Lazy Painters and Noise Transmission

[AliG]

The painters were easily the worst trade involved in building our house, downright lazy. My wife found one taking a lie down in a room one day and I often saw them just wondering around dabbing paint on here and there with no particular plan. We had to have rooms replastered where they didn't smooth down the walls before painting.

 

Something I only noticed recently while the builders were doing snagging and fixing hairline cracks is that the painters didn't fill the tops of the facings around most doors and also the sides where the facings are close enough to a corner that you can't see them.

 

I have just finished filling in around the doors in our gym/downstairs bedroom as I believe this was creating a sound path that meant the noise from this room travelled right through the walls. The room has two doors and a double wardrobe so seemed particularly bad. The gaps were so large that I used an entire the of caulk in just this one room. So just because you can't see something doesn't mean it doesn't need fixed.

 

Has anyone else noticed the same thing, or were my painters particularly bad.

Edited May 16, 2020 by AliG

[Oz07]

I think not caulking the top edge would be pretty common if can't be seen from above. Is this gap really going to be any more likely a path for sound transmission than the gap at bottom of door? 

[AliG]

Good point, in this case yes as the doors go into an ensuite and a wardrobe so the sound going under the doors goes into a sealed area, but the gaps around the doors go behind the plasterboard and into the walls between the rooms. 

 

Would think the biggest issue might come on wardrobes between bedrooms if they don't fill in the tops or another place they often don't fill is the back of the facings inside wardrobes.

 

I have found in other places tiny gaps allow a lot of noise through, the house became considerably quieter when we put silicone around the edge of all the window frames on the inside.

Edited May 16, 2020 by AliG

[nod]

You’ve not done to badly if you have only had trouble with the paint finish 

 

I was called to one of our sites as the electricians feared we had pierced there wires 

It turned out the had been spotted no putting a metal plate between the wire and gypliner where it crossed the two steels 
The electrician is in his 30s Either he didn’t know or couldn’t be bothered 

[ProDave]

I am not sure it is a painters job to make a plastered wall smooth?

 

If it's taped and filled it is often the painters that do the taping, filling then painting so then I would expect them to be responsible for the finish.

 

We do all our own painting and the prep does involve sorting out gaps, cracks and areas of poor finish to the plaster, mostly in corners where the spread seems to have trouble getting his float in.

[SteamyTea]

Plasters job to get the plaster smooth.

Chippys job to make sure things fit correctly and are finished.

 

Painters job to change the colour scheme, but not choose it.

Edited May 16, 2020 by SteamyTea

[AliG]

I don't know about the plaster, the guy who the builder got in to redo it reckoned they could have been fixed by the painters, but the painters didn't want to do it.

 

Surely though it is the painters' job to fill around door frames, skirting boards etc. The builders had to redo pretty much every join in our skirting boards as the painters barely made any effort to fill them either. My wife wanted them fired.

[ToughButterCup]

2 hours ago, AliG said:

...

My wife found one taking a lie down in a room one day and I often saw them just wondering around dabbing paint on here and there with no particular plan

...

or were my painters particularly bad?

 

Yes.

Fixed price or day rate?

Fixed price: ignore it. Day rate: kick their arses.

[AliG]

Fixed price thankfully, but still annoying as they took forever

 

[ToughButterCup]

Exactly @AliG : but that's all, annoying.

I've had trades in this week for the whole week - (@epsilonGreedy , sorry mate, first week of non DIYMax for 2 full years) and every day I have been either a bit, or somewhat or bloody annoyed.

 

Until Debbie reminded me to keep my eye on the prize: progress.