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 did a better job painting my bathroom ceiling while heavily pregnant (the fools had painted it with normal white paint, considering there was a tiny gap between the top of the shower cubicle and the ceiling and the extractor fan was on the other side of said cubicle/shower screen it wasn't going to last very long.) The paint turned into a spider's web because of the steam and I had great fun scraping it off, then I painted it with a decent paint.

The wallpaper is not upside down, that is clear when you look at the manufacturer’s images. The flowers point in both directions. However the pattern matching by the decorator is very poor, definitely not acceptable.

Don’t know where you’re based, but £480 sounds very cheap for wallpapering and painting a kitchen. I’m having a kitchen re-fit at the moment (small kitchen) in London and the decorator is charging £1200 just for the tiling and painting. However, he was here for 8 hours yesterday, doing meticulous prep and will take another 2/3 days to complete the job and I know he’s highly regarded locally.

I imagine a proper professional would have charged considerably more than £480 and it’s a cautionary tale never be blinded by the cheapest quote for any job.

That's dreadful op.

Dp and I did a better job and we are in no way professionals .

He clearly thought he could get away with not masking tape up the windows.

Makes me wonder what sort of prep he did to the walls. Did he wipe the walls with sugar soap first and did he mask up all the door frames and light switches etc?

@Sunandsea13 well done for staying strong, good luck. It's such a shame when you pay out lots and then a good job is not done.

No it’s not, they should mask it with tape use thin brushes and take care. You have to ensure it goes up to the glass to stop water getting in underneath the paint, but you shouldn’t be able to see it on the glass, for that the frames must be rubbed down sufficiently. You can never “scrape” off paint effectively - it can break the paint and scratches the windows.

@Fountofwisdom I see what you're saying but it seems to me tiling needs more expertise and equipment than wallpapering/painting, it involves cutting the tiles to size. When I had a tiler in they spent a long time doing all the cutting

We're all so afraid to speak up to them, and they know it.

I’m not. There’s no reason to be.

Tiling is really expensive and time consuming. Most of that will be tiling.

@Mirabai some people are though, and they may have their own reasons even if you don't understand them.

Can't believe those windows OP, they're shocking!

Oh god his done an awful job id be so annoyed. You can’t sell yourself as a professional painter and decorator, charge £500 for 1 & 1/2 days work and leave it looking like that!

Tbh some of the paint is now not looking great on closer inspection. Don’t think he has filled things in well, but can touch up myself I guess. No response from him yet, though that’s not surprising. New floor is going down this afternoon, now dreading that going wrong too!

Dp is a painter and decorator, yours has done a shoddy job and you shouldn't be paying him until he puts it right. If there's paint on the windows he needs to scrape it off and the wallpaper work is appauling.

😮

That is awful and I wouldn't be paying a penny.

I genuinely gasped when I saw those photos - that's an atrocious job for a professional. He should be embarrassed to leave a house looking like that, never mind charging you for the pleasure!

Seeing your latest images, he's not a decorator, he's someone that slaps paint on and hopes for the best. That wall should be prepped, filled, sanded pva'd, lined even and then painted. If you didn't want that then that's fine but with the splodges and cutting in how it is, he's not a Tradesman.

In terms of pricing, it’s a very small kitchen. The kitchen cabinets etc are on all walls he painted other than the wallpaper wall. Big window takes up most of the space too. So I think £480 is fair for the fact there isn’t even a full wall to paint, more just he would have needed ladders to get above the cupboards. But completely get others may charge more. The normal painter I use wasn’t free and charges more as he is about 45 min drive away but next time I will wait for him!

I would ask him to take it down and redo it and buy you new wallpaper that’s shocking

Sorry OP, did he paint, wallpaper then leave without you checking?

Never let any tradesman leave without checking as there's a chance they'll say it was fine when they left.

Not in this case as it's obviously a blotches job.

Hope you can get it sorted.

That is a bad job

I was my breastfeeding my daughter so he just came to say he was done and left. Didn’t offer to wait so I could check etc. I should have probably asked him to wait but tbh I just didn’t think it would be a bad job as he is known in the area and neighbours have recommended him

That is a crappy job and this is why we now do our own painting and decorating. We are much better than the 'professionals'. Hope you get somewhere without too much aggro.

Hard lesson, he may have been unwell (clutching) if he's known and usually good.
I check when I go to bring tea/water. Or stand chatting for a bit about random stuff.
You soon get the measure of the work and can cancel early on if bad.

Have had to stop work on two seperate occasions as it was clear they were amateurs trying it on.
One didn't know the name of a tool he needed for the job.

You really shouldn't be paying, send him all the photos. Knowing there's evidence and a message trail will make him think twice about demanding payment.

It’s a repeating pattern, half facing down, half facing up. That’s just the paper design.

It’s the right way up, @Sunandsea13 z I’d use Charlotte’s letter with Plant’s last line.

Surely this is not a professional?!
That wallpaper is horrendous and I would not live with it. Same with the paint!
That needs fixing/redoing.