Painters for full (internal) house

Dick Turnip

Hi,

Recently bought a 2bed house which previous owners had lovingly wallpapered every room. :pac:

I would like to get painters in to paint the lot (2 bedrooms, stairs & landing, living room).

Appreciate that's hard to gauge for a price, but would love to know what to expect if getting them to strip the wallpaper aswell as paint versus me stripping the wallpaper first and just getting them in to paint?

Thanks

I got two "painters" off facebook about a year and a half ago. I put painters in quotation marks because although they did a decent enough job, it was very much a DIY effort and they obviously were just doing it as a nixer. They were decent enough, albeit where the roof meets the wall was no better or cleaner than any DIY effort I'd make myself.

Anyway, there was two of them, and they were €180 for the hall, stairs and landing, doing walls and ceilings. They, to their credit, were in and out in one day. They got stuck in and the job was better than i expected for the time they spent doing it.

Around the same time, i got a proper, full time, name-on-his-van painter (not sure if you can be a "qualified" painter?) to give me a price, and he gave me a quote for the whole house. He wanted, if memory serves me right, €3,500 for our full 3 bed (w/ extension) to paint every room. I thought it was eye-wateringly expensive for what it was, but then when I actually worked it out, it didn't work out too expensive when I broke down how long it'd take. I didn't hire him, though. I ended up doing the rooms myself after the two lads painted the hall/stairs/landing (ie; the hard part).


I'm in Drogheda, by the way.


A friend of a friend lives in a new build house, and i notice in their house, the painters painted the ceiling white, and the white paint comes down about half an inch onto the top of the wall. This obviously helps to give a clean line. However, I can't figure out how they do it. I presume not masking tape or such as youd struggle to get a straight line without it sagging to one side, a laser level might help, but i can picture it being an arduously slow process. So I'm not sure how that'd be done better.

corks finest

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I got two "painters" off facebook about a year and a half ago. I put painters in quotation marks because although they did a decent enough job, it was very much a DIY effort and they obviously were just doing it as a nixer. They were decent enough, albeit where the roof meets the wall was no better or cleaner than any DIY effort I'd make myself.

Anyway, there was two of them, and they were €180 for the hall, stairs and landing, doing walls and ceilings. They, to their credit, were in and out in one day. They got stuck in and the job was better than i expected for the time they spent doing it.

Around the same time, i got a proper, full time, name-on-his-van painter (not sure if you can be a "qualified" painter?) to give me a price, and he gave me a quote for the whole house. He wanted, if memory serves me right, €3,500 for our full 3 bed (w/ extension) to paint every room. I thought it was eye-wateringly expensive for what it was, but then when I actually worked it out, it didn't work out too expensive when I broke down how long it'd take. I didn't hire him, though. I ended up doing the rooms myself after the two lads painted the hall/stairs/landing (ie; the hard part).


I'm in Drogheda, by the way.


A friend of a friend lives in a new build house, and i notice in their house, the painters painted the ceiling white, and the white paint comes down about half an inch onto the top of the wall. This obviously helps to give a clean line. However, I can't figure out how they do it. I presume not masking tape or such as youd struggle to get a straight line without it sagging to one side, a laser level might help, but i can picture it being an arduously slow process. So I'm not sure how that'd be done better.

not sure if you can be a "qualified" painter?
WTF do you mean? Any qualified painter served his or her time,
What are you qualified at? Did u just put down on your cv era I’m an engineer etc even though I know nothing about it or never qualified?

Dick Turnip

Thanks KKV, I'm more so wondering approx. how much of a % increase would it be to get the painters to strip wallpaper aswell as paint.

I'm in Dublin, friends recently bought a house and got painters in to do whole house (3 bed semi, sounds similar to yours) and it cost just over 3k I think.

corks finest

Dick Turnip wrote: »

Thanks KKV, I'm more so wondering approx. how much of a % increase would it be to get the painters to strip wallpaper aswell as paint.

I'm in Dublin, friends recently bought a house and got painters in to do whole house (3 bed semi, sounds similar to yours) and it cost just over 3k I think.

Decorator here ;ref stripping it’s all time why not do it yourself, easy -soak wall ( sponge or brush)let it soak , repeat- first layer off after 10 minutes;
Don’t leave too long, soak again and leave for 10 m :strip it, sand walls done

Dick Turnip

corks finest wrote: »

Decorator here ;ref stripping it’s all time why not do it yourself, easy -soak wall ( sponge or brush)let it soak , repeat- first layer off after 10 minutes;
Don’t leave too long, soak again and leave for 10 m :strip it, sand walls done

I know but I'm still traumatised though after helping my brother on a room in his a few years back. :pac: It took AGES but I think I may not have had too good of a technique then though. We were using a crap enough steamer.

Would you recommend hiring a steamer for the day? Or do you think just soaking should do the trick?

What would you use to soak? Have had both warm water & fairy liquid or else a specific wallpaper stripper?

It's all one layer of wallpaper probably 15-20 years old. It's not numerous layers of wallpaper/paint at least.

Flinty997

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I ...This obviously helps to give a clean line. However, I can't figure out how they do it. I presume not masking tape or such as youd struggle to get a straight line without it sagging to one side, a laser level might help, but i can picture it being an arduously slow process. So I'm not sure how that'd be done better.

Years of practice. I'm not being flippant. Often it's muscle memory.

corks finest

corks finest wrote: »

not sure if you can be a "qualified" painter?
WTF do you mean? Any qualified painter served his or her time,
What are you qualified at? Did u just put down on your cv era I’m an engineer etc even though I know nothing about it or never qualified?

Did your head explode when you read that? :pac:


Anyone I know that is a painter just picked it up themselves or, the lad most known locally around me (from what I can tell anyway) seems to have just picked it up from a CE scheme when he was younger.

I don't think I actually know anyone that did an apprenticeship or such in painting (and I could understand why).

I figured painting would be like photography (which is what I do). You get hired on your body of work. No one has ever asked me if i studied photography (which I didn't, thankfully, as I'd consider it a waste of time).

I would ask a Plumber that's working on my boiler if he's RGI compliant, but I wouldn't ever bother to ask a painter did he study it. I don't see how it'd help.

Dick Turnip

Dick Turnip wrote: »

Thanks KKV, I'm more so wondering approx. how much of a % increase would it be to get the painters to strip wallpaper aswell as paint.

I honestly don't know, but if it was less than a grand to do the full house, i'd let them at it. My concern would be the quality of the surface after the wallpaper's down.



I tried to remove wallpaper in a small box room before, and i gave up after about 2 hours when I'd gotten absolutely nowhere. I'd never, ever try it again. I had got a steamer, albeit it didn't have a wallpaper-specific attachment.


I re-did my sitting room about 2 years ago and that had been wallpapered. After my unsuccessful attempt in the box-room, I just got a plasterer to slab and skim the whole room. Was more expensive, of course, but it gave me a smooth fresh clean surface for painting and really gave the whole place a more modern, clean feel.

corks finest

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I honestly don't know, but if it was less than a grand to do the full house, i'd let them at it. My concern would be the quality of the surface after the wallpaper's down.



I tried to remove wallpaper in a small box room before, and i gave up after about 2 hours when I'd gotten absolutely nowhere. I'd never, ever try it again. I had got a steamer, albeit it didn't have a wallpaper-specific attachment.


I re-did my sitting room about 2 years ago and that had been wallpapered. After my unsuccessful attempt in the box-room, I just got a plasterer to slab and skim the whole room. Was more expensive, of course, but it gave me a smooth fresh clean surface for painting and really gave the whole place a more modern, clean feel.

When I moved up north from Cork in 79/80 I ended up stripping wood chip wallpaper on near every house we worked on, some with 2/3 layers effing nightmare, real ball breaker but when shown how I got around it, patience and technique and bull head needed

corks finest

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Did your head explode when you read that? :pac:


Anyone I know that is a painter just picked it up themselves or, the lad most known locally around me (from what I can tell anyway) seems to have just picked it up from a CE scheme when he was younger.

I don't think I actually know anyone that did an apprenticeship or such in painting (and I could understand why).

I figured painting would be like photography (which is what I do). You get hired on your body of work. No one has ever asked me if i studied photography (which I didn't, thankfully, as I'd consider it a waste of time).

I would ask a Plumber that's working on my boiler if he's RGI compliant, but I wouldn't ever bother to ask a painter did he study it. I don't see how it'd help.

That’s codswallop tbf, you need years of experience ( 10 plus minimum) to be even passed as an average painter I’d suggest, majority learn either in the job or serve a recognised apprenticeship
PS yep my big hard head exploded won’t deny it, need to know an awful lot about materials and situations otherwise you could destroy someone’s property or place of work etc, any ok bollox can take a snap sure,word of mouth sorts the handyman out versus the decorator, yes you can find cheap labour if u want to take a risk but why bother?
I couldn’t count the botched jobs carried out by chancers that I’ve had to remedy