Warlingham — Decorating

Painters and Decorators in Warlingham (CR6)

Warlingham divides between the older cottages near the centre, where original windows and matched brick and render are the whole point, and the larger family homes further out. Decorating those two well asks for different things: repair and patience at one end, area and organisation at the other.

Get a free quote Call 01883 337 700

An original window is a repair job before it is a painting job

Paint on old timber fails from the bottom of the frame upwards, because that is where water sits.

On a cottage window near the centre of the village the honest sequence is to take the failed coating off, find out how much sound timber is left underneath, cut out anything soft and splice in new, replace putty or beads that have gone, knot and prime every bare surface, and only then start on finish coats. Painting over decayed timber gets you one winter and takes the decision away from you next time, because by then the section is usually beyond splicing. It is slower than dealing with a modern window, and it is the reason original windows survive on conservation-minded streets at all: they were built to be repaired piece by piece rather than replaced whole.

Matching render and brick, not just colour

Where a patch of render has to be made good before painting, colour is the easy half. Texture is what gives a repair away. A smooth float finish let into a wall with a coarser texture reads from across the road whatever colour goes over the top, so a repair is worked to match what surrounds it. Where the existing finish cannot be matched convincingly, the sensible answer is often to take the coating across the whole elevation rather than leave an obvious plate on the front of the house. The same thinking applies to colour on a street where the houses are seen together. A shade that looks restrained on a card can look very loud on a frontage, so it is worth putting a decent-sized test patch on the actual wall and looking at it in daylight before anyone commits to it.

The larger homes towards the edges

SG is a building firm rather than a decorating firm, and we say so plainly.

Our own trades handle the plaster, the render repairs and the joinery. The painting and wallpapering goes to decorators we bring in. We survey it, price it and stay answerable for how it turns out. On the bigger detached and semi-detached houses out from the village the work is less about repair and more about area and sequence — several rooms, a stairwell, doors and skirting throughout, and a household that still needs to use the house while it all happens. That gets planned as a programme with an order to it, so rooms come back into use as they are finished instead of the whole house being open at once.

More in Warlingham

Everything we do in Warlingham is on the Warlingham area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the decorating page.

Common questions

Q.01Are our old windows worth repairing, or should they be replaced?

More often than people expect. If there is sound timber under the failed paint, splicing in new sections and repainting costs less than replacement and keeps the detail that suits the house. We will say straight out if a window is past saving.

Q.02How long will exterior paint last on timber?

On well-prepared timber, a good few years before it needs looking at, and longer on elevations that get less weather, which is why the whole outside rarely comes round at once.

Q.03Can you match the existing render colour?

We can get very close, but a fresh patch beside a wall that has weathered for years will still read as a patch. Where that would show, we would rather coat the whole elevation and tell you why at the quote stage.

Q.04Do you decorate inside as well?

Yes. Interior decorating covers walls, ceilings, woodwork, doors and skirting, along with the filling, sanding and making good that has to come first. Ring the office at 27 High Street, Godstone on 01883 337 700 and we will come and look.