Primrose Hill Painters & Decorators
What a decorating quotation should define
A quotation becomes useful when it is clear what the price includes. Describe the work at surface level, then resolve the uncertain items.
Discuss your projectList surfaces rather than room names alone
A bedroom may include walls and ceiling only, or also doors, windows, shutters and fitted furniture. List those elements separately. Give approximate dimensions where known, the present condition and any existing covering to remove. Include the ceiling height and access route if they affect the work.
Ask how preparation is described
Distinguish cleaning, local filling, stripping, lining and repair work in the specification. Identify anything that cannot be assessed until an old finish is removed. Agree how further investigation and additional work will be discussed, rather than treating an unspecified preparation allowance as an unlimited repair scope.
Record the materials and practical costs
Confirm product references, who supplies them, and how samples will be approved. Include protection, access equipment and material handling where needed. For a shared building, supply its requirements early enough for them to be considered in the proposed arrangements.
Agree changes and terms in writing
Review exclusions, provisional items, payment arrangements and the proposed programme before accepting the work. Keep later changes with the original scope. An enquiry does not reserve a date; the work and availability need to be discussed and agreed for the property.
What the written quotation is supposed to pin down
A decorating quotation is a description of work at the level of surfaces, not a slogan for a whole house. It should be possible to read it and see which rooms or elevations are included, which faces of a door are included, and which features are excluded. Preparation should be itemised enough to show cleaning, local filling, lining, stripping or repair, and to show anything that cannot be known until an old finish is removed. Products should be identifiable, or the quotation should say that a product is still to be chosen and who will approve it. Protection of floors, stairs, furniture and neighbouring surfaces belongs in the same document when it affects how the work is done. Access equipment, a permit or a suspension, and any restriction from a freeholder should appear if the price depends on them. Exclusions matter as much as inclusions. If glazing repairs, ironmongery, damp investigation or plastering beyond local making-good are outside the decorating scope, the quotation should say so. Payment arrangements and the proposed sequence belong there too, once they have been discussed. The figure, when one is offered, refers to the agreed scope for that property.
What to send so the scope can be checked
Send the address, your contact details, the rooms or external surfaces, and the timing you have in mind. Add who will be in occupation and which spaces must stay available. Photographs are most useful when they show both the whole room or elevation and the detail that worries you: a stained ceiling, a cracked stucco panel, a failed putty line, a wallpaper seam, a tight stair. If you know dimensions or ceiling heights, include them as approximations and say that they are approximate. Name any existing product or colour code. If the building is listed, or you already know it sits in a particular conservation area, attach that information rather than leaving the reader to guess from the street. For a flat, add the floor, the lift or stair, and any written instruction from the managing agent about hours, protection or deliveries. For an exterior, separate brick, stucco, joinery and metalwork in the pictures, and say whether the proposal is to refresh an existing coating or to cover a surface that is currently bare. Email and WhatsApp can carry the photographs. The website form carries the written message. None of that material is a booking.
When the building reveals more than the first note
Older finishes sometimes hide a condition that a photograph cannot settle. The quotation should say what happens then. A sensible arrangement is to pause the affected area, record what has been found, and agree any extra preparation or any repair by someone else before that area continues. An allowance for preparation is not an open-ended repair budget, and a repair that belongs to another trade should not be absorbed into decorating for the sake of speed. The same habit applies to colour. If a sample is rejected, or a listed-building conversation changes the permitted finish, the written scope should be updated before the new product is applied. Keep provisional items visible. If access is still unconfirmed, or a product is still awaiting a decision, those lines should stay marked until they are resolved. Changes after acceptance are easier to follow when they sit with the original room list rather than in a chain of messages alone. At the end, the same document is what you use to look at the finished work, note anything outstanding, and file the product references for a later touch-in.
Your Primrose Hill project
A room, a façade,
a new direction.
Tell us what you have in mind, where the property is and which surfaces need attention.
Let’s discuss the work
Include the address, current condition and any access arrangements.