Problem with painter: Quote Vs Final Bill

Scruff

We got a painter in to give a quote on how much it would cost to do our kitchen\dinning room and sitting room. The walls in both were papered, so they would need to be stripped. The kitchen he said would need to be lined but he wasn’t sure about the sitting room (after stripping) but said he would do it if it need it. The ceiling in the kitchen\dinning room was to be done but we were unsure if we needed the sitting room's done. He gave a quote of €1000.

We accepted the quote and he started last Thursday.

Today as i was going out the door to work he says “I’ll be finished here tomorrow, just putting and under coat on it today and will be painting it tomorrow”
Great says i.
“the final bill will be 1200, the extra 200 is for the lining on the sitting room and the painting of the ceiling in sitting room and for painting the doors”
I said to him that I thought that the lining and painting of the ceiling was included in the quote of 1000.
"No" says he, "we said we’d have a look at it and see if it need to be done."

he caught me on the hop because and i didn’t argue too much, but i've had time to think about it now and amn't very happy.
1) we were of the understanding that €1000 covered the lining of the sitting room as well and the ceiling if needs be.
2) about 3 days into it he did as the gf "What about the Doors, will i do them", she said ok. He never gave any indication that it would cost more.
3) He painted the ceiling of the sitting room without our go ahead.
4) When he gave the quote he never gave any indication of any extras or how much they would cost.

I've no problem with the quality of the work so far, anything we weren’t happy with we pointed out and he addressed but its the fact that i wasn’t expecting to have to fork out another €200 for the job.

One horrendous mistake on our part that i'm ashamed to admit is that we only have a written quote for the kitchen\dining room (needed it for an insurance claim, water damage. decided to do sitting room out of our own pocket at the same time) and don’t have one for the sitting room though he did write something in his note book about it.

So my question is, do we have a leg to stand on if we decide to tackle him on the extra €200 on the final bill or is it a case of learn from your mistakes and get a written quote for everything before work commences?

Scruff

*bump*
tomorrow morning is the last chance to talk to this guy about this so any comments\advice appreciated

homeOwner

For my two cents, I would say that he gave you a quote based on the work he knew he definitely had to do. You both agreed to wait and see if the other work was needed and I suppose it is understandable that he would have added some money on to the bill for this but I think you could argue it both ways.

As for the doors, well, he asked and you said yes. No one does anything for free. Why would you think he would throw this in as a freebie? 200 seems excessive though.

You know this already but the hard lesson here is get it all in writing first, and agree on the job from the outset.

daveyjoe

Try asking him to meet you half way on the extras and ask for €1100 and mention the 4 points that you reffered to in your post as the reason. I don't think it sounds like he's ripping you off, so I'm not sure where you stand if he refuses to back down.

Scruff

well, the issue of payment has been resovled but since the pain has had time to dry there have been some issues with the quality of the work done in the sitting room.
Before painting it he needed to cross line the walls. There are now some very obvious bulges in a number of places where 2 seperate lining sheets meet and the paint has cracked along the length of the bulge.
He did "attempt" to fix it friday but he only put filler over it and painted over it again but that didnt work since the problem seems to be that the lining is coming away from the wall.
Is there anything we can get him to do about it shirt of having to get the offending areas relined? (and having to pay again fo rit?)

GreeBo

Yeah looks like the paper is coming away.
If he can lift it easily enough you should be able to paint paste over/under it and then roll it on with a joint roller.
Though the fact that is it painted wont help matters at all...
No reason for you to have to pay any more, its part of the original job imo.

mad m

I have a problem as to why he crossed lined the lining paper,you only do this when you are going to paper over it with a decorative paper.The reason you cross line it horizontally is that when you are hanging the decorative paper is that the seams dont match up....

If painting lining paper you hang it vertically,I in past have never butted the seams,I left a milimetre or so and filled the rest to avoid the seams bulging.

But to the main problem get border adhesive and peal back the seams and stick it back and wipe with a sponge.If the finish on walls was matt its only a matter of a touch up,but if its soft sheen/vinyl silk you will have to do the whole section of wall were problem is.

As regards to charging the extra, everything should of been sorted before work actually started by both parties.Live and learn as they say.

One thing I will say though and I'm not being bias,before you start any stripping of any rooms its hard to guage how the stripping goes and to what condition the walls will be in after stripping...

Scruff

well he's called round and is patching those bits alright. He's had to peel em back and paste em again. In fairness he did say today that if there was ever any problem with work he's done not to hesitate to call him as he stands over all his work and will always come out and fix it. wish he had said that in the first place as its a bit of a weight off the shoulders.

mad m, the reason he cross-lined it is because stripping the original wall paper left these walls in a pretty poor condition. he sanded it down alright and filled and leveled any holes but if he'd just painted directly over them the finish would have been ****e. Basically cross lining is a cheaper alternative to getting the wall plastered and skimmed, which he said he'd charge an extra €1500 for if we wanted it done. We didnt have the cash to fork out for that, so we went for the cheaper option. The kitchen got the same treatment and it turned out fine, the only problem is it sitting room.

Had another decorator look at it before and he said he'd do the same thing: strip, cross line and paint. Seems to be the done thing on these modern (****e) plaster board walls.

One thing i will say is that if i ever build\buy a brand new house it'll be wall paper free. Paint and tiles all the way. Just not worth the hassle or expense if ye want to change em.

GreeBo

Scruff wrote:

mad m, the reason he cross-lined it is because stripping the original wall paper left these walls in a pretty poor condition. he sanded it down alright and filled and leveled any holes but if he'd just painted directly over them the finish would have been ****e. Basically cross lining is a cheaper alternative to getting the wall plastered and skimmed

I think mad_m's point is that you only cross line if you are going to paper over it.
If you are just going to paint you (usually) hang the lining paper normally...

mad m

GreeBo wrote:

I think mad_m's point is that you only cross line if you are going to paper over it.
If you are just going to paint you (usually) hang the lining paper normally...

Yup, thanks Greebo for getting what I was saying.I thought it was clear.But no matter,the painter seems to be not a slob it,dob it,cash and leggit and stands over his work.Fairplay to the painter.And Scruff nice to see you got the problem sorted and some satisfaction.And I think now that what you got done for the price was well worth it,to be honest.