Going rate for a French Painter & Decorator

[mint]

Yeah, I'm one of those:  not only an honours but a first class honours and I painted every bit of our present house and, no doubt, will be painting the next one.

Damn hard work but very satisfying when you see the results............

[Swissie]

haven't started on this old beast - but painted UK house many times over, indoor and out!

Language skills are often not understood by non-linguists - who have no idea what hard work it is to learn another language. They believe it just happens by miracle.

[mint]

Or that you can just "pick it up"..............like a discarded crisp bag....NOT[:P]

[nemltd]

Hi folks, thought I would update the forum on this posting.

The painter if you remember was 225.00 euros a day and recommended by the builder I have been using, who lives next door to me, a good bloke.

The forum was split on the question of daily rate and taking all responses on board, I decided to give him the go ahead for 3 rooms.

The work was carried out mostly whilst I was in the UK, returning to France with a days work/labour left to do. Unfortunately the work was substandard. And I don't think the guy was not capable of better work, just that I think he crammed the work into a probably overloaded schedule. Looking back to the hassle I had to even get the devi done in the first place should have rung alarm bells.

The flaking on the ceilings were not scraped back, just filled over, and not textured to match the rest of the ceiling. No filling to cracks and knocks were done at all. The devi said otherwise.

The moral or lesson to be learned? I don't think there is one............Sometimes you can do everything as sensibly as you think possible, and the building trade being what it is, you can still come unstuck.

An odd mentallity to have. More work in the pipeline and possible recommendations? Or no more work from me at least, and no recommendations either. He has also let down a fellow tradesman who put his neck on the line and recommended him.

C'est la vie!

[La Guerriere]

It's always difficult to assess painting. Some people are quite happy with just a good coverage of the required colour. Some expect a beautiful mirror-like finish with nary a blemish in sight: these are the people who reject brand-new cars because the finish is not up to their concept of perfection.

[suein56]

[quote user="La Guerriere"]It's always difficult to assess painting. [/quote]

Difficult it might be but if you are paying an artisan according to the details agreed and signed by both parties in a written devis then such detail as :

[quote user="nemltd"]The flaking on the ceilings were not scraped back, just filled over,

and not textured to match the rest of the ceiling. No filling to cracks

and knocks were done at all. The devi said otherwise.[/quote]

makes an enormous difference and means that the job was not done properly.

Sue

[Chancer]

What really frustrates me about stories like this is the fact that practically all of us are quite capable of doing this trade and often much much better than the soi disant professionals, not as fast perhaps but nemltd is left with the results of that haste.

My grandfather was an apprentice carpenter between the wars, he had to learn his very skilled trade over many years, the initial ones unpaid and I believe that his parents actually paid the master carpenter. He always used to get wound up by his brother in law who was a painter and decorator whose training was trained one day and a pro the next [:D]

€225 per day, does a cr*p job and is so booked up that he cannot even find time to do a devi, says it all really!

 

[Boscoe]

Just a quick question on the insurance side of things... If a friend is doing you a favour (for no money) and has an accident then would there be trouble? Or am I to believe that the only person that can work on my house without papers is me?

BTW - I was quoted 3000 euros to paint my holiday home in the SW by a French artisan, he also insisted that this price was for cash (no receipt) the job took me four days and wasn't difficult, the whole house is white (ceilings and walls so no cutting in even).

[Swissie]

Here we are obliged to have 'responsabilité civile' insurance - so that anybody who gets injured in and around our property is insured, but we are just over Swiss border.

BTW, found myself 2 young chaps to paint our fences - aged 15. What would the going rate be? They are French so will pay in E. Thanks