Varnishing for Doors, Stairs and Skirting

darkstream

When we put our house out for tender we had asked for Oak doors, skirting and stairs to be included. However, our builder has just hit us with a quote for €2000 to varnish all these :eek:. We had assumed that when his price for the house came in that it would have included for these finishes. At no stage did he suggest that these were extras until now and I'm a bit annoyed about it to say the least. I understood that we'd have to do our own painting for the walls and any tiling as well but I've never heard of builders putting in unfinished doors or skirting and the fact that our stairs aren't the run of the mill either, I'd have expected this to be finished. Were we naive or is the builder taking the p1ss?

All recommendations for anger management techniques are welcome also:mad:!

Carpenter

Yep a brush

michael999999

darkstream wrote: »

When we put our house out for tender we had asked for Oak doors, skirting and stairs to be included. However, our builder has just hit us with a quote for €2000 to varnish all these :eek:. We had assumed that when his price for the house came in that it would have included for these finishes. At no stage did he suggest that these were extras until now and I'm a bit annoyed about it to say the least. I understood that we'd have to do our own painting for the walls and any tiling as well but I've never heard of builders putting in unfinished doors or skirting and the fact that our stairs aren't the run of the mill either, I'd have expected this to be finished. Were we naive or is the builder taking the p1ss?

All recommendations for anger management techniques are welcome also:mad:!

Have they been fitted yet?

darkstream

Michael999999, They've the upstairs doors fitted. There's one coat of varnish on them but they haven't been sanded yet. Other work still going on downstairs so they haven't got around to them yet. Skirting and stairs also have one coat of varnish on them but not sanded or fitted yet

michael999999

You should get your painter to get a couple of varnish on the woodwork that has not been fitted yet. Especially the spindles of the stairs, it will save you a lot of time and stop it getting marked while fitting!

Secondly, you say that the woodwork already has a coat of varnish. Usually woodwork comes bare or pre-finished. Did your painter give it a coat or did it come like that?

darkstream

They were laid out on workbenches and varnished by one of the labourers. All got one coat. Stairs are being laid at the minute. Spindles not on yet but have a coat of varnish on them. Builder said he puts one coat on everything but that's it. We are using the painter he recommended for the walls but it was the painter who quoted the €2000 for sanding and varnishing. But as I said earlier, I thought (maybe naively) the builder would have covered this. Even leaving that aside, €2000 seems a bit excessive don't you think. Will more than likely end up doing it myself at that rate.

michael999999

darkstream wrote: »

They were laid out on workbenches and varnished by one of the labourers. All got one coat. Stairs are being laid at the minute. Spindles not on yet but have a coat of varnish on them. Builder said he puts one coat on everything but that's it. We are using the painter he recommended for the walls but it was the painter who quoted the €2000 for sanding and varnishing. But as I said earlier, I thought (maybe naively) the builder would have covered this. Even leaving that aside, €2000 seems a bit excessive don't you think. Will more than likely end up doing it myself at that rate.

If you could stick up a few pics of what your finished stairs is going to look like i can give you an idea of what it should cost.

They really should have given it a coat of sanding sealer first and finish it with 2-3 coats of lacquer, its away more durable on a stairs.

Also i would be asking to see a few stairs the painter had done before. The stairs is usually the focal point of most hallways, you should be sure hes going to make a perfect job of it!

Was it a "builders finish" you were quoted for? If he recommended the painter to you for the walls it would kind of tell me it was, as painting would not be included in a builders finish.

wirehairmax

So you are paying a painter directly and also for tiling? Why would you assume the builder is going to paint the joinery for you for free? if you asked for a builders finish then thats what you got. Finishes like this should be included in the painting package. Did you not ask the painter to price varnishing and lacquering along with the walls? There is a right way and a wrong way to finish oak joinery. It needs to be done professionaly using the correct materials.

michael999999

wirehairmax wrote: »

So you are paying a painter directly and also for tiling? Why would you assume the builder is going to paint the joinery for you for free? if you asked for a builders finish then thats what you got. Finishes like this should be included in the painting package. Did you not ask the painter to price varnishing and lacquering along with the walls? There is a right way and a wrong way to finish oak joinery. It needs to be done professionaly using the correct materials.

Id be worried that a "labourer" was varnishing my oak stairs!

If the stairs is not varnished properly, it will look lika a dogs dinner and you will never get it right.

bruschi

€2000 may not be excessive either, hard to judge without any quantities, but for arguments sake, lets say there are 15 doors, and 200m of skirting.

doors - @ €50 each = €750
skirting @ €2.50 per m = €500
architrave @ €2.00/m = €300
stairs @ €450 = total of €2000

and I wouldnt consider those prices excessive either. stairs could be more than 500 quid depending on the detail. and would agree with the others here too, if the builder was not doing any painting or finishing work, then why would he price for finishing doors/skirtings etc.

darkstream

The doors are engineered oak and any of these I seen in the shop were finished as well as skirting too. When the builder aked us to go and pick out our doors, the ones we viewed were finished. When I asked the sales assistant about the skirting he said they'd match the doors we were looking at. That's why I thought they'd come finished. I suppose you could say that this was our error, and in a way it is, but I think you can be lead down a certain path. And as it is I didn't budget for this.

Michael999999, I have seen the painters previous work on stairs and his work quality is good so that shouldn't be a problem. Haven't been able to get a photo but it's a dog leg shape which hopefully wont turn into a dog's dinner:). Nothing too fancy or intricate.

Bruschi, How many coats of varnish and how many sanding would this price include. And out of interest does a builders finish not come with at least one sanding and one coat of varnish?

bruschi

it would cover one undercoat and 2 finish coats. its only a guide though, just to show that 2k might not be over the top. builders finish wouldnt take for any sort of painting on it.

surprised the sales person didnt advise you on the doors. I got in a pre finished oak door for my house, but it is as it says, finished. just hang and no finish coat needed. if they were showing a finished door but selling a non finished one, then it is a bit misleading.