Painters and Decorators in Purley (CR8)
On a period Purley house the decorating is mostly preparation. Deep original mouldings hold a century of paint, and external timber on the Arts and Crafts stock is the part that decides how long the job lasts.
Mouldings that have been painted too many times
Each coat rounds off an edge and fills a little more of the detail, until a crisply run profile reads as a soft lump.
On the estate houses that detail is a large part of the character, so the honest answer is often to take the build-up back rather than add to it — which is slow, careful work and should be priced as such rather than buried in a rate per room. It is also the difference between a room that looks properly decorated and one that looks painted over. Where the build-up is sound, preparation is still where the job is won: filled, sanded, sealed and primed properly before any finish goes near it.
External timber, and why it fails first
Arts and Crafts houses carry a good deal of external timber — bargeboards, exposed framing, joinery, sometimes weatherboarding — and that is what weathers first and what costs most to put right if it is left. Getting back to sound timber, treating what can be saved and replacing only what genuinely has to go is worth more over a decade than another coat over a failing surface. Elevations do not weather at the same rate either, so surveying each one and pricing it for what it needs beats a single figure for the outside of the house.
Who does the decorating
Decorating is a specialist trade and we do not pretend otherwise — decorators we have worked with for years are brought in and managed by us.
The plastering and making good that comes before them is our own team, which is why the two do not end up blaming each other.
More in Purley
Everything we do in Purley is on the Purley area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the decorating page.
Common questions
Q.01Can original mouldings be brought back?
Usually. Taking the paint build-up back is slow, careful work but it is what returns the detail. We price it as its own item rather than folding it into a rate per room.
Q.02How often does the outside need doing?
It depends on the elevation and on how much timber it carries. We survey each side separately and tell you honestly which needs doing now and which will wait.
Q.03Do you do the plastering as well?
Yes, plastering and making good is our own team. The decorating itself is carried out by decorators we bring in and manage.
Q.04Can you match an existing colour?
We can get very close, though a fresh patch beside a wall that has weathered for years will still read as a patch. Where that will show, we would rather do the whole elevation or the whole wall and say so up front.
Thinking about decorating in Purley?
Tell us what you are planning. We come out, look at the job properly and give you a price for it.