Problems with Decorator - Advice required.

RocketRonnieRadox

Hi Forumites,

I unfortunatley have to ask for some advice.

We bought a rather large Edwardain home with original skirts,cornices and features such as doors and architraves which we wanted to keep. We had plasterers in who did an excellent job at skimming the walls in the 2 large bedrooms, front lounge, rear kitchen and extension and rear lounge.

I thin got some quotes from a few decorators and settled on one chap based on his reasonable quotation, customer reviews and the fact that he told me that he is meticulous and OCD about getting the job done right, I beleived him and trusted hom to do as he said. This was part of the verbal agreement made between us that the walls would be perfect and the woodwork significantly better than what it was.

Fast forward 6 weeks and the job is not complete, the wood work has not been sanded and filled, he just painted over the existing damage in the form of scratches, flakey missing paint, dents and gaps where skits meet in the corners, and where they meet at the door architraves. 

The paint work on the walls is patchy, cutting in lines not straight, caulking not done where the picture rail meets the plaster, there is grit in the eggshell on the wood work. All in all very disappointing.

I suggested to him that we walk around and I will point out the areas that require refinishing / addressing and he just said, make a list and I will address the things on the list, so I did. I asked again if we could walk around the house to discuss the work and again he just said that he would work off the list,

The quotation for the work given after seeing the house and the job was £2150 incl paint but exluding the final coat of paint - I would buy that. I agreed and he began a week or so later.

A week in to the job he asked for £500 which I gave him, then a week later he asked for £500 more with the balance on completion,  which I gave him. A week later he asked for another £500 and I said that last time he asked he said the balance on completion and he sent a psssive aggressive reply to the effect that he would leave the extras I had asked for till last then, I had not really asked for any extras, just for the job to be done to a good standard,

I has asked him to use sheets where he was working on rooms with sanded floors - he didnt and left brushmarks all around the foor where it meets the skirts as well as paint spatter on the wood floor. I asked him about this and he said not to worry as its water based and would come off. I said ok then please clean it - he didnt and the paint is not just waterbased it is also oil based as I found out when trying to clean a sample spot.,

roll on another 2 weeks and I am getting suspicious. The woodwork had not been filled, fixed and sanded before painting, the walls are patchy and I did not use cheap paint. this is paint and paper library paint that cost a littlle more than the usual B&Q stuff. The picture rails have not been dressed and sanded, not a single room has been completed. He has spread himself all over and not focused on a room by room approach. I ended up sanding and filling some doors as I wanted them to be right. His paint on wood work is full of brish strokes and window and door architraves again not finished properly, no sanding no filling just painting.

This brings us to today when he sent me a message saying that he doesnt thing that he can meet my standards and that he would like to leave the front living room (many wood work issues there) and asked for £700 after finishing the other smaller bits on the snagging list. A few minutes later I get another message saying that he would prefer not to buy more materials for me to be unhappy with his work and asked for £500 of the remaining £1150 and he would collect his stuff and move on.

As far as I am concerned he has waster 4-6 weeks of my time, not done the job to a decent standard and not finished a single room. 

Would I be within my rights to tell him that I will not be paying him after explaining why ? I canot afford to get another decorator in and I will have to do this all myself not while working a 9-5 and having a family. I am totally gutted and disappointed and I think he knows that his work has been of a poor standard as he has avoided the walkaround with me at any cost.

Any advice gratefully received.

Boohoo

RocketRonnieRadox said:

Hi Forumites,

I unfortunatley have to ask for some advice.

We bought a rather large Edwardain home with original skirts,cornices and features such as doors and architraves which we wanted to keep. We had plasterers in who did an excellent job at skimming the walls in the 2 large bedrooms, front lounge, rear kitchen and extension and rear lounge.

I thin got some quotes from a few decorators and settled on one chap based on his reasonable quotation, customer reviews and the fact that he told me that he is meticulous and OCD about getting the job done right, I beleived him and trusted hom to do as he said. This was part of the verbal agreement made between us that the walls would be perfect and the woodwork significantly better than what it was.

Fast forward 6 weeks and the job is not complete, the wood work has not been sanded and filled, he just painted over the existing damage in the form of scratches, flakey missing paint, dents and gaps where skits meet in the corners, and where they meet at the door architraves. 

The paint work on the walls is patchy, cutting in lines not straight, caulking not done where the picture rail meets the plaster, there is grit in the eggshell on the wood work. All in all very disappointing.

I suggested to him that we walk around and I will point out the areas that require refinishing / addressing and he just said, make a list and I will address the things on the list, so I did. I asked again if we could walk around the house to discuss the work and again he just said that he would work off the list,

The quotation for the work given after seeing the house and the job was £2150 incl paint but exluding the final coat of paint - I would buy that. I agreed and he began a week or so later.

A week in to the job he asked for £500 which I gave him, then a week later he asked for £500 more with the balance on completion,  which I gave him. A week later he asked for another £500 and I said that last time he asked he said the balance on completion and he sent a psssive aggressive reply to the effect that he would leave the extras I had asked for till last then, I had not really asked for any extras, just for the job to be done to a good standard,

I has asked him to use sheets where he was working on rooms with sanded floors - he didnt and left brushmarks all around the foor where it meets the skirts as well as paint spatter on the wood floor. I asked him about this and he said not to worry as its water based and would come off. I said ok then please clean it - he didnt and the paint is not just waterbased it is also oil based as I found out when trying to clean a sample spot.,

roll on another 2 weeks and I am getting suspicious. The woodwork had not been filled, fixed and sanded before painting, the walls are patchy and I did not use cheap paint. this is paint and paper library paint that cost a littlle more than the usual B&Q stuff. The picture rails have not been dressed and sanded, not a single room has been completed. He has spread himself all over and not focused on a room by room approach. I ended up sanding and filling some doors as I wanted them to be right. His paint on wood work is full of brish strokes and window and door architraves again not finished properly, no sanding no filling just painting.

This brings us to today when he sent me a message saying that he doesnt thing that he can meet my standards and that he would like to leave the front living room (many wood work issues there) and asked for £700 after finishing the other smaller bits on the snagging list. A few minutes later I get another message saying that he would prefer not to buy more materials for me to be unhappy with his work and asked for £500 of the remaining £1150 and he would collect his stuff and move on.

As far as I am concerned he has waster 4-6 weeks of my time, not done the job to a decent standard and not finished a single room. 

Would I be within my rights to tell him that I will not be paying him after explaining why ? I canot afford to get another decorator in and I will have to do this all myself not while working a 9-5 and having a family. I am totally gutted and disappointed and I think he knows that his work has been of a poor standard as he has avoided the walkaround with me at any cost.

Any advice gratefully received.

It might just be me that price was way too cheap for the work you wanted doing.

Others will be along soon to give advice on your next move.

RocketRonnieRadox

It might just be me that price was way too cheap for the work you wanted doing.

Others will be along soon to give advice on your next move.

He had ample opportunity to assess the job before quoting.

none the less not a single room has been finished. 

Not a single skirting board was sanded and prepped correctly.

the more I think about it the more I feel ripped off. 

WIAWSNB

Any chance of some photos of the standard of finish?
Do you have legal protection included in your house I suranxe?

RocketRonnieRadox

A few pics of his work 

RocketRonnieRadox

WIAWSNB said:

Any chance of some photos of the standard of finish?
Do you have legal protection included in your house I suranxe?

Why legal protection ? 

Some more images.

Bigphil1474

Yeah, that's terrible. I'm an enthusiastic DIYer and not unknown to cut corners, but I'd be embarrassed with that finish. I think you need to pay him for any material costs owed, but nothing more. 

WIAWSNB

Thanks for the pics. Clearly the guy lied to you - he is neither 'meticulous' nor has OCD.
Either he is bonkers, or he fed you a line in order to get the job. I suspect the latter.
How much do you owe him for this work? Zero. It needs completely redoing from literal scratch. 
There is no evidence there of any preparation having been carried out, from the most basic scraping off of the very obvious high ridges and paint flakes, to finishing off with a suitable grade of paper. Nothing. Now't. Nada. He looks as tho' he just slapped paint over it all. Shocking.
Ok, I cannot comment on the quote for the work, as I don't know what pro P&Ds charge, but regardless of this, it's a completely unacceptable standard of work. I suspect, however, that it was 'cheap', and that may well be taken into account should you need to pursue this legally.
And that brings me to Legal Protection. If you have it, it'll almost certainly cover 'contractual' issues, so call them up and ask their advice here.
Don't pay this guy another penny. The only possible terms on which you could have him back is if he (a) fully acknowledges his work has been unacceptable, and (b) he demonstrates this by redoing what he's done so far to an acceptable standard. In the highly unlikely event that he agrees to this, then you continue to pay him in arrears for ongoing work of an acceptable standard. Of course, almost certainly this just ain't going to happen.
What to do? Swallow your discomfort and call out the other P&Ds to requote for the work, and report on what they see. Use this, along with your LP, to try and recover some payments from the wastrel, and dig deeper into your pocket to have your stunning house decorated properly. Or, knuckle down and DIY it.
You know it's worth it.

gwynlas

Sorry but you have contributed to this debacle yourself if you chose him on his low quote  did you not have an estimate of how long this job should take?
A decent self employed tradesman would need to be charging at least £1k per week.
You allowed him to continue once you had seen that he failed to carry out preparatory work in any room prior to applying top coat.

You can advise him to collect his materials at a suitable time but I would not be paying him any more

twopenny

Not acceptable in any way.
But I've done an Edwardian house like this myself and it's time and meticulousness. £2000 is for a slap of paint all around for a whole house.
I think you were over optimistic thinking it could be done in one go.

I don't think you should be put off by doing some yourself. The pep is the main thing but get yourself set up with podcasts, music, a TV and tackle one room while you put aside money and get personal recommendations for someone to do another. 
If you do one yourself you'll get an idea of just how much work is involved and a better idea of the time and effort it takes and what the cost should be.
I was so proud of the finish I got.
At least you've got the base coats on so it's not from scratch.

I'd have been put off by the perfectionist, OCD claim. Why would he need to state that.

You aren't alone, I had to tell one to leave. Money bit by bit and taking the Michael about things. Also left someone to a small easy job and came home to a quick slap of paint. Both local and casual which made life tricky for a bit.

rob7475

Did he give you a quote explaining what was included. Is work is not the greatest but it sounds to me like you were expecting perfectly smooth wood etc. which is near on impossible when you're working with old skirtings, architrave etc. If you wanted perfection, they'd need removing and replacing or lots of time spent restoring them which you were never going to get for 2k.

I would expect £2k to cover no more than 6-7 days labour if he was including most of the materials too. That was never enough time to get the finish you were hoping for.