Before Your Painter & Decorator Arrives

Why a bit of prep saves a lot of money

Painters are charged by time, and the time split in a typical room redecoration is roughly 60% prep and 40% paint. Cut the prep time in half and you cut most of a day off a two-room job. There's a reason the saying 'a good decorator spends 90% of the job prepping' exists.

The good news is almost all of the prep is things you can do yourself the weekend before. Do it properly and you are paying a skilled decorator to paint, not to fill cracks and cover your furniture.

The 24-hour checklist

Run through these the day before the painter & decorator is due. None of them require any skill beyond what a normal householder already has — but they collectively shave real money off the final invoice.

• Move all furniture to the centre or out of the room. Not just pulled away from the wall — ideally to the middle of the room with a 1.5m gap around every wall. Or out entirely. If decorators have to move anything themselves, it's billable.
• Take down everything on walls. Pictures, clocks, mirrors, shelves, curtain rails if rooms are going to be fully decorated. Put the fixings in labelled bags taped to the back of each picture. Fill the holes yourself if you want them to disappear — save £10/hole.
• Clean skirting and architraves. Remove dust, spider webs and especially nicotine staining. Nicotine shows through fresh white paint within a week unless sealed, and dust on skirting makes gloss finish bobbly. An hour with a damp cloth the weekend before.
• Fill small holes and sand lightly yourself if you can. Polyfilla or a tube of decorators' caulk for cracks under 3mm; a sanding sponge to smooth the patches. Decorators spend the first morning of every job doing this — do it yourself for £20 of materials and save 3 hours labour.
• Wash the walls in the kitchen and bathroom. Grease in the kitchen, mould spots in the bathroom. Fresh emulsion over grease peels; fresh emulsion over unreferenced mould blooms through.
• Agree the paint finish and colour codes in writing. 'Matt' emulsion varies — Dulux Matt is different to Farrow & Ball Estate. Specify brand, colour code (e.g. F&B Downpipe No. 26, Dulux Jasmine White) and finish (matt / eggshell / silk / satin) in writing.
• Order enough paint (with 15% spare). Run out and you wait a day. Order 15% extra for touch-ups. 1 litre covers roughly 10m² per coat — a 12x12ft room at 2 coats is usually 5-7 litres including ceiling.
• Plan the dust-sheet route. Decorators work room by room but walk in and out. Canvas sheets in the hall, plastic sheets on the drive if they're setting up a cut-in station outside.
• Decide whether you're staying in the house. For 2-3 days of gloss-heavy work (doors, skirting), low-odour water-based alternatives exist but older decorators may bring oil-based. If anyone has asthma, specify low-VOC / water-based on the quote.

Tools worth having ready

These are the things the painter & decorator will either ask for, borrow, or charge you labour to go fetch. Keeping a small dedicated set in a cupboard means you never lose the 20 minutes that turn into the next half-hour block on the invoice. All prices move, so we link to live Amazon UK searches rather than fixed ASINs.

Questions to ask when they arrive

Asked politely on the doorstep, these five or six questions filter out 90% of the problems that turn into complaints later. A professional will welcome them; a cowboy will get irritated.

• What preparation is included in the quote? Filling? Sanding? Washing? Priming? Each of these is a line item. A £400 quote without prep included turns into a £650 invoice when filler and sanding get added on.
• How many coats are included? Two coats on walls is minimum for colour change. One coat is only OK for a same-colour refresh. New plaster gets 1 mist coat (thinned) + 2 topcoats. Specify on the quote.
• Are you using water-based or oil-based gloss? Water-based has lower VOCs (better for asthma, pregnant residents, pets) but is slightly less hard-wearing on doors and skirting. Oil-based yellows over time. Most 2026 decorators default to water — confirm.
• Will you caulk before or after the paint? Caulk (flexible filler) in all the corners and along skirting BEFORE the topcoat paint goes on. After-the-fact caulking means a visible line.
• Do you clean up, or is it left for me? Painter-tier clean-up varies. Some decorators put everything back exactly as it was; others leave the furniture in the middle for you to move. Agree upfront.
• How long do I need to leave it before moving back in? Matt emulsion 2-4 hours before touch-dry, 24 hours before heavy use. Eggshell and gloss 16-24 hours touch-dry, 72 hours cure. Don't stick pictures to fresh paint for a week minimum.

Red flags during the visit

If you see any of these on the day, slow things down. You are not obliged to let anyone continue work you are uncomfortable with — even if they've already been there an hour.

• No prep time in the quote. 'One day to do the living room' on a room with nicotine walls is either a bad quote or a bad decorator. The prep always takes half the time.
• Using 'contract white' emulsion instead of what was specified. Contract-white is the cheapest trade-base paint — fine for new-build first-fit, poor coverage elsewhere. A decorator swapping to this without telling you is pocketing £30-£40 a tin of margin and giving you a worse finish.
• Cutting in done with a small brush by an assistant on day one. Cutting in (the edges) is the skilled part. If the trainee is doing it while the lead rollers the middle, you get visible wavy lines at the top.
• No dust sheets, or only one thin plastic sheet in a whole room. A professional is never short of dust sheets. One thin plastic sheet over your sofa is a sign of corner-cutting and means paint drops on your floor.

What to do after the visit

The paperwork and follow-up is where homeowners most often lose money — warranties unregistered, certificates not received, insurance claims unfiled. Run through this list before you pay the final invoice.

• Walk around every wall within the first 24 hours looking for missed spots, roller ridges and drips. Flag them while the decorator is likely still local.
• Keep a litre of each paint colour labelled with the room it was used in — for touch-ups in 6-12 months.
• Don't hang anything heavy on fresh paint for at least 7 days.
• Keep the receipt — if Crown or Dulux paint fails (it happens with bad batches), you need proof of purchase for a replacement tin.
• For any stain-blocker areas (Zinsser Bin), write down which walls were sealed in case the staining reappears.

Find a painter & decorator in Kent

• Painters & decorators in Kent — county-level directory
• Painters & decorators in Maidstone
• Painters & decorators in Canterbury
• Painters & decorators in Dartford
• Painters & decorators in Tunbridge Wells
• Painters & decorators in Ashford

Related guides

• How to Choose a Painter & Decorator — the sister guide to this one, covering qualifications, quoting and insurance.
• Trade Shop — curated tools and homeowner kit, by category.
• All Guides — every NearbyTraders homeowner guide, in one place.