Outrageous quote for painting

[takaerao]

Hi

I have seen a chalet that seems to suit our needs, and went to get a quotation to paint and generally update it.  The house is 115 sq mts.  It is the same as other chalet layouts 2 bedrooms upstairs, a kitchen, bathroom and a sitting/diningroom, plus two bedrooms created in basement.  There is wallpaper in the two bedrooms, which we want removed and all the walls painted.  The bottom half of the outside of the house is to be re-painted.  Then the decking and stairs leading up to the front door along with the the shutters and garage door varnished.  For all of this we got a mighty quotation for €19,000.00.  This seems crazy to us, or is painting extremely expensive in France.  And then to top it off (literally) he wants to put something called Canexel up on or over the existing wood under eaves and on gables of house, this comes to €17,000.   Can anyone make sense of this or explain what Canexel is or why would you use it on or over existing wood?  I would greatly appreciate any advice.  It is in Ariege department.

[Chancer]

Perhaps we should start a thread entitled "what has been your most outrageous Devi?"

Sounds like quite a lot of work if it is "every wall painted" but that is an awfull lot of money - what about ceilings? I'm sure that they could do them at the same time for another 15000 euros! , I would be tempted to ask how many man-hours they have estimated.

[takaerao]

I guess about half a year!!

[mint]

not being funny but do you mean 19 thousand euros or 1 thousand 9 hundred euros?  Your commas confuse me a bit.  i am sure you know what you are talking about so please don't mind me if i am asking a stupid question

[takaerao]

I mean 19 thousand euros and 17 thousand euros!

[mint]

wow!  and i thought i had a crazy quote when i got 19 thousand euros for installing heaters in every room.

there's got to be a better one somewhere.  if you say where your property is, you might get some recommendations

[takaerao]

I have put it to him and suggested that maybe the quote is in French Francs and surprisingly i have not heard back from him. :)  I am now looking for someone to paint a house inside and out in Ax Les Thermes.  Anyone interested?  But i ain't paying their going rate!!!

[Baz]

In any event I am sure you will be getting a few quotes for the work and this will give you a fairer picture. In the case of the quote you have got, they are probably saying thanks for asking but no thanks we do not want the job.

Baz

[pogo]

Ax Les Thermes? I'll be there in 6 hours. How does 1 hour painting, 2 days ski-ing sound.Beautiful place!! I digress. If you look at a post on tiling rates,you will see that (us)artisans have to charge about €30-€35 ph to get a return of €8-€10 ph after social charges.I didn't realise this until I did the course to register as an artisan,but now understand why rates are so expensive.Still sounds a lot,but without seeing it,it is difficult to pass judgement. (I wonder why people want to employ on the black?[;-)]). Good luck finding someone.Pogo

[Teamedup]

If you didn't know, a decimal point in France is a comma and a comma in numbers is a decimal point.

 

ie €19.000,00

 

Using ebay France requires numbers to be done like this. I don't know where else uses this sytem, but they certainly do in France.

[Nearly Retired (I am now)]

takaerao,

I can't comment much about rates France as I do it myself, but can add my twopennyworth if it helps. In England using a proper contractor, for a simple regular house the following rates in Pounds are not too far wrong: Paint interior wall £8 per m2, ceiling £10 per m2, exterior wall £14 per m2. Of course this a general picture as site circumstances can vary a lot - but it's a start.

So a house with 4 external walls 10m x 6m and 8 rooms (4m x 4m) might cost in the order of £800 - £900 for each external wall and say £500 per room. No painting of wood work is included here. 

Taking a guess at say 4 outside walls and 8 rooms you get maybe £3300 outside and £4000 inside. Add £1000 for your deck and doors gives £8300. Say €12,500. (Twelve Thousand Five Hundred Euros).

Now add in the french factor - how much? Guess 1.5 times for the usual higher taxes etc. call it €19,000 then.

 

 

[hastobe]

[quote user="Nearly Retired"]

Now add in the french factor - how much? Guess 1.5 times for the usual higher taxes etc. call it €19,000 then.

[/quote]

Is that to allow for cotisations or for the fact you have to use 3 coats of French paint for every coat of English paint [;-)].    Our local decorator quoted a similar, ridiculous, figure - and also wanted us to do all the preparatory work!!  Sheesh - if we've stripped and cleaned off all the old paint - repainting is the easy bit and we'll do it ourselves thanks - and with decent paint! 

Painting isn't that difficult and it can be quite therapeutic, why don't you just paint it yourself?

Kathie

[Lori]

Yes, we got a similarly ridiculous painting devis.  Our devis didn't even include any prep work as we had already done it.  Guy wanted 16,000 euros for 2 bedrooms, a hallway and a dining room.  We too asked if had quoted in Francs.  A couple of days later, he came back and said he could lower the devis 30% !!!!   Fraid that doesn't work for me.  Give me a fair price to start off with or forget it.  We laughed and said, sorry, we'll do it ourselves and we did.

That is nothing compared to the 40,000 Euro devis for a fence around a 3000 m2 property.  A normal fence, with posts cemented into the ground - not a band of cement all the way around the 3000 m2.  When the macon handed me that one, after again double checking whether it was in francs, I literally laughed in his face.  Needless to say, we didn't hire him.  I still think I should frame that devis and hang it on the wall for laughs.

 

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="Teamedup"]

If you didn't know, a decimal point in France is a comma and a comma in numbers is a decimal point.

 

ie €19.000,00

 

Using ebay France requires numbers to be done like this. I

don't know where else uses this sytem, but they certainly do in France.

[/quote]

You're right, as ever TU; I learned that the hard way when I nearly

lost an item I was bidding for when I kept automatically typing

'thirty-five - dot - zero-zero' rather than the required 'thirty-five -

comma - zero-zero' and it kept throwing it back at me. And all the

while the clock was ticking down to zero !

Strangely enough though, the bank doesn't seem to mind when I write cheques with the commas and dots in the wrong places.

p

[londoneye]

I really couldn't bring myself to pay this for having something painted.   Truly painting (in my view only of course) has got to be one of the most boring things on this earth, but hey, you could just paint away and ponder what you can treat yourself to with the 19 thousand euros you had saved - thought would keep me going for quite some time ...    or better still tell any visitors that they get free food and alcohol for a week as long as they paint at least one room during the course of their visit !

[hastobe]

Second idea seems a good one - just make sure they get their daily ration of rum, pastis, red wine whatever after they finished the painting [;-)]

We thought of offering free holidays in exchange for a piece of furniture, kitchen appliance, picture - whatever - but then thought about the eclectic taste of some of our friends and family - and decided against it.  Though it would have made for a very original home [Www]

Kathie

[takaerao]

Hi Folks

Thanks for all your thoughts and experiences.  To Nearly Retired I just recently got a quote and you were spot on.  And as for the etiquette for writing the amount with ,'s and 's thanks for the advice, never spotted that.  I appreciate all your chat and information and to see that i am not the only one they tried it out on.  The fence really tops the most outrageous devis at the moment, i think you have outdone me!!  I think you are right about inviting my friends and having a paint and wine party it definitely would be cheaper but my god i'd never get rid of them and the job would be ongoing!! 

Thanks again folks.

[Dave&Olive]

[quote user="Nearly Retired"]

takaerao,

I can't comment much about rates France as I do it myself, but can add my twopennyworth if it helps. In England using a proper contractor, for a simple regular house the following rates in Pounds are not too far wrong: Paint interior wall £8 per m2, ceiling £10 per m2, exterior wall £14 per m2. Of course this a general picture as site circumstances can vary a lot - but it's a start.

So a house with 4 external walls 10m x 6m and 8 rooms (4m x 4m) might cost in the order of £800 - £900 for each external wall and say £500 per room. No painting of wood work is included here. 

Taking a guess at say 4 outside walls and 8 rooms you get maybe £3300 outside and £4000 inside. Add £1000 for your deck and doors gives £8300. Say €12,500. (Twelve Thousand Five Hundred Euros).

Now add in the french factor - how much? Guess 1.5 times for the usual higher taxes etc. call it €19,000 then.

 

hi ok

  I too would like to put in an input on this

 I am at this moment painting the outside of the house , the French way , power wash first. then coat with anti mousse and leave for 8 days, brush off all the debris and paint using say something with a min 10 year warrantee.,at a cost of say €100 for 10 ltrs with pliolte in or simmilar, which covers say 80-100 m2 per 10ltrs ... that alone for the paint works out at over €10 m2 ...without scafolding brushes ladders etc etc .....

you get what you pay for ...and ps look at the price of santex paint with pliolite in , in the uk it`s twice the price.

was up here today with my thermals on

[IMG]http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j311/daveolive/PDR_0002-1.jpg[/IMG]

[/quote]

Dave