Painter/decorator

[Nicklebox]

We had quotes from several decorators to do our hall/stairs/landing. Picked one in the middle of the range. He said the work would take a week. He started on Monday. The quote said rub down and prep all walls and woodwork ready for repainting, I cant say I noticed a lot of this being done. He did remove a bit of the paint that had bubbled up on the ceiling. Quote also said apply 2 coats of gloss. He started to do gloss work yesterday upstairs on landing and down the stairs and did the hallway today. He has now declared the job finished. I asked him about the 2 coats but he says he has done them. I dont think he has, he can't have done a second coat downstairs as the first coat could not have dried.
What would you do, how should i deal with this. The work does look very nice, but I don't want the paint not to last very long.

I'd tell him exactly what you just typed;
That you didn't see much of the prep being down & question the two coats of gloss, mentioning the time frame.
It sounds like an awkward social situation but I feel you need to address it; nothing comes cheap but you should be getting what you've agreed to pay for.

I'd keep a closer eye on things too in the future, if I were in this situation, keep asking questions regularly asking them to talk you through what they're doing & when they're doing it.

I did question him about it, he told me he had done the two coats.

Also I did question the amount of prep he had done but he just keeps saying hes done things when he hasn't. He said did I want his bank details, and I replied that I wanted an invoice. I think he just wanted me to pay using the quote. So I hope that if i have that i can come back to him later if the work doesn't last.

Smart thinking on the invoice.
Also, do you know the materials he used? (Brand of gloss etc) ... may help to look into how long it guarantee's to last too just in case.

Water based dries within an hour

Doesn't take long to do 2 coats at all

Paint doesn’t ‘last’ less time if there are less coats. Coats are only about coverage, if it looks good what’s the issue?

Again why would you question the amount of prep he had done if the result looks good?? He’s not going to spend 6 extra hours sanding just for the sake of it if the room doesn’t need it.

Thanks for all the advice. He used gloss paint so was not dry quickly, He definitely only did one coat downstairs.