decorator messed up ...wants to charge me for his mistake

[princessconsuelabannahammock]

We had a guy in to repaper and paint our kitchen whilst we were on holiday. 2 weeks before we left we had him over to explain what we wanted done. I was worried i didnt have enough wallpaper as i had bought in from a clearance place - luckily i did, he calculated that i had plenty.

He has done work for us in the past and is very good and reasonably priced.

So we went on holiday, i left a note detailing everything again. He text a couple of times to clarify some points, i got back to him very quickly - within the hour.

In the box where i had the wallpaper i also had 2 rolls which are for our living room. Came home and he had done one wall in correct wallpaper and one wall in living room paper. I could have cried - it looked awful and its not moisture resistant and is next to hob.

So he came over and tried to blame me for the mistake as there were 2 types of paper in the box. I explained our discussions and said i couldnt pay him until its rectified, he reluctantly agreed to this but wants to charge me for a day to strip and repaper the wall ( its only a small wall but fiddly). I think a day rate (£150) for a 8ft section of wall with units on is unreasonable.

AIBU to not pay him as its his mistake (extra day not previously agreed sum) and if he was unsure he should have checked? Also i now dont have enough for the very expensive paper i bought for the living room.

I am happy to pay him a bit extra say £50 but not full day rate. He is good and i do want to use him again as house needs a lot of work. AIBU

Sorry Maisie - i used him when we first moved in to paint our acres of orangey pine bannisters and wood work. He did a great job, worked like a trooper 8am-6pm. That was my first time hiring a decorator - in previous houses i have always done my own painting and at a push a small wallpapered feature wall -pre kids.

A few months later i had saved enough to do our kitchen, its a fair sized room and we host foreign students so i cant have the place looking a mess or kitchen out of action for any length of time as i need to cook etc and its a well used room. This is why i wanted it done well, i can touch it up as required. Also i have 3 tiny DCs so getting anything done is difficult.

I spoke to him, he cant explain why he didnt text to check about the wallpaper, he wishes he did - as do i.

I dont think he was suspiciously cheap - his day rate is about standard and he quoted for the job. I think the other quotes were taking the piss. Its really hard to get reliable tradesmen around here - i had 3 people quote to lay a patio - not one got back to me despite me chasing.

Anyway i have text him and said we can come to some sort of agreement of the cost of remedial works.

I dont think he sent the job out, he is a one man band and he collected the key from Mil and she popped over whilst he was here to check everything was ok.

I will probably ask around for more recommendations however, i will see how we get on this week when he remedies his work.

Oh ok, so he is a decorator by trade. It isn't great then that he didn't flag the unsuitability of the second lot of wallpaper.

Hmm. It's an awkward one.

My dad owns a large decorating company, if one of his people had put up the wrong wallpaper it would be sorted without any extra cost to the customer. Agree with others, he would have questioned having normal paper and would not ha e put it up in a kitchen.

I have no idea why he put up normal paper on the hob wall - bloody stupid when the right stuff was clearly specialist kitchen/bathroom paper. I am happy to give him £50 but will dig my feet in over any more.

Someone raised a good point up thread - when using the two papers he should have at least checked which wall to put which paper on!

My husband has his own decorating business. There's no way he or any of the guys who work with him would of put up a completely different type of paper on another wall without clarifying without you. Especially because that wasn't the paper talked about when he was round.

I imagine they'd of felt confusion at a different paper being there too. However, they would of confirmed first.

I doubt it will take a full day to paper one small wall either, regardless of the complicated cuts if he is a professional. We would personally take the hit and redo it with an apology. Repeat customers are the bulk of this type of business.

Sorry if repeating anything as haven't read the thread. But why would he not of queried what paper was to go on which wall also. It's a strange one, especially when the papers are so different you say.

I agree with you op. Why would he not have checked which paper went on which wall? Particularly since he asked you about other things.

I know, i have no idea why he didnt check with me. I was contactable and answered other queries so it wasnt like he had to crack on due to time issues. Its a tricky wall but thats why we hired a professional, it shouldnt take him a day and i will be home when he is here.

So you showed him the paper you planned on using, asked him if it was enough to do whole kitchen and he said yes plenty! Then went and used a different, unsuitablefor kitchen & expensive paper on one wall that you had happened to leave out in same box!

I'd not be paying him to redo it! It is completely his fault. He either didn't realise & grabbed wrong roll or was pissed! No professional decorator would do 2 different papers without being told first or checking that you had changed your mind.

I'd be demanding he remedy it and replace the expensive paper!

Have you paid him already? If not then get him to redo his mistake and deduct cost of replacement rolls.

If you have paid him, you might have to settle for him just redoing. I can't see him replacing paper if he is trying to offload blame on to you. Though in that case, I'd probably just redo it myself and leave it at that.

Good luck.

Little update in case anyone is interested.

I text him to negotiate a price to fix the work. He turned up at 8.30 as agreed and spent 4 hrs fixing his mistake. He didnt ask for any more money, he has done a lovely job and we left on good terms. I did give him £20 to cover his fuel.

Good stuff! Result.

Enjoy your new kitchen

Bloody love it now - Finally! Cant wait to get the kids to bed and do all the pretty bits and hang pics and clock etc.

Fantastic result! Enjoy your kitchen! 😀