To think it's impossible to find a good, reliable painter & decorator?

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I have been trying desperately to find somebody to paint LOTS of newly skimmed walls and ceilings, as well as refresh our kitchen walls and skirting boards.

I have tried mybuilder.com and ratedpeople.com - but either I get responses from people who have terrible reviews (which I am torn about because I know that some people are v. unreasonable and unfair in their reviews, but then again I don't want to end up with a mess that will cost even more to sort) or I get responses from people who seem great and spend an hour looking around and pricing up a quote, who then don't get back to me or don't turn up when they say they will. I even tried calling up local estate agents to ask if they could recommend someone who perhaps maintains their rented properties. No luck.

This is my first place, and I'm new to the area so I don't have a network of people to ask for contacts.

I don't think it's a particularly small job - I live in North Lanarkshire and we have those big tall ceilings - and I've tried to be as flexible as possible whilst I'm at home finishing my MSc dissertation, but I just cannot find anyone! Possibly there's too much demand for work?

Anybody know what I'm doing wrong?

I am a member of the website Nextdoor, which enables local people to exchange info,mgiv exs stuff and sell items etc. On there people often ask for recommendations and get some good responses.

Have you asked neighbours? It can be tricky but once you've built up a list of reliable tradespeople it makes life much easier.

I've asked the NDN I'm friendly with - but the only person he recommends is his son, and I'm worried that might sour relationships if the work isn't great!

But I hadn't heard of Nextdoor - I'll check them out, thank you!

I find this too - we have previously used word of mouth recommendations however the last completed job was so bad that I now do my own painting, which is a pain as we both work! What about Facebook selling groups - I've seen quite a few advertising on our local ones - then you can check their FB reviews.

Do you have a local decorating shop? Some advertise in ours with business cards.
Or you can ask on one of the local Facebook pages for recommendations.