Testimonials

Over the years I have had a lot of satisfied customers. Here are a few testimonials and descriptions of the work I have done.

Shaun & Suzy McKenna (Wombwell)

"Paul has undertaken both internal decorating & gardening for us. I consider Paul friendly, professional, hardworking and honest; a definite grafter. I found Paul through a web search; I consider myself fortunate to have identified him; worth every penny! Would have no hesitation recommending him to family / friends and neighbours etc. etc. Couldn’t wait to provide feed-back to his web-site; a pleasure."

Many thanks for the feedback, Shaun and Suzy!

Norah, Moorgate

"Paul decorated through my entire flat while I was away on holiday. I was very happy with the results and would highly recommend him."

On this job, I papered the ceiling and walls with anaglypta and put the coving up. The walls and ceiling were painted with vinyl silk in magnolia, the coving was decorated with a paper border and edged with gold-gilt paint.

I have been doing odd jobs in this flat for years. After new central heating pipework was fitted just under the ceiling of the entrance hall, I had the job of boxing them in - the corner in the picture below was particularly tricky.

Stephen and Susanne, Germany

"Paul is a friend of ours. While he was staying with us we employed him to redecorate our computer room and bathroom. He advised us on paint type and colour and did a very professional job."

This job was mainly repainting wood-panelled walls. I advised using vinyl silk instead of the emulsion that was on the walls previously. I painted the skirting boards and door frames one shade darker to improve the visual impact, and used a high quality acrylic paint for durability. Painting the grooved panels in the skirting board area would have been tricky, so I took the skirting boards off temporarily to do a better job. I noticed that the window-frames were mahogany, but the window-sills were waxed pine that had got grimy over the years. I advised cleaning the pine with sugar soap, then treating the pine with a mahogany stain to match the windows. The resulting look was a great improvement.

Garden Makeover, Rotherham

I was recently asked to do a makeover on a small garden. The aim was to create a low maintenance garden on a low budget. In the first photo I have already made a good start. I have got several bags of weeds out and have started digging the garden over. In the second photo you can see that I reused the paving stones to make a small patio, so the owners would have a small area to sit in and enjoy their garden. I laid edging to separate the path (blue-slate-chippings) from the garden, and in the garden area I put down bark chippings so there would be no problem later with weeds. To keep costs down, I used young plants. In the front there are few annuals, and towards the back some low-growing shrubs such as Mexican orange blossom and photinia. The centre piece is a red-robin standard. To add colour I planted carnations, lavender and stocks.

To stop weeds growing between the paving slabs, I put a dry mix between the slabs, which eventually sets hard. I edged the patio with paving bricks and cemented them in place for additional stability. Finally, I painted the fence with green wood preservative to improve the looks and keep the wood in good condition.

Click on the images for a larger view.