Redecorating kitchen

oldchap1000

I'm a landlord with just the one property. I'm looking to redecorate the kitchen (not replacing the kitchen units - just a tidy up) This is the first time I've needed to redecorate a room in the property since I lived in it, but the quote I've got back seems quite large. A handyman ran the quote up alongside a few other small repair jobs - the quotes for the other jobs seem reasonable, so I wonder if the decorating is where they're looking to make up the difference? What do you think? I don't want to bother my sitting tenant with several tradesmen running up quotes if it is in the right ballpark. The house is in Aberdeen if that helps any.

Kitchen is 4.9m x 2.1m, plain rectangular shape. Kitchen units down one of the long walls, with a couple of rows of tiles above them, and painted wooden boards from the tiles to the ceiling. Very tired wallpaper on the other three walls. Quote is to: strip wallpaper, plaster and paint all walls, and reapply sealer around tiles and sink. (the contractor reckons it will need plastering as the paper is applied straight to the plasterboard). Materials (plaster, sealer, paint) come to £150, labour is "two workers, four days" - 36 hours coming to £1620. So £1770 for the whole job.

Thanks for any help!

Mr.Generous

I would wonder how they could do it in 4 days (if consecutive) when we plaster a wall - even a thin skim - its at least 3 days before we can do anything to it. Unless its absolutely flat and level thicker parts of the plaster take longer to fully dry. If its perfectly flat then why plaster? Its difficult to know what will happen when you strip wallpaper but I'd be tempted to try a patch myself. You'd get a decent plasterer in the North West for £20 per hour no bother, the second guy would be a laborer on a lower rate. This is taken from the website The Building Sheriff, I find it pretty good for pricing jobs, I usually charge less than the site and refer clients to it If they think charge is excessive.

Job 2 ( Replastering the whole wall)

You get a better finish if he plasters the whole wall after effecting any repair, he doesn’t have to spend time trying to get his repair flush with the surrounding surfaces, he just does the whole lot. It takes about the same amount of time as well!

So he repairs first, probably with “bonding”, then applies PVA adhesive and “skims” the whole wall, that’s one wall of our pretend room.

2 men half a day etc ……..£150.00

Hope that helps.

oldchap1000

Thanks, that's a good help. I will definitely be querying the hourly rate on that basis, and what extent of work they mean by plastering. Much appreciated!