Tier 1 coverage, Merseyside
Painter and decorator in Birkenhead
Victorian terraces with decades of oil paint on the woodwork, and a commercial centre where the work happens around people trading.
- Preparation priced separately
- Floors and furniture covered
- We say when paint is not the fix
Eighty years of paint, and why preparation is most of the price
The older Birkenhead streets have woodwork that has been painted and repainted since before anybody living there was born. Skirtings, architraves, sash boxes and panel doors carry layer on layer of oil paint, and every one of those layers has its own crackle, run and brush mark frozen into it.
That changes what a quote is for. On a wall, painting is painting. On woodwork of that age the painting is the short part and the sanding, filling, caulking and priming is the long one. A price that does not say how much preparation is included is not comparable with one that does, and that is the single most common reason two decorators' numbers look nothing like each other on the same house.
Lead paint, and the bit nobody mentions
Paint applied before 1992 can contain lead, and on a house that has never been stripped the bottom layers may well be that old. Lead paint that is sound and painted over is not doing anything. Dry sanded, it becomes dust in the room you are standing in.
So on pre war woodwork the method is wet sanding or chemical softening rather than an orbital sander and a dust mask, and anything heavily degraded is a case for testing before it is disturbed. It is slower. It is also the difference between a careful job and one that leaves something behind in the carpet.
Damp, and painting over a problem
A lot of the older housing here has had damp at some point, and the giveaway on a decorator's visit is a patch that keeps coming back through emulsion, or paper lifting at the bottom of a chimney breast. Paint does not fix that. Stain block hides a mark for a season and then the mark comes back, usually bigger.
Where the wall is actually wet, or where salts are coming through, the honest answer is that it is a damp job and then a plastering job before it is a painting one, and we will say so rather than take the money for a coat that is going to fail.
The commercial side
Birkenhead has a working centre: shop units, offices above them, communal stairwells and entrances. Those jobs are quoted on access and disruption rather than on area. Out of hours, low odour or water based products so the space can be used the next morning, and how much has to be protected rather than painted.
Communal areas in particular are mostly preparation and protection. The painting is the easy part; keeping a stairwell usable while it happens is the job.
What Birkenhead asks for most
Interior painting in Birkenhead
Hallways and rooms in terraces that have been papered for decades.
Read moreWoodwork and staircases in Birkenhead
Skirtings, doors and sash boxes under eighty years of oil paint.
Read moreCommercial painting in Birkenhead
Shop units, offices above them and communal stairwells.
Read moreWallpapering in Birkenhead
Chimney breasts and feature walls in bay fronted rooms.
Read moreAlso in Birkenhead: exterior painting in Birkenhead, masonry and render painting in Birkenhead, spray painting in Birkenhead, kitchen respray in Birkenhead, upvc spraying in Birkenhead, fence and garden painting in Birkenhead, painting prices in Birkenhead.
Questions from Birkenhead
My damp patch keeps coming back through the paint. Can you seal it?
Not honestly. Stain block will hide a mark for a while, and if the wall is still wet or there are salts in the plaster it comes back, usually worse, because you have now trapped it. A patch that returns is a damp question and then a plastering one, and painting is the last step rather than the fix.
Is the old paint on my woodwork dangerous to sand?
Paint from before 1992 can contain lead, and on a pre war house the bottom layers may be that old. Sound and painted over it is not doing anything. Dry sanded it becomes airborne dust, which is why we wet sand or soften rather than running an orbital sander over it.
Why is painting old woodwork so much dearer than painting the walls?
Because almost none of it is painting. Decades of layers have to be sanded back where they have failed, filled where they have chipped, caulked where they have opened up and primed before a finish coat goes anywhere near them. The walls in the same room are a fraction of the time.
Other areas covered
Twelve towns across the peninsula. What decides a decorating job here is what the last coat was, how old it is and which way the wall faces, and that is genuinely different in Meols from how it is in Bebington.
Get a price for a job in Birkenhead
A photo of the worst wall is more useful than a description of all of them, and it is usually enough for a first answer.
Get in touch
Tell us which rooms, or which elevations, and roughly what state they are in. A photograph on the form answers most of the preparation questions before anybody rings you back.
- Phone0151 453 8836
- Emailcontact@wirralpainting.com
- WhatsAppSend us a photo of the job
- Based inWirral, Merseyside
- HoursMon to Fri 8 to 6, Sat 8 to 2, closed Sunday