Painters & Decorators in Kensington

A stucco front in W8 should hold a good coating system for the best part of a decade. Plenty of them start breaking up inside three years, and when they do it is almost never the paint that was at fault. It is what the paint was asked to stick to.

What actually goes wrong

Three things, in roughly this order. Render cracks that were filled on the surface but never raked out, so the crack simply reappears through the new coat within a season. Timber that was painted while it was still holding water — usually the bottom rail of a sash, where rain sits — which then pushes the coating off from underneath as it dries and swells. And soiling: London air leaves a film on a facade, and a new coat laid over an unwashed surface is bonded to the dirt rather than the building.

None of these are exotic. They are just invisible once the scaffold is down, which is exactly why they get skipped.

Putting an elevation right

We strip failing paint back to an edge that actually holds, then look at what is underneath rather than covering it. Cracks get raked out and filled properly. Decayed timber is cut out, repaired and made good before anything is primed. Corroded metalwork is prepared back and treated.

Then everything is washed down to remove the atmospheric soiling and organic growth, and primed with a product matched to what is beneath it — render, timber and metal each need a different one, and using a single primer across all three is a false economy that shows up in year two. Coats are scheduled around the weather so nothing goes onto a damp surface or is left unable to cure overnight. Full detail on our exterior painting page.

Behind the front door

The interiors are their own discipline. Kensington houses carry cornice, ceiling roses and panelled doors that have been painted over so many times the profile has gone soft. Where that has happened the build-up is cut back and the detail reinstated by hand before recoating, which is slow and is the only thing that works. Our interior painting page covers the rest, and there is wallpaper and sprayed joinery where a room calls for them.

Consents, scaffold and the street

Much of Kensington sits within a conservation area, which can constrain exterior colours and how an elevation is treated. If that applies to your property it is worth confirming what is permitted before the decoration is specified. Consents are obtained by the owner or their agent, not by us — but we will work to whatever specification comes out of that, and we would rather know about it at quoting stage than halfway up the scaffold.

Access we do handle: scaffold and towers go through contractors we have used for years. Parking suspensions and council licences run the other way, arranged by you or your agent. Pavements, planting and the properties either side are protected for the duration.

Where else we work

Across Central and South West London, including Notting Hill, Chelsea and Fulham, plus Paddington, Putney, Wandsworth and Richmond.