Your Victorian terrace in Poplar looks gorgeous from outside. Original features, high ceilings, those lovely cornices. You’re properly chuffed with it. So you hire a painter who specializes in new builds because they’re efficient, reasonably priced, and their work looks immaculate in their portfolio of modern flats. They turn up, take one look at your

You’ve just completed on your shiny new Isle of Dogs flat. The developer assured you it’s ready to move into. The walls look perfect. Smooth plaster, no cracks, exactly what you expect from a new build. So you hire the cheapest painter you can find because, well, it’s brand new. How hard can it be?

You’re on the fortieth floor of your Canary Wharf tower. Your painter’s just announced they’re “not comfortable with heights” and can’t paint your balcony. This is day two of a week long job. The balcony is literally the reason you hired a painter instead of doing it yourself. It’s the most exposed bit, needs the

Your painter’s just called. They’re lost. Again. They’ve been driving around Canary Wharf for twenty minutes trying to find your building. They don’t know which entrance is for contractors. They’ve parked in a resident bay and are about to get a ticket. They’re now asking you to come down and guide them to the service

You’ve got three quotes sitting in your inbox. One’s eye wateringly expensive and you’ve immediately dismissed it. One’s suspiciously cheap and you’re trying to convince yourself that maybe, just maybe, this person is simply brilliant at painting and doesn’t charge much. The third is somewhere in the middle and seems reasonable, but you’re still tempted

Your letting agent just called. New tenant moves in on Friday. It’s Wednesday morning. The current tenant has left your Canary Wharf flat looking like a crime scene, complete with mysterious stains on the living room wall and what appears to be an entire tin of red paint knocked over in the hallway. So you

Let me guess what happened. You got three quotes for painting your building’s exterior. One was astronomical, one was suspiciously cheap, and one was somewhere in the middle. You went with the cheap one because “it’s just paint, how hard can it be?” Six months later, the paint’s already flaking off near the roofline. Twelve