boards etc. DH could actually put up the wallpaper but it was quite expensive so I'd rather wait. It took four of us all day to do that (although it is a large room) and so if you are leaving that to the decorators you can see how much longer it will take them and thus how much more they will charge you.

Around here its generally about £500 a room to include woodwork and ceilings but it obviously depends on the size of the room and what you want doing. For rooms with wallpapering Its typically about £600 a room.

We’ve only actually painted one room in our house ourselves and did such a terrible job that we have paid someone to do the rest. Have had two different decorators over the years and both have done a great job (just make sure you get someone with good reviews). I would expect a professional decorator to do all the prep on the walls (sugar soaping, filling cracks, etc), cover everything with dust sheets and tidy up/vacuum up the dust afterwards. The only thing I had to do beforehand was clear all the stuff out the room and move furniture out of the way.

I think they charged around £150 per day and managed to do one room a day. I bought the paint. But that was for just walls (not ceilings, woodwork, etc) and there was not a lot of prep time needed because we live in a new build so walls are in good condition. They might need two days to do a room otherwise.

Having a professional painter is a wonderful thing. We have such high ceilings DH would be be at it forever (and his time is better spent elsewhere)

You make sure the skirting boards etc are physically clean and he/she does the prep and painting.

Moving all the furniture to create space for him/her to work in is the worst bit of it all.

Our lovely painter is also really good at cleaning up behind him!

and his time is better spend elsewhere

This is the key. Its the same for us. DH and I can do it but generally its better and more cost effective for us to work to pay others to do it.

At the moment we have more time available and nobody else can physically do it so we're mucking in again.

We got our decorator to paint the hallway and another room while we were on holiday and, yes, he did all the prep including banisters. We took stuff out of the room that wasn't fixed but he had to move desks and a cupboard to do the job.

It was 940 for the hallway and room, including ceilings, doors and stairs. He supplied the paint and gloss, except we bought the paint for the room as we wanted a F&B colour that he couldn't provide.

We were away for 2 weeks and I think he did other jobs in between but it was done a few days before we got back. He tidied up after himself as well.

Ooh having the decorators in when you're away is a fab idea! I might pinch that one (if we ever travel again). How lovely to come back to a freshly decorated house.

We've recently made the switch to professional decorators. The finish quality just exceeds our by a million percent even tho we're not terrible at decorating. We paid our most recent one £170 a day which is pretty decent I think.

We just renovated & paid to have the entire house decorated. They are superb, the prep beforehand was meticulous they did lots of repair work & ensured any chips made by the plugs being installed were corrected. They also offer to come back a year later to correct anything that’s had movement. It was expensive but I it was worth it. They also cleaned & tidied as they went & each week everything was returned to normal so we weren’t living in a building site at the weekends.

We've had almost all our house decorated professionally. All our walls are painted, no wallpaper. But the majority of the walls were freshly plastered. It's money well spent!

We got professionals in and it was wonderful! As PP said, the standard was so much better than what we achieved. Well worth every penny.

IME it depends on the crew you use. I've had one who wanted us to lug everything out or away from walls and when they go you need to get a carpet cleaner in and spend half a day cleaning.

Then I found the people I now use on every project. Who are polite, come in and do everything and when they finished you can simply walk in and admire their brilliant work. Much better to work with and no stress whatsoever.

£150 a day for a one woman operation plus the cost of materials. Anything you could do saved her time therefore you saved money, we try to clear the room, fill holes and roughly strip wallpaper. She would clean if needed and does an exceptionally detailed job. I've seen what friends have put up with and its shocking!
We suck at decorating, plus it's nice to have someone to discuss colours etc with so shes worth her weight in gold.

Any we’ve used have always done all the prep, which is IMO easily the worst bit, if it’s done properly, esp.. for paintwork. . If I had to do all the prep, I might as well save my money and do the rest, too.

I didn’t do any prep or cleaning. They (2 men) took 1.5 days to do my bedroom, living room and hall. Just painting walls, no woodwork or ceiling, and cost was £750 including vat.

Yes. I leave then with the keys when we go on holiday. It's wonderful.

They do all the preparation , so yes they would wash walls etc. They get the job done far more quickly than we could, they get the materials cheaper and they achieve a better finish.

Plus I like to think that rather than being lazy, I'm being altruistic by creating work

I've used professional decorators several times and have always been disappointed. I'm clearly not finding the right people, but all the ones I've tried have been recommended, so not sure if I just have ridiculously high standards! (Pretty sure I don't!).

The expensive ones were amazing. The cheap ones were not. You get what you pay for

Oh my gosh! Has everyone forgotten the thread about what the trades people get up to when left alone in your house?
Really made me think about leaving people in ours.
We always use professionals and they do it all. I've a friend who does it all herself and i always think it doesn't look well done.

We had The hall painted professionally, it cost about £750

But that was partly because he had to remove years worth of gloss

Excellent job and I’d definitely have him back

We got someone to do the hall, stairs and landing (open plan) and I could have done it better myself. He left dribbles of paint over the plug sockets and light switches and it was patchy in places. We couldn't say anything because he was a mate of DH's. He'd done our outside painting perfectly a year early though.

We once had a sole decorator in while we were on holiday. Entirely practical then since we had a dog and a cat spreading hair everywhere, so less chance of it messing up paintwork when they were in kennels.

However we came back to find the sitting room windows wide open.
‘Oh, shit, we’ve been burgled!’ said dh.
We hadn’t - he’d simply opened the windows and forgotten to close them.😱. Just away with the fairies.

Nothing had been nicked.

DP is a decorator.

Level of prep / cleaning depends on the job and will be factored into the cost of quote he gives.

He wouldn't expect to go to a job and do zero preparation but he also wouldn't expect to have to clear a room / move furniture (although he has done this on the odd occasion)

DP is 20 years in his trade and his customer base is now 70% repeat business and 30% word of mouth. He has worked his arse off to get to this point and is nothing but professional (he wouldn't dream of taking a stinky shit in your downstairs loo )

You do indeed get what you pay for.

We had a bathroom fitter in while we were away and we discovered he didn't lock the front door behind him each night when he left. He also didn't finish the job in the 2 weeks we were away despite him saying it was a 2 day job with his mate.

Any decorator worth having would do all the prep including cleaning otherwise they couldn't be sure it had been done to the required standard.

I usually do everything and only ask that clients clear the room as much as possible. I don't like them prepping as it's usually not good enough.