Charges for filling holes?

GeekWizard

lessonlearned wrote: »

Geek - time to be less geeky and a bit more hands on.

Yes, have to now...

DRP

GeekWizard wrote: »

Its around 20 holes in total. Does it take a decorator the whole day?

yes of course

cycloneuk

lessonlearned wrote: »

£250 is entirely reasonable if he had to pay trades.

DIY - about 50p worth of filler (Wilkinsons) and a few dabs of touch up paint.

Geek - time to be less geeky and a bit more hands on.

Bit more than 50p, you would need filler then you would have to sand and then paint the entire wall or walls to give a professional finish. Touch up paint won't disguise holes that have been filled overly well.

If the walls were in good condition beforehand the it is reasonable to expect the same when a tenant leaves.

GeekWizard

The catch is even if you do it yourself, the landlord can claim that the new paint is showing up or it does not have a 'professional touch' to it and still claim some amount to paint the damn wall !

lessonlearned

My goodness - how people like to split hairs on these threads. Why the need to complicate everything.

OK so let's say a whole bag of Wilkos' own label filler is around £1. A few picture hooks holes would amount to 10p's worth. The holes from the TV brackets would of course be bigger and deeper, removing the fixings might even loosen some surrounding plasterwork so alright £1 for filler rather than 50p.

It might take two or three goes to fill the larger holes and then of course you would need to sand down for a smooth finish.

Even if you did have to paint the whole wall - well it's hardly rocket science is it. It doesn't have to be done by a professional decorator. A conscientious DIYer who took a reasonable amount of time and care could achieve perfectly acceptable results for a fraction of the cost.

My kids were decorating their own bedrooms from the age of 12. If my clumsy dispraxic 12 year old teenage son could slap on a bit of emulsion then I'm sure Geek can.

The point is it's cost him £250 when for a couple of evenings work and a few pounds on materials he could have saved himself a tidy penny.

Isn't this site supposed to be about moneysaving.

My answer was to show him how easy it was to tackle such a simple DIY job and the sort of savings he could make.

lessonlearned

GeekWizard wrote: »

The catch is even if you do it yourself, the landlord can claim that the new paint is showing up or it does not have a 'professional touch' to it and still claim some amount to paint the damn wall !

Depends on how long it was since the walls were painted before, colours tend to "darken" over time.

I guess it all depends on how "reasonable" your landlord is.

bitsandpieces

You could ask your landlord for evidence of the cost, but if the property was in good decorative condition pre-hole then repairing these to a good cosmetic standard takes longer than you might think (filling, sanding, repainting etc.) £250 for 20-odd holes isn't ridiculous.

Jamie_Carter

propertyman wrote: »

Or rather than moaning, you could have been less of a git and cleared up the holes you made in the first place. :mad:

To be fair some peoples DIY abilities could end up costing them more for the landlord to put right.

Jamie_Carter

GeekWizard wrote: »

Its around 20 holes in total. Does it take a decorator the whole day?

Yes, because they have to fill all the holes, allow the filler time to dry, sand it down, paint, allow paint to dry, then apply at least one more coat of paint. This would take up more than half a day, so you would pay for the day.

Jamie_Carter

GeekWizard wrote: »

The catch is even if you do it yourself, the landlord can claim that the new paint is showing up or it does not have a 'professional touch' to it and still claim some amount to paint the damn wall !

Not if you do it properly.