Where does building stop an decorating begin?

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I have had a fair bit of work done by a builder. Parts were to be decorated (with a colour specified), and parts were specified in advance as "no redecoration required", as I intend to paint these myself. All of the walls and ceilings were new plasterboard.

Towards the end of the job I had to ask for the unpainted sections to be taped up and skimmed suitable for me painting afterwards.

I've now received a bill for a few hundred for plastering.
I had thought taping and skimming the work was part of the "build" and not the decoration, and that the decoration would be me painting it.
Am I wrong? Does the build normally stop at screwing on the plasterboard?
Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[dcdec]

You asked him to skim it so he's billed you for it.

Skimming the boards was obviously not part of his spec which is fair enough as you can paint straight onto plaster board once taped and jointed.

Beats me that people spend thousands on building extensions and renovations and then paint themselves to save a few hundred pounds, a pro paint job finishes things off nicely and more importantly we make all the other trades work look better with filling, caulking, punching nails in, sanding rough edges etc etc etc

 

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I think I may have misunderstood what is meant by skimming, I thought it meant taping the joint and skimming the joint, as it turns out it is all skimmed.
I had left the painting in certain areas not to save cost, but because other works are ongoing and it would be unsuitable for some areas to be painted at present.