Decoration quote help

tgwgordon

Hi, I've had a quote to strip, skim and decorate three rooms of around 12' x 12' x 10' in a Victorian house in London. Currently the walls have a mixture of paint, paper and bare plaster (as they were damp-proofed a few months ago). Two of the celings have some water damage from a flood in the flat above. Each room has a radiator that they will remove to allow for plastering and then refit. We are removing all skirting board beforehand and replacing later as a separate job. The quote is around £1500 per room inclusive of quality materials, e.g. Crown/Dulux, to do the work shown below. Does this seem reasonable? Thanks!

Walls & Ceilings:

Strip existing paper

Bond and plaster skim flush

Rake out, fill and sand any cracks or holes

Seal any water stains

Apply 2/ 3 coats of emulsion to walls

Doors & architraves

Lightly sand all surfaces to provide a key

Fill and sand any cracks or holes

Spot prime exposed bare wood

Apply 1 undercoat

Apply 1 topcoat

Curly

ok iv no seen the job but im just going to ruffly guess the cost i charge £14 per hur as a sole trader so hear we go.

tgwgordon wrote: »

Hi, I've had a quote to strip, skim and decorate three rooms of around 12' x 12' x 10' The quote is around £1500 per room inclusive of quality materials, e.g. Crown/Dulux, to do the work shown below. Does this seem reasonable? Thanks!

Walls & Ceilings:

Strip existing paper 4 - 8 hours just depends

Bond and plaster skim flush Dont know what you mean hear if its getting raked out and filled whay would you skim walls + i cant skim walls im a painter. if i was getting a plasterer to do it between 200 - 300

Rake out, fill and sand any cracks or holes 2 -3

Seal any water stains 1

Apply 2/ 3 coats of emulsion to walls + celling 7-10

Doors & architraves

Lightly sand all surfaces to provide a key 1 - 2

Fill and sand any cracks or holes 2

Spot prime exposed bare wood 1

Apply 1 undercoat 2 - 3

Apply 1 topcoat 2 - 3

remove and replace RAD 1 hur

labour + plasterer +VAT + paint
34 x 14 = £476 + 300 +17.5% + 220
911.80 + 200

£1131.80
thats really ruff tho with out seeing the job u can be sure plus i dont know the london rate and i dont know why it would need skimmed plus filled but thats what you wanted

Colour_Republic

It's almost impossible to say without seeing the job or at least pictures, a few points

A) You say it's a Victorian house, how much of the origianl features are still intact? i.e. detailed cornice, large skirtings and architraves?

I assume the wood work is in very good condition due to the price stating 'light sanding', that part would worry me if not.

C) Where it is stated both skiming and rake 'n' fill, I assume some walls are in need of skiming and others can be filled, or maybe seeing as you've just had some damp proofing done, then maybe they only skimmed halfway up the wall and the decorators are smoothing the transition between old and new plaster?

D) it states 'prime bare wood', did some skirting get changed? if so does it match? or will the decorator need carry out extra works to hide the change?

tgwgordon

Colour_Republic wrote: »

It's almost impossible to say without seeing the job or at least pictures, a few points

A) You say it's a Victorian house, how much of the origianl features are still intact? i.e. detailed cornice, large skirtings and architraves?

I assume the wood work is in very good condition due to the price stating 'light sanding', that part would worry me if not.

C) Where it is stated both skiming and rake 'n' fill, I assume some walls are in need of skiming and others can be filled, or maybe seeing as you've just had some damp proofing done, then maybe they only skimmed halfway up the wall and the decorators are smoothing the transition between old and new plaster?

D) it states 'prime bare wood', did some skirting get changed? if so does it match? or will the decorator need carry out extra works to hide the change?

Hi, sorry I don't have pictures but I can answer some of your questions:

We have cornice that we want to retain in two of the three rooms. It's a very simple design so should be easier than most to work with. The skirting is not original and in poor condition and we want to also fit a new wooden floor so we are removing it all before the decoration and fitting new skirting after the room is decorated, as a separate job. There are no other original features that need to be decorated. (The windows have already been repaired and decorated.)

The doors and architraves are bare wood at the moment but quite rough and knotty. We wanted them decorated so they are nice and smooth.

We asked for the walls and ceilings to be completely skimmed as they are very bumpy at the moment, and we wanted to ensure they are have a smooth a finish as possible, specially as we have a transition between surfaces from the damp-proofing work. (Is it not necessary to rake out and fill any holes if you are skimming over them?)

Hope that is enough information to give you a reasonable idea. Thanks for your help!

Colour_Republic

Firstly the price is not expensive for the works as you describe them, if fact it's about the right money for it to be done correctly with a high level of finish, although how you describe it and how the quote reads do not completely marry up.

The raking out and filing could refer to the ceiling and cornice should it need it, the walls would not need this treatment if they are receiving a full skim although they may rake out any loose plaster and apply a skrim tape (also known as fibre tape) before plastering to prevent the cracks reappearing. It is possible that the walls can be sorted out by filing alone but you would not know this until the wallpaper has been removed (or you can hear some plaster has blown by tapping it).

They state bonding on the quote, so it suggests that they plan to do a full plaster skim but then it says 'apply 2/3 coats emulsion' which may contradict this. If it is to be skimmed it would need a minimum of 3 coats (1 x mist coat to prime the walls, 2 x full coats).

You say the wood work is new (and knotty) so I would expect the quote to read 'apply 2 x coats knotting to all knots, apply 1 x wood primer, 1 x undercoat, 1 x top coat' but it doesn't it says 'spot prime, undercoat, top coat'. In addition you say the wood is new but rough, It has to be said that some cheap wood can be a pain to decorate as sometimes it just will not sand down and furs up whenever you try to, did the wood come from a DIY store?

The quote you've been given is just a rough outline of the works and isn't as detailed as some other firms may have given, that's not to say they will do a bad job but the decorators should have told you exactly what they planned to do at the site visit and made sure that the quote read the same. If I was you I’d ask them back just to go through it with you and get them to tell you step by step what the price includes and get them to re-write it so it matches.

Please be aware that some people asks tradesmen to explain what and how the works are done just so they can go and do it themselves, so it would be an idea that to explain you'd like the works done but just want reassurance that it covers the works you require and is going to be the level of finish you expect