Painting external wood work

I'm past the stage of climbing ladders to paint the external wood work of the house so swmbo has asked for quotes from a few decorators.

All hardwood doors and frames.

I'd like to give them a brief spec. including the following

Clean existing paint work

Remove any loose or flaking paint

Prime bare areas

Sand

What next ? Hardly needs undercoat as it has been painted 3-4 times before but would one top coat be the norm ?

I won't be there to supervise the job and I have no wish to make it too onerous but equally I want a good professional finish.

Reply to
fred
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In message , fred writes

We have just had our 3-bedroom sized detached house done. All frames and doors are softwood, and we needed the fascia boards done as well. I knew and pointed out some small areas of rot, where the wood needed to be replaced.

The 3 estimates were £670 + paint costs, £2000 and just under £4000. All were people or firms recommended by friends. The £2000 man rang a few days after sending the estimate to back out.

We went with the £670, who started in April with the preparation and did the work around the weather and other indoor jobs elsewhere. He finished last Friday. SWMBO and I have been very pleased with his work and would definitely use him again.

Total eventual cost was about £1600 because he regularly appeared asking what I wanted him to do "as my finger has just gone through this", so he replaced quite a large amount of simple and some not so simple woodwork. Replacements included an external garden door and many of the unreachable and so uninspected fascia boards.

I had to repair one small window frame because he was a painter, "not a joiner", and said that he wouldn't take on the joints required. I just cut away the bad wood and bodged a whole corner with replacement wood and boatbuilding epoxy with filler.

Each painter favoured specific makes of paint, so we went with the Dulux Weathershield suggested by our man. This turned out to be two distinct types of paint depending on the colour, so we have white oil-based along side the coloured water-based.

Our painter followed the OP's specification as a matter of course, but he applied coats as necessary, never less than 2.

Reply to
Bill

the house so swmbo has asked for quotes from a few decorators.

e but would one top coat be the norm ?

nerous but equally I want a good professional finish.

Let them tell you the spec they propose for a "good professional job"?

Jim K

Reply to
Jim K

Who can say what constitutes a "coat"? Big grey area

Reply to
stuart noble

grey? then primer shurely ;>)

anyhow not me cos that's not my post you're replying to ;>)

Jim K

Reply to
Jim K

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