Painting / decorating suggestions and guide price

iwant2asave

Hi,

We need to get our house painted or wallpapered.  It's a 1940's 3 bed semi house and has textured wallpaper on it since I'd say 30 years and looks to be stuck down very firmly.  Downstairs 2 reception rooms and hallway.  Upstairs 3 bedrooms and hallway.  I might do in 2 phases downstairs and upstairs as will be living here whilst it's being done.

I'm undecided as to whether to have it painted or wallpapered, but I would like to use good quality materials.

Given that it's been so long, what kind of extra prep might be needed for either painting or wallpapering?

What kind of price can I expect to pay someone to either paper or paint? 

Is there a time of the year when it's likely to be cheaper?

gzoom

We are coming to the end of our decorating, two guys, 230sq meter of floor space for a new build(so onto bare plaster), but made complicated by double height ceilings/built in wardrobes/painting stair case.

The guys aren't onsite all the time due to needing to time painting etc with plumbers, electricians etc, but I estimated they have been working on the house for the equivalent of over 4 weeks and there is still a few days of work left. Costwise, we have supplied nothing, and the final bill will be well into 5 figures.

Eldi_Dos

iwant2asave said:

Hi,

We need to get our house painted or wallpapered. 







Is there a time of the year when it's likely to be cheaper?

January, possibly February.

swingaloo

Im in a 1960s 3 bed semi and we moved in 3 years ago. LOTS of 1970s wallpaper including woodchip. Spent hours getting it all of and sanding down paintwork that had about 7 coats on.

Hubby is useless at painting and wallpapering but luckily I seem to have the knack with wallpaper. more so now they do 'paste the wall' rather than the paper. Of course I have a lot more spare time to do it myself since I retired but I couldn't imagine paying someone to do it as I get fed up of the decor and repaper more often than I should. Lounge is on its 4th paper in just over 3 years. 

sammyjammy

Are you planning on removing the woodchip yourself?  I would recommend it if you can, you may find it comes off easier than you think.  The woodchip in my house had been painted over many times and was so brittle it came off in sheets mostly.  It will cost alot of money in labour to do and its not a job that needs a professional.  Until you do that you won't know whether the walls need repairs or reskimming before being painted/papered.

FreeBear

A little older 3 bed semi here (late 1920s build). Been slowly stripping wallpaper, which fortunately has never been painted. Sprayed with water, most of it came off fairly easy. Woodchip paper on the hallway & landing ceilings - That stuff didn't need much encouragement to peel off. On doing so, I realised why woodchip had been put up. In places, it was all that was keeping plaster up. Ended up removing the ceilings completely and reboarding & skimming.

The walls had a few hairline cracks and numerous dings. A thick lining paper would have covered them, but I chose to skim the walls (after removing skirting & architraves).

One issue that you might have on ceilings is old distemper - This was often used on ceilings, and is not nice stuff to paper or paint over. Distemper has poor adhesive properties, so anything stuck on top is likely to fall down given time. Had distemper on my kitchen ceiling.... One good thing to say about old lime plaster - It makes an excellent sub-base if you are putting in a concrete slab for a shed.

Albermarle

It might not be all woodchip, or none at all. 
OP says 'textured wallpaper' so it may well be anaglypta type.
If pretty old it may be made from paper only, if maybe less than 35 years old then more likely to be blown vinyl on a paper backing. To some extent it does not matter as when painted it looks similar.
It is personal taste but probably I would not like it in a lounge, or downstairs at all. However if it was in a spare bedroom, or somewhere awkward to get to, I would be tempted to leave it and just paint it. Would save time and money at least.

Grenage

The real time, effort, and cost is usually in preparation.  It's normally about 90% prep time for me.

iwant2asave

Grenage said:

The real time, effort, and cost is usually in preparation.  It's normally about 90% prep time for me.

Could I consider getting a professional to do all the prep and then I could do the rest...or might this be a bad idea?

Grenage

iwant2asave said:

Grenage said:

The real time, effort, and cost is usually in preparation.  It's normally about 90% prep time for me.

Could I consider getting a professional to do all the prep and then I could do the rest...or might this be a bad idea?

If they do that much work, you might a well have them do the rest.  At least you can quibble if it's not up to standard.

powerspowers

My previous house was covered in wood chip, we removed all of it apart from stairs and landing. It was a horrible job as the previous tenants smoked liked chimneys. 

Fairly straightforward to DIY, just do one room at a time. The risk is what is the state of the walls underneath, ours needed skimming which we couldn’t afford so resulting decorating was a bit rough. 

We’ve moved now and have a bit more money, I’d still DIY removing the old, pay someone to skim and then possibly decorate.