Painting Services

• Walls and ceilings: Living rooms, bedrooms, hallways and whole houses.
• Stairwells and high ceilings: Using stair platforms or towers so tall walls can be reached safely.
• Kitchens and bathrooms: Moisture-resistant paints that stand up to steam and cleaning.
• New plaster: After a renovation, extension or plaster patch repair, sealed with a mist coat first.
• Rental properties: Repainting between tenants with durable, washable finishes in neutral colours.
• Stains: Water, smoke and nicotine marks sealed with a stain-blocking primer so they do not bleed through.

A water stain should only be painted once the leak is fixed and the ceiling is dry. If the source is unknown, our leak detection and pipe repairs service can find it.

Exterior paint has to cope with rain, sun and frost, so preparation matters even more outside:

• Cleaning: Washing down, and treating algae and mould with a fungicidal wash.
• Repairs: Filling cracks and patching loose or hollow render before painting.
• Chalky surfaces: Old masonry paint that leaves a powder on your hand is sealed with a stabilising solution so new paint grips.
• Masonry paint: Smooth or textured, for render, pebbledash and painted brick. Pebbledash and rough render take more paint and time than smooth render.
• Weather: We paint in dry conditions, within the temperature range on the tin.
• Access: Low walls from ladders or towers; taller elevations usually need scaffolding, which we include in the quote.

Older homes with solid walls or lime render need breathable paints, because impermeable paint can trap moisture in the wall. See our period property restoration service for older buildings. Painting bare brick for the first time is hard to reverse, and in a conservation area or on a listed building it may need permission from the council, so check first.

Wide or diagonal cracks in render or brickwork are pointed out rather than painted over, as they may need a structural check by our underpinning contractors. Exterior doors, windows and fascias are covered by our glossing service.

1. 1

   Protect: furniture moved or covered, floors sheeted, and sockets and fittings masked.

2. 2

   Clean: walls washed down with sugar soap, especially in kitchens and hallways, so the paint bonds.

3. 3

   Repair: cracks, holes and damaged plaster put right through filling cracks in walls, repairing holes in walls and fixing ceiling cracks.

4. 4

   Sand and spot-prime: filler sanded flush and spot-primed so it does not show through as a dull patch.

5. 5

   Cut in and roll: edges cut in by brush, then walls and ceilings rolled.

Two safety checks come first in older homes. Paint in homes built before about 1960 may contain lead, so suspect paint is tested and never dry-sanded. Textured ceiling and wall coatings such as Artex applied before 2000 may contain asbestos, so they are not sanded or scraped until tested.

For most walls, matt. It hides small bumps and repairs well and gives a soft, even colour. Where walls get marked, a more durable finish is better:

Ceilings are almost always matt, because sheen shows every flaw in the light from windows.

Usually two. On sound, previously painted walls in a similar colour, two full coats give even coverage and depth of colour. More may be needed when:

• The colour changes a lot, especially dark to light or to a strong colour. A tinted base coat helps.
• The plaster is new: A mist coat of diluted emulsion seals it first, then two full coats. New plaster must be dry before painting, which depends on its thickness and the conditions. It turns an even, pale colour when ready.
• Repairs have been made: Filled areas are spot-primed first.

Exterior masonry usually also needs two coats. We follow the paint manufacturer's guidance on coverage and drying between coats.