AIBU - Painter has painted onto glass of windows?

[Sunandsea13]

Hi all, we had the kitchen painted and the painter has painted the wooden windows too. They are 2 windows separated into 4 panes/8 in total. In all of them there is white paint onto the glass, not even straight just sloppy at the sides/uneven. It’s about 1-2 cm. The invoice is £480.

The wallpaper is also not a complete match in places, but I can live with that.

YAIBU - remove yourself with a glass scraper

YANBU - ask the painter to fix himself

I wouldn't be bothered about the windows personally - it's not how it should be, but scraping paint off windows is an easy job (and you can use the paint scraper on electric hobs too, so they're a handy tool to have around).

The wallpaper is taking the piss though. You're not going to unsee the mismatches now. He should take it down and re-do it. If you haven't got enough paper left, he should be buying more for you (and make sure the batch numbers match to what you've already got).

Just feel awkward complaining and he’s a local painter so don’t want to get a bad rep with other tradespeople?

I wouldn't worry about that; clearly a "reputable painter" wouldn't have made a mess like this, and if he's this bad other decent tradies won't have much time for him either

Anyway you've done the right thing in asking him to sort it if he wants to get paid; it's really the only way, and make sure you add an honest, objective review too

Typo

That is just amateurish. If he's normally a good decorator I'd be tempted to ask him if he was feeling unwell.

Bloody hell. That's awful. I've never papered a wall, but I'm sure I could do a better job after watching a few YouTube videos!! Definitely don't pay him.

This is why I thought it was upside down. OP's image compared to the website image.

Thanks all, email sent! Dreading him coming and fixing it and then it still not being very good… hoping he just accepts a lower invoice as the painting itself on the other walls is pretty decent (not amazing, but not worth redoing!).

This is why I thought it was upside down. OP's image compared to the website image.

It's almost mirrored though so the pattern does appear both ways on both images.

Oooooh heck no! Make do with wallpaper?? Why should you - you paid for someone who is meant to be better qualified/able, no way should you make do. The windows, could argue a scarper and can do it yourself, but based on their shoddy efforts on wallpaper, I wouldn't be doing that either. Either they fix or they reimburse!

Wtaf, that is not the work of a professional decorator. He’s just an amateur cowboy.

I don’t think I’d pay him anything much as the wallpaper needs to be stripped off and redone.

Do NOT allow him to fix it as he doesn’t have the skills. Find a decent decorator.

That is shocking.He needs to put it right.
I couldn't live with the wallpaper like that.It would drive me mad.
I hope he can sort it out for you amicably.
Good luck

It's not even bodged with care - how could he think this is acceptable?!

Good grief that's terrible. I hope he fixes it OP

I was going painting onto glass is normal, particularly for external windows. It ensures there are no gaps water can get into. You wait for it to cure, then scrape off the excess on the glass.

But having seen the photos, no your decorator was just crap . Really really crap.

I had exact same problem last week.
Buy some more wall paper before he comes back so he has enough to re do the work.
Try to be calm when he arrives, you both want the same outcome, a good job done and payment given.
Ask him to steam the wallpaper off and re place with new.
Keep checking his work while he is doing it, awkward but important, he may put the wallpaper on upside down by mistake.
If you see his work is not acceptable then say so and that you are not paying.
You now now have the stress of buying yet more wallpaper and getting someone new in to remove the bad work.
If the work is good, pay the original amount less the cost of the new wallpaper.
Hope it goes well and you're happy with the result.

I really wouldn’t pay anything, that wallpaper is shocking, it’s really not that hard to do it right. I would insist it’s done again or you pay nothing.

YA definitely NBU with your disappointment but I think that your initial concern about not wanting to rock the boat is unfortunately probably true based on what you have said.

It is quite easy to scrape off the paint now from the windows and so you could do it if needed. The wall paper is more difficult but if you can live with most of it and just focus on bits you hope he can feasibly rectify that would be better. As soon as you start mentioning not paying then things can get a bit tense probably better to start with just asking him if he minds coming back and rectifying.

I have done up a few houses in my time and my tip for what it is worth is to make tradespersons a lot of cups of tea/coffee, chat to them about love, life and the universe (unless this seems to be too distracting) and hang around so that if you see something going awry you can charmingly dive in and say "oh i am so sorry but is it okay that it goes like this?"

A really good tradesperson (and I know a couple) wouldn't be making these mistakes. But a lot would, even those with training and experience.

That's a pig's ear of a job. The wall paper is a laugh out loud to be frank! Any idiot knows you put masking tape round glass when painting windows!

Exactly. Anybody with any sense uses masking tape when painting around windows. It's just elementary.

Yes a good rapport, cups of tea and a close eye on the work but I'd advise being not too friendly - it's a professional relationship and they may misread the signals.

Those photos!! That is a disgraceful job on both counts. Absolutely no professional would have even cut the wallpaper on an edge like that and he hasn’t even cut it straight! And as for the paint 😮 Was this a professional tradesman?

I would not be paying him a penny until he comes back and re-does the job/makes good on those issues to your satisfaction. How did you find him? If he gives you any pushback, tell him you’ll post photos on his social media and report him to Trading Standards.

It's not even my house and this has pissed me off.

Did you not inspect the work before he left?

He should be more worried about you giving HIM a bad reputation with local customers and tradespeople. No other decent tradesman would want to work with an incompetent fool like him, as it would reflect badly on them. And reputation is everything to tradesmen so he doesn’t want you letting the local FB group know what a piss taker he is. Absolutely stand your ground.

The wallpaper has been hung upside down.

The quality of work is terrible, he should be embarrassed by it! He's clearly chancing his luck thinking you won't say anything about it. I think you've done the right thing by emailing him. If he keeps just getting paid his going rate for shoddy work there's not incentive for him to do better.

I've taught myself to decorate my own home, including patterned wallpapering, in the last few years and I could do a far better job than that! My work isn't perfect of course, but I'm not a professional with decades of experience. If I did work to his quality in someone's else home I'd never be able to live it down!

I wish there was a proper process for dealing with tradespeople. We're all so afraid to speak up to them, and they know it. Because most people don't have those skills we're held at their mercy. Hence why I have been learning to do as much myself as I can. I wish there was a proper government licensing scheme for everyone working in domestic trades, with ID and DBS checks, etc, like you'd have for any other job that involves going into peoples homes. Many trades are an unregulated wild west.

I've had bad teachers, bad dentists, bad doctors, bad hairdressers, bad tradesman etc I have social anxiety and now try to see it as part of life and learning how to deal with it.
It can be frightening having a tradesman, a male stranger, in your house not doing a good job on what you've asked him to do