What to expect from a professional decorator?

[Decoratingsucks]

I've just had a professional in to do work on my house.

I've had - tiny paint splatters over everything including the floor - a nightmare to get off. I have had to get on my hands and knees and use my thumb nail to scratch off!

Mirror and photo's not taken down - they have just painted around them! I pointed this out and they got really shirty with me that it was my responsibility to have taken these down?!

Wallpaper on one wall is scraped and the plug sockets have big scratches on where they have cut the wallpaper and just gouged into the sockets.

Greasy marks appearing on walls that have been painted. No sugar soaping was done to the walls before painting and so marks that were not previously visible seem to have come through?

Is this all par for the course?

Painted around the pictures?!?!?

That's very weird and poor service. Were they cheap or did they come recommended, how did you find them?

Hope you haven't paid them yet.
Sounds completely unprofessional, and like they don't actually know what they're doing, or what good practice is.
No one other than a total chancer would actually paint around mirrors and pictures. Did they correct it when you spoke to them?
Where did you find them??

They have repainted but were a bit arsey about it. They said we ought to have removed pictures. We ran out of time before leaving for work and assumed they would - common sense told us they would but clearly not!

Found on checkatrade.

It's poor service but then again I'd never dream of not taking photos down if I was expecting the walls to be painted.

It sounds like they were annoyed that they had to do this and bodged other stuff because they lost time repainting.

I don't think the five minutes it would have taken them to take 3 pictures down was the cause of the shoddy work. The reprinting was done several days later when we called them back in. So none of the cut corners were because we left pictures up.

They've made out like it's reasonable for there to be greasy marks and damaged wallpaper and that it's "not their fault".

I have never been able to find a decent decorator - why is it so difficult?

Atrocious!

Ours even takes down shelves and curtain poles and replaces them afterwards. Absolutely no mess whatsoever and he even hoovers after sanding and after finishing.

Bad reviews for sure please on Checkatrade. I'd want to know.

The problem with painters and decorators is that just about anyone can set themselves up as one, even if they aren't any good at it! It takes a particular amount of time and care to do more than just slap some paint on and actually get a good finish.

It doesn't sound like the term professional really applies to the ones you chose, unfortunately.

I've also now discovered he repainted over the scrubbable paint we had used previously withtrade paint. So less than 2 days after he finished one of the walls is already in need of repainting after I had to try to wipe off kids handprints

Just read this to DH. He's a decorator.

He says - have you paid them?! Not taking pics down is just shit. They should have put sheets down. If marks weren't visible before they could come through, but it's down to them to put right later.

Were they cheap?!

Oh dear. I'm getting painters in to do my house on Friday and this is my worst nightmare!

I dread them doing a less good job than I could do myself.

I think this is shocking. If you haven't paid them yet, don't.

They weren't particularly cheap no. Brilliant reviews on checkatrade too.
They have already been paid. They rectified the issues with the dirty marks and the painting round things. We paid them to get rid and because they had done the work they quoted for. Just not to the standard they led us to expect with how much they bugged themselves up!
I asked them to be more careful with paint splatters and they denied that there had been any paint on the floor. Despite it still being there now.

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