Decorating.

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
Could you please forward his contact details. I’ll give yours and @Cue recommendations a call.

We saw the van around locally and gave this guy a call, he does rate highly on check a trade though, we did do a little bit of homework.

I’ve had zero luck with CAT/MyBuilder referrals

0 of the trades we use are found on the first few pages of Check-a-Trade because they’re too busy to be listed on there. Corgi, spark, painter and general trades we use were all recommendations and neighbours.
 
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markpa12003

Well-Known Forumite
Could you please forward his contact details. I’ll give yours and @Cue recommendations a call.

We saw the van around locally and gave this guy a call, he does rate highly on check a trade though, we did do a little bit of homework.

Kevin- shm property maintenance 07463 570237
 

Bob

Well-Known Forumite
The saga continues - a week later I get a response saying he wants another £700

I can't believe it, I'm still finding stuff even now - he recons 8 days (9.45 to 3.30/4ish) for him and a teenage apprentice and a few pots of paint means with the £1000 I've transferred (plus the £500 I paid for the bedroom previously that still wasn't suitably finished) means he was working at a loss????

He's written of £200 of wallpaper, made a mess in every room he's been in and caused damage, paint on floors, carpets and other items, scored and gouged walls and plug sockets an just a generally sh*t finish throughout - I feel like we should be charging him.

I tried to be reasonable - paying him what I have done. it's more than he deserves, I wanted to avoid a disagreement - we have to live in the same small village, I hoped he would see sense and that would be the end of it but it just goes on and on.
 

Lucy

Well-Known Forumite
Wow. If he put everything right then sure, let him have the £700. I guess he's not going to though.

I do get that he might have been working at a loss, if his time is about £150 a day, but he should have done a good job.
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
Sorry what, just to recap: how many rooms did he get done in 8 days?

I’d be tempted to tell him either he cuts his losses or considering you’ve found numerous further issues you’ll be asking for a refund and chasing that to small claims. But as you say, you’re in a small village so it’s a bit more awkward.
 

Bob

Well-Known Forumite
Hall stairs and landing. Badly, cutting in untidy, patchy gloss work on unprepared woodwork, paint on floor and carpet, paint engrained on wooden beams, ceiling (horrible textured wallpaper) not stripped as was quoted for and walls not lined as was quoted for because he talked us into it saying it would be better (more like easier) gouge marks and scuff all over walls.

One wall of exceptionally wonky and messy lining paper in the living room - it was an extra supposedly to speed the job up - less than half a days work and a really sh*t job done.

One wall of feature paper in the kitchen - wonky, a mess, strip missing about an inch wide at the side of the door another piece missing at the end of the wall near the floor, pattern doesn't quite match in places and put up so the top of the wall shows the very bottom of the repeating pattern - just no though or care and it looks crap. Then they slopped some paint around that we hadn't really discussed on unprepared walls, then glossed the kitchen door frame and managed to paint two coats that were hung in the utility at the other side of the door frame all in all less than 1 days work.

They were with us for 8 'days' every day the decorator disappeared for an hour or two or three hours leaving the teenage apprentice to do the bulk of the work.

Original quote was £1800 for strip line and paint hall stairs and landing, office room and upstairs bathroom including materials and woodwork the invoice we got was for £2300 and they didn't touch the bathroom or office. Just the hall stairs and landing with (being generous) an additional 1.5 days in other rooms. I must have asked 10 times for a new quote but it never came, given he did less than half what was quoted we expected the invoice to be half the cost not £500 more. We stopped him before the other rooms were done because we were realising we weren't getting a professional job - they started much stronger than they finished.

We paid £1000 which I think was more than reasonable and I still don't think they deserved to cover their time and I sent an email with the details, no response for a week then a demand for a further £700 received last night.

In addition they did our bedroom - still issues with it that were discussed and not rectified - we had already paid another £500 for this before they started in the hall.
 

markpa12003

Well-Known Forumite
The saga continues - a week later I get a response saying he wants another £700

I can't believe it, I'm still finding stuff even now - he recons 8 days (9.45 to 3.30/4ish) for him and a teenage apprentice and a few pots of paint means with the £1000 I've transferred (plus the £500 I paid for the bedroom previously that still wasn't suitably finished) means he was working at a loss????

He's written of £200 of wallpaper, made a mess in every room he's been in and caused damage, paint on floors, carpets and other items, scored and gouged walls and plug sockets an just a generally sh*t finish throughout - I feel like we should be charging him.

I tried to be reasonable - paying him what I have done. it's more than he deserves, I wanted to avoid a disagreement - we have to live in the same small village, I hoped he would see sense and that would be the end of it but it just goes on and on.

My decorator usually works from 8am to 4.30pm and charges £110 - 130 a day depending on whether he works alone or with his apprentice.

He is trying to rip you off. Name a shame him.
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
Yeah nah, we had plasterers in for a good week or so skimming ceilings and only paid £1k, did a bang-up job too. Your decorators did not do £1k worth of work let alone the rest.

I wouldn’t have even paid the £1000. Get two others in to quote and give and idea of how much the work they’ve done is worth and tell them to take a hike with that information, frankly.

Name and shame, burn the bridge, leave a bad review.
 

Tilly

Well-Known Forumite
I'm decorating the whole apartment with costume jewellery medals worn by The UK Royal Family

Kingdom
United Kingdom
Why not United Queendom?

Something must be donedom!
 

Bob

Well-Known Forumite
Latest development- he called the guy who was here doing some tiling to bitch about us not paying the full invoice. Going to add some picture to show what we’re dealing with, I know there will always be imperfections if you look close enough but there just seem to be soooo many.
 

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Bob

Well-Known Forumite
Finish of walls that were supposed to be lined
 

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Bob

Well-Known Forumite
Beams
 

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Bob

Well-Known Forumite
Finish on the banister handrail
 

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Bob

Well-Known Forumite
Cutting in
 

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Bob

Well-Known Forumite
Gloss work
 

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Bob

Well-Known Forumite
More cutting in and the wallpaper on the ceiling they quoted to strip and reline.
 

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Bob

Well-Known Forumite
How the light switch was left
 

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Bob

Well-Known Forumite
More cutting in
 

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Bob

Well-Known Forumite
Paint on carpet and mor cutting in
 

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