What to do before decorators arrive
You don't need to do much. But the few small things you can do save real hours and help your job stay on schedule. Here's the honest split of what's your job and what's ours.
The short version
Clear what you can, take down what's yours, tell us about anything odd, and make sure we can get in and get warm. That's it. Everything else is our problem, and it should be. You're paying for a decorator, not a removals firm you also have to help.
The week before
- Finalise your colours. Not "roughly green". The actual name and code. Changing your mind on day two means a trip to the merchant and paint you've paid for that nobody can use.
- Flag anything hidden. A leak you had fixed, a wall that's damp in winter, artex, or anything you suspect might be under the wallpaper. Telling us now costs nothing; discovering it on day one costs a day.
- Sort out parking. If it's permit-only or the street is tight, tell us. Twenty minutes each morning hunting for a space is twenty minutes of your job.
- Book the pets in. More on this below.
- Check the heating works. In winter this genuinely determines whether paint cures. See drying between coats.
The night before
- Take down curtains, blinds, poles and light shades. You know how your fittings come apart. We don't, and we'd rather not learn on your favourite blind.
- Take down pictures, mirrors and TVs. Leave the fixings in the wall unless you want them filled, and if you do, say so.
- Clear surfaces and small items. Ornaments, books, plants, chargers. Anything you'd hate to lose.
- Move what you can out of the room. Everything you remove is time we don't spend shuffling and covering.
- Empty wardrobe tops and shelving. These are where the forgotten things live.
The morning
- Be there for the first fifteen minutes. Walk the rooms with us and confirm the scope out loud. This is the cheapest misunderstanding-prevention there is.
- Show us the loo, the tap and the plug sockets. Genuinely useful, honestly.
- Say where you'd rather we didn't put things. We'll work around it if we know.
- Then go about your day. You don't need to hover.
What we do, so you don't have to
Some customers spend a weekend prepping and then discover they've done our job. To be clear, all of this is included in our price:
| Task | Who does it | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Move furniture to the centre and cover it | Us | Included |
| Sheet the floors edge to edge | Us | Included |
| Wash down walls with sugar soap | Us | Don't pre-wash, see below |
| Fill, caulk, sand, prime | Us | The bit that decides how long it lasts |
| Mask sockets, switches, skirting | Us | Included |
| Tidy up each evening | Us | You get the room back nightly |
| Empty the room entirely | You, ideally | Not always possible, that's fine |
| Curtains, blinds, TVs, valuables | You | Your fittings, your call |
| Choose the colours | You (we'll help free) | Colour consultation included |
What genuinely delays a job
In our experience these are the real ones, roughly in order of how often they bite:
- The room isn't as clear as agreed. The single most common. Half an hour a room, several rooms, and suddenly it's a day.
- Colour still isn't decided. We can't start a room whose colour is "probably the grey one".
- No heating in winter. Paint won't cure below about 10°C. We'd rather wait than hand you a wall that fails in a year.
- Something hidden under the wallpaper. Blown plaster, old lining, artex. Often not knowable in advance, but tell us if you suspect it.
- Parking. Genuinely.
- Access. If nobody's in and we can't get a key, the day is gone.
Because your price with us is fixed, most of these are ours to absorb — they'll never turn into an extra charge on your bill. The one thing none of us can get back, though, is time on the day: an undecided colour or a room that isn't clear can hold up a start. A few minutes of prep from you keeps everything moving.
Pets, children and the practical stuff
We're dog-friendly and we've worked around plenty of them. But wet paint, open tins and dust sheets are a bad combination with a curious animal, and a cat that walks through a tray of emulsion is a bad afternoon for everyone including the cat.
- Keep pets out of the working room. Not out of the house, just out of that room.
- Tell us if a door must stay shut. We'll respect it, but we have to know.
- Kids' bedrooms: plan where they'll sleep. Water-based paint has low odour but a freshly painted room is still a room full of drying paint.
- Working from home? Tell us. We'll sequence rooms around your calls rather than sanding through your Teams meeting.
The walkthrough at the end
Do be there for this one. Walk every room, in daylight, with us. Look along the walls rather than straight at them. That's how you see a missed patch or a nib in the finish.
If something isn't right, say so then. We'd far rather fix it while we're still there with the paint out than have you notice it a fortnight later and feel awkward about calling. We don't take the balance until you've done this and you're happy, and that's not a slogan. It's the whole reason the walkthrough exists.
Ready when you are
Fixed price, materials in, and we bring everything except the coffee.
See My Price Instantly →Frequently asked questions
Do decorators move furniture?
Most decorators will move furniture into the middle of the room and cover it, and that's included in our quotes. What they generally won't do is empty the room for you, take down shelving, or handle valuables and electronics. Emptying a room as far as you reasonably can is the single biggest thing you can do to help the job run to time.
Should I wash walls before decorators arrive?
No. Washing down is part of a professional decorator's preparation and they'll do it properly with sugar soap. If you've already washed and left residue behind, mention it, because leftover detergent can interfere with adhesion.
Do I need to be home while decorators work?
Not usually. Many customers give access and go to work. What matters is being reachable for decisions, and being present at the start to agree what's happening and at the end for the walkthrough. Plenty of our jobs are done for landlords who are never on site at all.
Should I take curtains and blinds down before painting?
Yes, if you can. Curtains, blinds, poles and light shades all sit in the way of walls and ceilings. Taking them down yourself saves time and removes any argument about who damaged what. It's also one of the few jobs where you know exactly how your fittings come apart.
What can make a decorating job take longer than quoted?
The common ones are rooms that aren't cleared as agreed, no working heating in winter, no parking near the property, pets that can't be kept out of wet rooms, and colour decisions that aren't final on day one. None of these are the decorator's doing, and any of them can hold up the start. With us your price is fixed, so they won't add to your bill — they just cost time on the day, which a little prep avoids.