Doors, skirting, frames and staircases stripped, prepped and finished to a smooth, hard-wearing sheen: the detail that makes a room look properly done.
You notice bad woodwork the moment you walk in: brush marks, drips, a gloss gone yellow and chipped. Woodwork is where a decorator earns their money: it needs sanding back, filling, priming and a patient hand to lay it off smooth. Doors, skirting, architrave and staircases, in the finish you want.
The Oldbury semis toward Langley and Warley still have a lot of original woodwork. That means picture rails, panelled doors and deep skirting. Often it sits under many coats of old oil gloss that has gone yellow. Most of it is worth keeping, and a water-based finish over a well-prepared surface stays white far longer.
Internal and external doors and their frames rubbed down, filled and finished smooth.
The trim that frames every room, painted crisp with clean lines against the wall.
Handrails, spindles and strings: fiddly, time-consuming, and done properly.
Sanded, primed and laid off by hand for a hard-wearing finish without brush marks.
Old oil gloss is keyed and primed so a modern water-based paint grips it and stays white rather than flaking off.
Outside woodwork gets a paint made for the weather, with the sills, which take the most water, sanded and sealed first.
Photos of the doors, skirting and stairs you want done. Tell us if the old gloss is yellow or flaking. In a 1930s semi, a photo of the staircase and the hall tells us most of what we need.
Whichever suits: modern water-based finishes stay white and dry fast; traditional oil gives a harder sheen. We’ll recommend the right one for the job.
Yes: sanding back, filling and priming is exactly what stops the finish looking rough. It’s the difference between DIY and a decorator.
Yes: prepped and repainted, usually in a fresh water-based white that won’t yellow the same way.
Traditional oil-based gloss yellows with age, especially where there is little daylight, such as a hallway or behind a door. Water-based finishes do not yellow in the same way.
Yes, where years of paint have filled in the panel detail. It is slower and usually done off the hinges, but it brings back the shape of an original panelled door in an older Oldbury house.
Water-based paint is touch dry within a couple of hours. Doors are best left open overnight so the paint does not stick to the frame.
A room of skirting and doors is usually two to three days. Each coat needs time to dry and harden. A staircase and hall can take four or five days, worked in stages.
The amount of timber, the number of old coats to take back, and the finish. Doors stripped to bare wood or taken off the hinges cost more time than a sound surface that only needs keying.
Send a photo or a quick video of the room on WhatsApp. Or ask for a free fixed quote with no obligation. We will tell you straight what it needs.