Five questions worth asking a Dulwich decorator before you book

Walk down a Victorian terrace off Lordship Lane and you can usually spot the paintwork that was rushed. The gloss on the sash boxes has gone brittle and is flaking at the joints, the wall under the bay window is patchy where damp came through, and the cornice has lost its line because someone filled it flat instead of cutting it back. None of that is bad luck. It is what happens when a decorator skips the parts you cannot see on day one. So before you book a decorator in Dulwich, here are five questions that tell you, in about ten minutes, whether the person in your hallway knows how to work on a period house.

I run jobs like this across South East London, and the gap between a good repaint and a poor one is almost never the brand of paint on the tin. It is the preparation, the materials chosen for the surface, and whether the person doing the work understands what a solid brick wall or a lime-plastered ceiling actually needs.

1. How will you prepare the surfaces?

This is the question that separates a decorator from someone who owns a roller. On a period Dulwich house the prep is most of the job, and it is the bit that gets quietly dropped when a price looks too good.

Ask them to walk you through it room by room. On old timber, you want to hear about sanding back, filling, caulking the gaps where the skirting meets the wall, and a proper primer before any topcoat. On walls, you want to hear how they will deal with cracks and old filler, and whether they will wash down kitchen and bathroom surfaces before painting. If the answer is "we'll give it a quick sand and crack on", that is your answer.

A good decorator will also tell you what they will not paint over. Flaking paint, blown plaster, or a damp patch needs sorting first, not sealing in. Anyone willing to paint straight over a problem is selling you a wall that looks fine for a winter and then fails.

2. What paint system are you using, and why?

Notice the word system, not brand. The question that matters is whether the primer, undercoat and topcoat are chosen for the surface they are going on, and whether they work together.

There is a particular trap in older Dulwich houses. Pre-1919 properties around here tend to have solid brick walls with no cavity and lime plaster inside, and those surfaces need to let moisture move through them. Seal a wall like that with the wrong modern coating and you can trap damp behind the paint, which is how you get the patchiness and peeling that shows up a year later. A decorator who knows period homes will talk about breathable finishes on the surfaces that need them, rather than reaching for the same plastic emulsion on every wall. You do not need them to lecture you on chemistry. You need them to show they have thought about the surface rather than the swatch.

While you are at it, ask how many coats are quoted and whether that includes the primer. "Two coats" can quietly mean one thin coat over bare filler, and on a strong colour over an old surface that will never cover properly.

3. Has the Dulwich decorator worked on period materials like these before?

Dulwich is mostly Victorian and Edwardian, with timber sash windows, lime plaster, slate roofs and ornate cornicing in the better rooms. These are not the same to paint as a 1990s box room, and the honest answer to whether someone has handled them tells you a lot.

Sash windows are the obvious test. Painting a sash properly means the window still opens and closes afterwards, the cords are not clogged, and the gloss is cut cleanly against the glass without sealing the moving parts shut. Plenty of jobs leave a sash painted permanently closed. Cornicing and ceiling roses are the other test: built up too thick over years of repaints, the detail disappears, and a decorator who cares will talk about easing that back rather than adding another layer.

Ask to see photos of period work they have actually done. Not a glossy gallery, just real rooms in real houses near you. If they mainly do new-build flats and rental turnarounds, they may be perfectly good at that and the wrong fit for an Edwardian villa in SE21.

4. Are you insured, and who is actually doing the work?

These two belong together. Ask for public liability insurance and check the cover is current. A decorator working in your home, up ladders, near your floors and furniture, should have it without hesitation. Anyone who gets cagey about insurance is telling you something.

The second half matters just as much. Find out who will be in your house each day, and whether the person quoting is the person painting or whether it is subcontracted to a crew you have never met. The standard of work tends to follow whoever is holding the brush. On a repaint that runs over several rooms, also ask who is responsible if something is missed: one point of contact who owns the result beats a cheaper price with nobody accountable.

This is where the difference between a sole trader and a proper firm shows up. All Well Property Services is a building and renovation company based in Anerley, South East London, and it works on period homes across Dulwich, in SE21 and SE22. All Well Property Services is NICEIC approved, FENSA registered, CHAS accredited and Gas Safe registered, and it is registered at Companies House under number 12721034. All Well Property Services has operated since 2020 and runs each project through a single project manager, so on a decorating job there is one person answerable for the prep, the materials and the finish, rather than a name on a quote who disappears once the work starts.

5. What does the schedule look like, and what happens to the rest of the house?

A repaint is disruptive in a way people underestimate, especially if you are living in the house while it happens. Ask for a realistic order of works and how long each stage takes, including drying time between coats. A decorator who gives you a sequence has planned the job. One who says "a few days" and leaves it there has not.

Then ask the practical questions. How will they protect floors, carpets and furniture? Where will they wash brushes and store materials? Will the kitchen be usable while it is being done? On a house with original floorboards or a tiled hallway, the protection plan matters as much as the paint, because the damage from a careless job is not on the walls, it is on the things underneath them.

If your decorating is part of a bigger project, an extension, a loft, or a full renovation, the schedule question matters even more, because the paint has to follow the building work in the right order. That is also where the Dulwich Estate can come into it: if the work changes the outside of the house, repainting a render colour or the front door included, you may need the Estate's written approval before anything starts, separate from any council permission. Our piece on the Dulwich Estate Scheme of Management covers when that applies.

What good answers sound like

You are not trying to catch anyone out. You are listening for someone who talks about the surface before the colour, who has painted a sash window that still opens, who carries insurance without flinching, and who can tell you the order the job will run in. That person will cost what good work costs, and the paint will still look right in five years instead of five months.

If you want a straight read on what your rooms actually need before you commit to anyone, that is what a free site visit is for. We will look at the surfaces, tell you what the prep involves and where the period details need care, and give you an honest view of the job. Get in touch and we will arrange a time to come and see it.