Is our builder being cheeky asking for more than his quote?

[bananashoes]

Hi, we're having some painting work done and were given a quote that covered "Prep and paint dining room, kitchen and downstairs hallway including all materials."

We've recently been invoiced for an additional £1000 based on the fact that two extra coats of white paint beyond what was initially planned for were required on the dark grey walls to get them light enough.

In my mind, this is the decorators problem for miscalculating the time/materials it would cost to do the job and we may well have sought out additional quotes if this was the price we were initially given?

Am I being an arse or is the decorator taking the mick?

Quotes are not estimates

In the circumstances I’d offer to pay for the paint, not the labour. If he wanted to vary the quote, he needed to discuss it with you first.

Totally agree.

Should definitely have been discussed with you and not as a surprise

Still not done 😅

Two Hundred and Fifty Pounds on PAINT?!?!

There’s no way! What brand is it? How large a surface area? Are you about to drop feed that you secretly live in a palace??

We recently had a dark navy blue room painted cream, he had to go over twice with white paint first- he just used a bog standard 10L tin of white trade emulsion, cost about 20 quid. Unless you have about 13 rooms to paint, he's having you on.

We sourced all the paint ourselves though- would always do that rather than having the painter do it incase they take the piss!

I had a builder proudly telling me how he’d charge for a tin of wood stain, use the bare minimum and take the tin to use on the next job, where he’d charge for a full tin again.

Needless to say, I made sure I kept the new tin he charged me for! Cheeky Fckr.

If that much extra paint and labour was needed he should have come to you to discuss it before just going ahead.

What a cheeky fecker. Tell him to jog on.

So he didn’t see the walls were grey?
he is taking the mick…yeap.

He gave you a low quote to be chosen and then charged you the extra knowing you have no choice now… Any extra should really be discussed, also two extra coats for 1K…are you in a castle? Coz just that is massive cheek!!!

I can’t wrap my head around nearly four grand to paint three rooms !!

A quick Google explains that a quote is legally binding but an estimate isn't.
He needs to finish the job he quoted for or you don't pay him, as you'd need to get someone else in to complete it.

Nope
If he knows what he is doing he would have been able to judge how many coats he needed and include that in the original quote. If he doesn't, his loss.

there speaks a person who is not self employed

I never understand why anyone would spend thousands on painting…..take a few days off work and take your time and do it yourself it’s really not hard

did he see the rooms before he quoted? If so he’s taking the piss

What difference does that make? The final consumer shouldn’t have to carry the extra costs of the decorator being self unemployed, that’s his problem to manage.

I was responding to the person who thinks that visible time on the job is the only aspect of a rate per hour when self employed.

• travel time between jobs
• time and cost of purchasing materials
• contribution towards "holiday pay"
• contribution towards sick pay insurance
• contribution in lieu of employer's contribution towards pension
• and in this context, 2 coats of paint may take 2 hours to apply but there will be a large gap between them called drying time... fine if the painter can flit between jobs and still get a full day's paid time, not so fine if they can't. Don't know many employees who accept 2 hours pay for 7 hours work....

That should all have been built into the original quote.

again I am not responding to issues over any weakness of the original quote.
I am responding to the person who apparently does not understand the rate per hour of a self employed person

and before you get all worked up again, I am not suggesting that an apparent £500 rate per hour or per day is good or bad for a painter.

Well I can tell you my partner would not have paid the invoice. If the decorator wanted to whack another 1k on the price he should have discussed it with you before he painted the extra costly coats.

This isn’t for a decorator. This is a builder who subcontracts out. We know he pays his decorator a day rate of 250. FaceTime been doing other work in our house, which is how we know. Regardless of all the costumes and mentioning I feel a professional should’ve had a chat with us about extra fees rather than trying to tack them on

Our ceiling fell in after water damage and a water leak, we took a wall down and plastered and I had a C-section last week. My husband’s taking care of three kids me and a newborn while nursing a broken foot. People have the reasons they do the things they do. I’ve never hired a decorator before so for us this was nice to have when life is insane.

A quote tells you exactly how much you pay. It should not change. An estimate is different.

A quote is becomes a legally binding contract when you accept it and agree.

sprintlaw.co.uk/articles/is-a-quote-legally-binding-understanding-contract-formation-for-uk-businesses/

That sounds like a tricky few weeks, although congrats on the new arrival!

Isn’t this being covered by your insurance? I’d have thought it should be. Does your builder think it is? If so it’s possible he sees this as a bit of a blank cheque bit of work.