How long should it take to put a coat of paint on house interior?

We have painters completely repainting the interior of our IP. I am paying for prep, fill, sand plus 1 coat undercoat and 2 coats of paint.
I'm supplying all paint.
House is an average 3 bedder with lounge, dining, bathroom, kitchen laundry and study.
No room is bigger than 18m2.
I'd like to know how long it should take 2 painted to get the undercoat on all the walls. They've told me they will have undercoat and two coats of paint done in the one day today. They are rolling not spraying (ceilings already done). I would have thought they'd struggle to get the first coat of paint finished in a day let alone 2-3 hours.
My plan is to drop each house lot coat of paint at a time to them as needed so that this guy doesn't just throw one coat on and tell me he's done 3.

I no longer trust him as for the ceilings he has used twice as much paint as was needed, and 25L of undercoat 4 in 1 just on ceilings and on window frames and skirtings. I have a bad feeling he's stealing new cans of paint as I saw the ceiling paint cans in the backyard but not my big 15L undercoat that he said went on the ceilings.
He's now asked for another 10L of under coat last night as he's got none left for any of the walls.
He also asked me not to tint anything of the undercoat after originally telling to tiny it prior to starting the job

 

Hi Otie- just a few thoughts:

• given recommended re-coat times can't see how they can be that quick..
• coverage m2 on the paint cans are usually OK unless surface is v porous which would usually only effect coverage of sealant/ first coat
• I'd tint everything prior to giving to them so makes difficult to use on another job
• are these guys under contract? seems like lots of red lights here

good luck, Wal

 

Generally, pro painters account for 1 day per room in total... ie 3br, kitchen, dining, lounge, bath/laundry/hall would be a 7 day job

3 coats in 1 day in winter isnt goinig to work too well

 

Well I've been there today suddenly my undercoat that he ran out of on the first day has reappeared and is nearly empty as about 5 guys (only two were doing the job until now) have just undercoated all the interior walls in record time this morning after he realised I was on to him!
He suddenly needs til Monday now as he will only get the first coat of colour on today and the second tomorrow!
I've kept half the paint so he can't pretend he's done two coats and just spray one thick one.
I'm relieved that now he's doing what he was contracted to do.
I also dropped that I will be in and out all day doing stuff around the yard.

 

brings back a few memories for me with dodgy painters- v smart to keep eye on them- good luck, Wal

 

Thanks. I think we have him under control now lol

 

Wow. Micro managed to nth degree. Bet tradies are lining up to work at your place.

 

Well if they can't do their job honestly and as per contract, I have two options, not get what Im paying for and get played in his scam or deal with it. I have chosen to deal with it. I would not have to be doing this had he not tried to rip me off and not stick to his contractural obligations.
Dont quote on 3 coats if your only planning to do one.

 

Always be there.
Doesn't have to be fun but it does have to be honest and done as per agreed when payment negotiated.

 

My dad is a painter. He would have run a mile from people who try and screw the price down by providing their own paint and micro manage. You get what you pay for.

Quality painters have enough legitimate clients to not bother with people who want to behave in such a manner.

Im waiting for the 'ive gone to fair trading about my paint job' thread.

 

I'm not used to having to keep an eye on trades. When I've had stuff done at home (electrical/backyard stuff etc) it's always been things that

Are you serious? So I can't supply my own paint? I only supplied my own paint as I did not want the watered down trade stuff. I wanted quality paint as it is going in a rental, and I want it to wear well. In my industry we offer supply of all materials, however if a client wants to supply a vanity or tiles etc of their own, I never have an issue with it. The only reason a painter would have an issue with the client supplying paint would be if they had a mark up on the paint, which I have no problem with but I cannot see any other reason.
I have not once tried to screw the price down, in fact I only got the one quote (usually I get 2-3 quotes to compare), however in this instance I thought the price quoted was fair so I accepted the quote. I have not asked for any discount or negotiation on pricing. As said before, I would not have to micro manage had the painter behaved in a professional manner after starting the job.
I do agree, anyone good at their trade is booked for weeks-months ahead, however I have no choice but to employ a painter who is available and ready to go, as when you buy at auction, you can't pre book trades as you do not know if you will win the auction until after the fact!. We have a license agreement so have had the opportunity to get the renovation completed during the settlement period, and I did not want to waste 2 months mortgage repayments in order to wait for a painter whom is booked out so far in advance as any quality benefit would have been cancelled out by the cost of the non deductible mortgage repayments.

 

I also already had all the paint prior to employing the painter as the original plan was to paint ourselves however decided it would be more productive and a better finish if we hired a pro.

 

The assumption that painters provide watered down paint just further goes to the point that you are micromanagimg and untrusting from the start.
I wouldnt want to take on someone like that as a client.

 

Ok so I had two painters paint my rentals and both of them screwed me over after I trusted them, this was the first of many experiences I had with tradesman in Australia. The good tradesmen are so expensive it's not worth hiring them and you will wait for a slot to get them. They only work in millionaires homes because they are so good. The rest are basically all the same do the quickest nastiest job possible and take the money and run.

A really good painter is rare as hens teeth and it would take a month to paint a house properly and that's them basically living in it and working till late. I have painted 2 houses myself and 1 house was painted by a professional as a favour to me. A good painter will paint with a little table lamp and keep shining it against the wall and they will generally only paint in daylight. Painting properly is slow hard work. In generally the best thing to do for a rental is pick a flat white Taubmans paint , the expensive one when its on special because it will be easy to paint with, buy the most expensive roller, covers and edging brushes money can buy. All these things make painting easier. If you have a team of 5 guys painting a house it's going to be rolled on super quick and they generally make it look okay, but when the master painter does something it's jaw dropping good.

Unfortunately pay peanuts and you get monkeys, if you don't want monkeys do it yourself and do it better than the monkeys.

 

Interesting you say this, we were only saying to eachother tonight how everything has run smoothly during the reno until we had to start relying on outside trades. If you want anything done properly and to a good standard best to do it yourself, unless like me I'm not capable of some things so I hired trades that were capable but definitely did not care about the quality of the finish. Disappointing that it's rare to find people that take pride in their work. We have used a plasterer to do all out stopping work, a Chippy to install all the new doors and lever handles, painter, another Chippy to install the skirts and arcs (could have done the Chippy work ourselves though paying for it meant it was done in a day rather than us having 2 of us take three-four days off work - more economical to work than fiddle with things we aren't experienced with), electrician, and a plumber.
We have used the plumber for years so we're happy with him, but aside from the electrician (as he can't really go wrong) and the Chippy who did the doors/handles, I noticed that nobody really took pride in their work or tried to do a good job, it seemed the fastest nastiest job was all they were prepared to do. And I didn't hire the cheapest, I hired somewhere in the middle and selected them as they seemed the most professional.

 

Do you notice how tools made in Germany are generally better?
Well houses made in Germany are also made better. Even Tradesmen made in Germany are the best. You hire them and you come back and everything is done perfectly and he is polishing up the mess he made and fixing something else for free just because he is bothered that something is not quite right.

The problem is made in Australia has no national pride of doing it properly and doing it right. Look at anything from politics to the NBN to the roads. It's all done with a culture of minimalism, frugalness and with passing regard to quality. The end result is that everything is more expensive.

 

Having said that most of the monkeys here don't like getting paid in peanuts, they like getting paid in gold coin but still do monkey jobs.

I can't wait for the day when finally things get so bad here that we let in all the Asian tradies to flood the market and tradies begin getting paid low salaries and have to compete on quality.

 

One heck of an assumption there!! I cant help but wonder why supplying own paint is such an issue...unless we assume your Dad was ripping clients off on the paint!!

See...easy to jump to a negative conclusion based on a simple post. Im wagering both your Dad and Otie are fine individuals.

It is interesting to note that 'trade quality' paint is generally cheaper and has shorter warranty than 'premium', or at leat they are at Bunnings, Masters and Paint Spot.

 

Totally agree.All my tradies love coming to my house,morning tea,lunch,afternoon tea, coffees, beer arfterwards.Treat them like family, you may be surprised the extra yards they go.And it doesnt have to be expensive either,just fair!!!

 

What a load of crap. I just had a german fellow who was recommended and lauded by the client come and install a fabric on drawer fronts in a multi million dollar house we are building and I have had to call him back to replace everyone of them as they are fraying just days after he installed it. This is the same guy that was ******* in his own pocket when he came to look at the job and now he will use all of the expensive spare fabric that the client supplied to fix his poor work. If you think that is the best then you can keep it.

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