Is he taking the mick?

[michaeld121]

I've got a decorator in re-decorating my hall, stairs & landing as part of an insurance claim. While I was out this morning he painted 7 standard door frames and (very, very roughly) 15-20 meters of skirting in 3 hours. He's saying that before painting it he also gave it all a rubdown. (It wasn't in bad nick).

This would take me weeks of effort - but I accept that's because I'm way too slow / thorough but is it reasonable or possible that a professional decorator could have done all of this in 3 hours?

Michael

[George]

Yes,unlike the average laymen we tend do a bit of rubbing&painting then have a smoke or cup of tea every 15 minutes. :-P

Seriously I have a friend who's a painter&decorator down south and he can do that in 2.5 hours and the work is of a high standard.

[John]

Can you not check by looking for the new paint? It should be fairly easy to spot and see if he is telling porkies. Is the (very, very roughly) referring to his workmanship or your estimating! Also even with a tea break after every door frame it would take me less than a day, and I am not fast either!!

HTH

John

[John Stumbles]

You mean 'as much as that' or 'as little as that'?

Given that doorframes and skirting are almost entirely cutting-in a half-decent prep and paint of 7 frames and quite a lot of skirting in

3 hours seems fair going.

[Ian_m]

Are you sure he is not using rollers ?

When we had a job done under insurance the guy gloss painted two rooms very quickly. He painter window frames, window cills, skirting boards, door frames and dado rail. He just used small gloss paint rollers and small paint tray. Just lobbed the whol lot in the bin when finshed, so no tray/brush cleaning afterwards. Did a very good job very quickly.

[teddysnips]

I was a professional decorator. The question I want to ask is - do the door frames (I assume you mean architrave) and skirtings have any profile? Ogee and torus, for example, need a great deal more attention than chamferred or pencil round. If he was undercoating (which I assume, since you wouldn't rub down before glossing - well, I wouldn't, because I paint using a clean brush and a kettle ;=AC}) then you can put on quite a bit of paint quite quickly (it doesn't run or sheet like gloss).

Personally, I'd say that this was at the high end of productivity, and the likelihood is that he did less "rubbing down" than you would. Of course, if the paintwork was in good nick, as you say, then he merely needs to provide a key - it's not as if he's getting rid of imperfections, or smoothing off filler etc.

Edward