Paying twice for a job?

Hi,

We had our extension painted by a decorator we have used for years.

On this occasion, the decorator noted that the quality of the walls wasn't great due to various shelves having been removed over the years etc and the the gaps being polyfilled etc

He said after a complete sanding and painting, the texture might not be 100% perfect but we were fine with that as it was a very dark grey paint and it might sound odd ... but the quasi-rustic look - only noticeable when you're close up - looks fine.

A few days after painting, we started seeing some patches appear on different parts of the walls (each about 10p size diameter) - about 7 on each wall. They appear smooth but very shiny from a distance as though sunlight reflects off them (they appear darker when you look close).

Our decorator came back out when next available and said it was probably due to what some of the holes had been filled with (only Polyfilla). He used Zinsser and something else I think, sanded down the patches and re-painted - no charge. Wall colour looked even better than before.

A week later, those spots appeared again. Visitors comment on it as it looks as though something has been splattered.

This isn't a bitch fest as we've always been pleased with his work, but after speaking to him, he has said it will now need lining, re-painting and it will be 10 hours of labour as skirts will need doing again and side wall too which is a different colour. He then questioned if we have enough paint which I don't think we have - and it was expensive paint ...

On one hand I'm thinking the walls weren't great and we filled the holes with Polyfilla. Our walls, our problem.

On the other, I'm thinking - i'm not a decorator - and if after sanding down originally he still wasn't happy with the quality of the walls and therefore couldn't guarantee the quality - he should have recommended lining then (I understand he noted the texture issue which we accepted, but we would never have accepted the possibility of random coloured spots).

It's also a home office so whatever happens, we will have to gut the room for 2 days when it is re-done.

Is this our responsibility? Should we just pay all over again? How should we handle this?

Sorry it's a long one but any advice or opinions either way would be appreciated!

Sometimes things may only become apparent after they have been done. I don’t think he could have expected things to show up after a few days but he did attempt a free of charge fix. I personally think it’s not his fault, just one of those things and it’s reasonable to expect you to pay again. Could you not live with it?

To be fair to him, you were warned.

Hozier said:

He said after a complete sanding and painting, the texture might not be 100% perfect but we were fine with that

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Just my view, others may differ!

Mottie said:

Sometimes things may only become apparent after they have been done. I don’t think he could have expected things to show up after a few days but he did attempt a free of charge fix. I personally think it’s not his fault, just one of those things and it’s reasonable to expect you to pay again. Could you not live with it?

To be fair to him, you were warned.

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Not really - it's pretty noticeable because they are in random places - unless we put things up to cover it ...

I'm not sure I agree with the warning part though - I mean, if someone said your car will be resprayed but the texture might be a touch rough in a few places, that's fair enough. Having large spots that look a different colour to the rest of the paint isn't something we would have ever thought would or could happen. I just wish he'd said 'I'd recommend lining it' early doors and we would have paid for the extra couple of hours work - without question.

At the same time, for him to do it again I imagine means on missing out on a job elsewhere - i've had the same issue in my own line of work on occasion but ultimately I've always thought I was hired to do the job and didn't want to lose future work.

If we had the spare cash we'd probably just put it down to one of those things. Right now we don't unfortunately.

Think we might need to start looking for wall coverings!

Put some nice paintings over the patches.
He couldn't have anticipated that.
Sometimes a bad patch of filler does exactly what you describe.
We lived with a darker shade of ivory in the stair wall for years, where I had used a wickes filler to cover a crack.

By putting lining paper up, you don't need the skirting redoing unless these have been painted with emulsion, the skirting will just wipe clean and he can mask up the skirting so as not to get paint on it,

He is right about the other wall though, the paste will get on it and even wiping it down you'll still see marks so will need repainting.

I've had the issues you describe with filler before, it's to do with the porousness of the filler. The zinsser should have worked but it doesn't always.

Do you have any pictures?

Hi folks. Just wanted to add a quick update for your thoughts.

Spoke to our decorator this morning and he said he knew the walls were in a bad shape originally and "should have been lined" but the ONLY reason he didn't was because he would have had to take off the radiator and he wasn't insured for that ... so he went ahead and painted anyway.

This has never been mentioned to us before. Our next-door-neighbour is a plumber so we could have had this done in minutes if we had been told ...

Also, he has said we will need to buy replacement paint and lining paper but he will only charge for lining paper labour and not painting. Up to 10 hours??

Does this seem right?

The whole radiator issue has really thrown me as that should have been our decision.

Is the wall hollow If you tap it?
Don’t suppose it’s dot ‘n’ dabs coming through.

Out of interest, are the walls outside walls, where damp could be going through the wall and reacting with the filler?

Your decorator sounds very honest, kind and fair-minded.

More than fair.

His proposal sounds more than generous and you should accept it, and look after him with cups of tea.

sparkwright said:

Out of interest, are the walls outside walls, where damp could be going through the wall and reacting with the filler?

Your decorator sounds very honest, kind and fair-minded.

More than fair.

His proposal sounds more than generous and you should accept it, and look after him with cups of tea.

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Yes outside walls (well extension plasterboard)

And I've always agreed with this until this morning when I found out we've only arrived here because he didn't want to remove the radiator ... Not sure I can equate generous with paying twice. IMO you should be giving the client the option on how to proceed. Would have taken minutes for us to deal with the radiator.

Hozier said:

Hi folks. Just wanted to add a quick update for your thoughts.

Spoke to our decorator this morning and he said he knew the walls were in a bad shape originally and "should have been lined" but the ONLY reason he didn't was because he would have had to take off the radiator and he wasn't insured for that ... so he went ahead and painted anyway.

This has never been mentioned to us before. Our next-door-neighbour is a plumber so we could have had this done in minutes if we had been told ...

Also, he has said we will need to buy replacement paint and lining paper but he will only charge for lining paper labour and not painting. Up to 10 hours??

Does this seem right?

The whole radiator issue has really thrown me as that should have been our decision.

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TBF it's not to bad, sounds like you only be paying for materials.

10 hours to lining paper the walls isn't too bad, it's surprisingly time consuming, it may be a tad too long for a pro, but also is he just doing the 1 wall or a number of walls?

sxturbo said:

TBF it's not to bad, sounds like you only be paying for materials.

10 hours to lining paper the walls isn't too bad, it's surprisingly time consuming, it may be a tad too long for a pro, but also is he just doing the 1 wall or a number of walls?

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It's for 2 walls. Didn't think it would take that long but I've never done it before.

Charge would be for the lining paper and 10 hours labour (we already have the paint left over)

How long are the walls?

I've done 2x 3 meter length walls in 10 hours relatively recently when doing it on my own.

When the wife helps I can speed up a bit, she sometimes pastes while I hang and cut.

Previously 1x 3 meter wall of brick effect wall paper took me 8 hours to put up.

sxturbo said:

How long are the walls?

I've done 2x 3 meter length walls in 10 hours relatively recently when doing it on my own.

When the wife helps I can speed up a bit, she sometimes pastes while I hang and cut.

Previously 1x 3 meter wall of brick effect wall paper took me 8 hours to put up.

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2x3m

Hozier said:

2x3m

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Ha ha,

I'd expect a pro to do it a little quicker, but that isn't a definite, it takes time to get the alignment and the cutting right and getting rid of air bubbles, but I've been papering since I was a teen and do it relatively regularly so maybe there isn't much difference