Woodwork
Woodwork and staircases on the Wirral
Skirtings, architraves, doors, sashes and balustrades. On anything older than about the war, the sanding is the job and the painting is the easy day.
- Preparation priced separately
- Floors and furniture covered
- We say when paint is not the fix
Woodwork and staircases
Why woodwork costs what it costs
Wall painting is priced by area. Woodwork is priced by condition, and on a Wirral house of any age the condition is layers. Skirtings, architraves and panel doors that have been painted every decade since the house was built carry every run, every brush mark and every crackle from all of them, frozen under the current colour.
Bringing that back means sanding until the surface is flat rather than until it is dull, filling the chips, caulking the gaps that have opened between the timber and the wall, and priming anything bare. On a Victorian panel door with mouldings that is most of a day. The finish coat after it is an hour. Any quote that does not separate those two is not telling you what you are buying.
Staircases are the same problem with access on top. Spindles are all edge and no face, a balustrade cannot be masked quickly, and the stairs have to stay usable while it happens. They are quoted as their own piece of work rather than folded into the hall. Often asked about alongside spray painting, kitchen respray and upvc spraying.
Get a price for the woodwork
The single biggest variable. A modern door is an hour. A Victorian panel door with eight coats on the mouldings is most of a day.
Wet sanded or softened rather than dry sanded. Slower, and the right way round on a house where the bottom layers are old.
Water based stays white and is usable sooner. Oil flows better and smells for days. Which you want is a decision, not a default.
Done across Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebington, and everywhere else on the peninsula.
Woodwork and staircases on the Wirral
What this job looks like
The slots below are placeholders. The pictures elsewhere on this site are example images of the kind of work described, each one labelled as such, and they are not photographs of our own jobs. Nothing here is borrowed from anybody else's. Our own photographs go in as jobs are finished and customers are happy for us to use them.
Why people use us
Sanding is not optional
Every hour cut from the preparation is visible in the finished surface, and it is the only part you cannot add later.
- Sanded flat rather than merely keyed
- Chips filled and gaps caulked before priming
- Bare timber primed, knots treated
- Sashes worked while the paint is open so they are not sealed shut
Frequently asked questions
Woodwork and staircases: the questions people ask
The ones that come up most. If yours is not here, ring and ask.
Why does my old woodwork cost more than the walls in the same room?
Because almost none of it is painting. Decades of layers have to be sanded flat, chips filled, gaps caulked and bare areas primed before a finish coat goes anywhere near. The walls are a fraction of the time.
Should I use water based or oil based paint on woodwork?
Water based for most interiors now: it stays white instead of yellowing, it is low odour and the room is usable the same day. Oil flows out better and is harder wearing on a well used handrail or a front door, at the cost of a longer dry and a smell for a few days. We will say which we are proposing and why.
Is the old paint safe to sand?
Paint from before 1992 can contain lead, so on a pre war house we wet sand or soften rather than running a dry orbital sander over it. Sound and painted over, lead paint is not doing anything. Turned into dust in your living room, it is a different matter.
Can you paint my staircase while we still use the stairs?
Yes, and it is normally done in halves so there is always a way up. It takes longer than doing it in one go and that is reflected in the price, which is better than not being able to get to bed.
Done across Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebington, and everywhere else on the peninsula.
Send a photo of the worst door
How much paint is on the mouldings tells us more about the price than the number of doors does.
About Wirral Painting
How the work is actually organised
Wirral Painting takes the job as main contractor and puts the labour on it. One person quotes it, one person is answerable for it, and you are not chasing three numbers to find out who is turning up on Tuesday.
It is worth saying plainly rather than implying a van and a family name. What you get is a written scope with the preparation itemised, a date, and somebody whose problem it is if the date moves.
What we will tell you we are not
Damp treatment, plastering and joinery are other trades. All three turn up constantly in decorating enquiries, because a decorator is usually the first person to see the problem.
A damp patch that keeps returning, a wall that needs replastering rather than filling, a rotten cill under a window you want painted: we will tell you that is what you are looking at rather than put a coat over it and take the money.
No photographs of our work, and why the site says so
There are no job photographs on this site. The slots are placeholders and they are labelled as placeholders. Nothing here is a stock picture presented as a job and nothing is borrowed from another company.
Real photographs go in as jobs are finished and customers are happy for us to use them, and not before. The same goes for anything that looks like a customer quote. There is a section built and ready for them, switched off, and it stays that way until there are real ones with permission attached.
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