What to expect from professional paint job?

brilliantstuff

Grenage said:

It depends what you paid for.   If you paid someone to slap paint on the walls - they did.  If you paid someone to sort the walls out first - they did a poor job. 

The latter will be much more expensive.

We agreed ‘rubbing and filling’ the walls before. It was more than £2500 labour for 3.5 rooms (including ceilings and doors) and a very long hallway (high ceilings). We’re in London. 

ThisIsWeird

Well, the walls were clearly neither rubbed nor filled.
There will be different levels of prep, of course, and to get a 'perfect' finish will take many more hours and a bigger bill, but this does look lax for a job that clearly was meant to include a reasonable amount of prep that should hide obvious blemishes, 'cos you agreed this - 'rub and fill'.
You can point to these holes and gaps and cracks and state quite categorically that they were not 'filled'. 
The skirting boards - do you know if that poor finish and the paint runs is down to their sloppy brushwork, or to the existing surface they simply painted over without sanding? Just curious, as it might, again, indicate whether it was more a lack of prep, or an actual absence of skill or care. Either way, it demonstrably wasn't 'rubbed'. (Assuming rub means sand? Or is it a basic de-nib? 'Cos these walls do not have a nice paint texture to them.)

Do you recall how much prep time they carried out - in busy hours - before the tins were popped open?

What I cannot comment on is the value, as I don't know what is reasonable for this. Ie, did you get a poor job even partly because it was obviously cheap, or was it a fair and normal price, and you should have obtained better results - I don't know.

A lesson for everyone, I guess, is to really discuss beforehand what it is you expect; "There's lots of old paint runs - will you be able to flatten them all first? There's a few dips and holes like that one, and there, and there - will they be made invisible? There's this 'bumpy' patch (pic 2) which isn't that bad but really annoys me 'cos it's so obvious - what can you do about that? The whole wall looks a bit 'gritty' and rough - I'd like them smoother, please - can that be done? What about these hairline cracks along there - will that be..." That way, there should be no disappointment, and the P&D can amend their quote accordingly.

tacpot12

'Filling' would cover the fault in photo 4 but not the one in photo 2 - the areas are too large to be filled with the filler that decorators use - it needs a plasterer, so I'd expect the decorators to baulk at fixing the porlbme in photo 2 unless there is more money on the table and they have the plastering skills to do it. 

stuart45

As you've said you're happy overall with the work, and the painter's said he's happy to do some making good, then just mark the areas you want fixing and there should be no problem. 
A lot of time served painters I know will usually only either sub for firms, or take on really top end work. Working on older properties for cheaper prices is often more risky, as there's usually a lot of prep needed, and the money isn't in the job. If you price for a top class job the chances are the local window cleaner will under cut you. If you give a much cheaper price you can't do all the prep and it's possible the customer won't be happy. Not everyone accepts that getting a cheap job means lower quality work.

Albermarle

brilliantstuff said:

He’s a one man band but I think had some other guys helping. We haven’t paid yet. 

We had a decorator who was quite young/still learning from his Uncle. He did quite a good job, if not brilliant, but was less than half the cost of a more professional quote.
So we hired him again to do another couple of rooms whilst we were on holiday. It was a really shoddy job. Turned out he had paid a mate to do it, which might be your issue.
Anyway he did come back and redo it all. 

twopenny

There's a lot of prep work there that would take time. I've been doing my own which isn't difficult but know just how long it takes to get a smooth surface. 

It does look as though it's already been painted over dust and dings a time or two before they started and to get it really nice would take a lot of sanding and a few days to get it really nice. Those drips look old. It's been years of diy jobs by the look of it. Quite possible to achieve a good finish but with time and a good deal of work which for 3 rooms and a long hall isn't included in that price.

So there needed to be more specifics about what you were expecting from this job.

A true professional wouldn't have just painted over without thinking that was your idea. They could certainly come back and do better if they have the skill but looking at some bits I'd say they don't

But I think you expected more than was reasonable for the amount you agreed. That's £600+ a room. To sand the wood and walls from that state to be perfect would be a lot more.

stuart45

With a re-dec, it's not just about how it looks when it's finished, but also about how long it looks good for. Not repairing cracks properly, using cheap materials, not cleaning walls and woodwork etc. can make a big difference to this.