Hire a decorator to prep rooms or hire a plaster to skim?

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Hawkman

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Just had a quote for decorating some rooms: prepping and painting with 3 coats of trade emulsion.

Small bedroom (3mx2.5m) £300; medium size bedroom (4x3) £320; dining room (4.5mx3.0m) £430.

Guy says he can get a high quality smooth finish by filling and rubbing down, similar finish to plastering.

Am I right in thinking that this would be cheaper than hiring a plaster to skim and then getting it painted?

Also, there are a few patches of repair needed, eg chasing that the electrician has bonded, filling disused sockets. I was thinking that I would need a plasterer for these, but the decorator guy says - yes we will fill that.
 
handboardman, just can not see how a decorator can get a high quality smooth finish as he claims by filling and rubbing down entire rooms with patching and filling disused sockets, to spare any tears quite simply get a plasterer in , then all walls will be nice and smooth, otherwise ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, aghhhhhhhh.
 
What condition are the walls in now?

We need a pic or two or we're just guessing. How old is the house? Did it have paper on before and has it cme off cleanly?
 
Have seen some decorators make this claim,and to be honest its never as good as a nice flat smooth skimmed wall. Fillin , Sandin,paint,fill again sand it again,fill it,dust everywhere then when its all painted it looks crap ! Get a plasterer in mate , save yourself a headache .
 
Heh pesky decorators trying to buy themselves work eh??!

If its done properly ie.plastered then decorated you'll get no come backs.
In my experience the cheapest way is almost definitely the worst way.

At the end of the day you've got to sit and look at those walls.....only you can decide!
 
Depends on the condition of the existing walls and your budget. I'd say it was a good price for the decorating, so get a plasterer in see how much he will charge, ask the decorator how much he will reduce his if the walls are skimmed, then compare.

But as others have said the final finish is always superior if the walls are skimmed. We carry out plastering works for decorators in Bristol and if the walls are old they always get us in to plaster the walls first.
 
It would take 3-4 days to skim it so labour only between 150-200 per day to skim it if the walls are half tidy id let him carry on
 
i would have them over-skimmed ! no contest cheaper and better quality every-time, bloody decorators probs fill holes with putty ,lol
 
Did one job for some builders where they wanted a ceiling patching up and a fireplace skimming over. They did all the chasing themselves with bonding then put some skimming/filler on. When it was dry they got the orbital sander out. Took them ages and went through loads of sandpaper to get it smooth. Could've done them all in less than quarter of the time it took them.
 
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Here are some photos of the walls. You can see that I have had a go at filling some walls - it took me ages and was not a roaring success, maybe because I have never done it before.
 
Get that coving pulled down, skim it all, then paint it yourself to the dulcet melodies of Eartha Kitt.
 
have it plastered. the decorator will probably be able to get it to an acceptable standard but a decent plaster job will be so much more noticable and worth the extra outlay
 
That's beyond filler. If you have it plastered like Danny said you'll be able to paint it yourself. All the hard work is done. But I guess if u went on a painters forum they'd say the opposite
 
Well I'm going to buck the trend and say that most walls that get don't really need it.
My father-in-law asked me to re-skim his lounge some years ago, I said I was to busy but would fill and sand it for him to decorate.
He wasn't that convinced but let me crack on. So one evening after work I went round spent half an hour applying Easy-fill and then the following evening popped in and spent about an hour sanding and cleaning up. Once decorated it looked no different to if it had been skimmed.
The re-skim explosion only came about due to the DIY craze mixed with laziness, plus fillers which were poor compared with those available now.
 
essexandy said:
Well I'm going to buck the trend and say that most walls that get don't really need it.
My father-in-law asked me to re-skim his lounge some years ago, I said I was to busy but would fill and sand it for him to decorate.
He wasn't that convinced but let me crack on. So one evening after work I went round spent half an hour applying Easy-fill and then the following evening popped in and spent about an hour sanding and cleaning up. Once decorated it looked no different to if it had been skimmed.
The re-skim explosion only came about due to the DIY craze mixed with laziness, plus fillers which were poor compared with those available now.
Click to expand...
thats another spread out of a job haha:RpS_lol::glare::RpS_thumbsup:
 
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