Decorating After an Extension or Building Work
Just had an extension built in Coventry and wondering what happens before it looks finished?
Decorating after an extension runs in six stages, starting with drying plaster and ending with life back to normal.
- What drives the cost after an extension?
- What about the crack at the join?
- When is new plaster ready to paint?
- What order should the work be done in?
- Living in the house while it’s done
- How long does decorating add to the build?
Call 024 7542 6652 today and speak to Ryan, the local decorator who covers decorating after building work across Coventry.
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The place is now like a new house.
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How Godiva Decorators Works
Godiva Decorators works with a local, Coventry-based painter and decorator. When you call, you speak to Ryan directly, and you arrange the quote and the work with him.
- Call and speak to Ryan — the decorator who does the work, not a call centre.
- Tell him about the job — the rooms, the timing and anything you are unsure about.
- He visits and sends a written quote setting out the work before anything is booked.
- You agree the work directly with Ryan, including the schedule and the final walkthrough.
Why Choose Godiva Decorators
Booked when the plaster is dry
The start date is set by the wall, not the calendar.
Honest about how far the paint has to run
If an extension opens into an existing room, you hear about it before the quote.
Movement joints detailed to move
The join between old and new is filled to move, not filled hard.
Local to Coventry
Godiva Decorators is one local decorator covering Coventry.
What Drives the Cost of Decorating After an Extension?
The useful way to think about cost is not per square metre. Cost comes down to how far the paint has to run before it reaches a natural stopping point. That distance is what decides the price. Several factors affect how far the paint runs:
- How far the new work extends into the old house. An extension that opens into an existing room takes that whole room with it. A self-contained room with a door does not.
- What state the builder left the surfaces in. Making good is real work and it varies enormously between builds. It is the single biggest unknown in most quotes.
- Whether the plaster is dry. A wall that is not ready cannot be painted. A job that has to come back for a second visit costs more than one that runs continuously.
- Ceiling height and access. Vaulted ceilings, skylights and double-height openings need equipment rather than a stepladder.
- How much woodwork is new. New skirting, architrave and doors need priming and two finish coats, which is more work than repainting existing joinery.
- Whether you are living in it. Working around a household is slower than working in an empty space, and slower means dearer.
A quote after a site visit is the only reliable version of this.
Trying to compare two quotes for the same job? What each one should contain is on the page about hiring a painter and decorator.
Godiva Decorators works as decorators for extensions across Coventry. Every room is quoted after a visit, not guessed from a floor plan.
What About the Crack Where the Extension Meets the House?
Almost every extension gets one, and it is worth separating two questions that get muddled together.
Why it is there is not a decorating question. A new structure and an old one settle at different rates on different foundations. A hairline crack along the join is usually just that settlement, not a fault. Whether a particular crack is normal settlement or something else is a question for your builder or a structural engineer. Anything wider than a hairline, growing, or stepping through brickwork should go to one of them before it is filled.
How it is filled and painted is ours, and it is the part that decides whether it comes back. Filling a movement joint with ordinary filler guarantees it reopens, because filler is rigid and the joint is not.
What works is a flexible detail. The joint is raked out to a consistent width rather than skimmed over. It is filled with a flexible caulk or a purpose-made movement bead, not a hard filler. Then it is painted over. Where movement is expected to continue, scrim tape and a rigid fill are the two things that fail first.
And it is worth letting it move before it is filled. Most settlement happens in the first heating season after a build. Filling in month two and painting in month three often means doing it again in month nine. That is why a small crack is sometimes better left until the first winter has passed.
Say it out loud in the quote. A decorator who fills a movement joint without telling you it may reopen has set you up to think the work failed. It is a maintenance detail, not a permanent repair, and it should be described that way before the work rather than after.
Whether your crack is ordinary settlement is worth a proper look before it gets filled. Godiva Decorators covers decorating after building work across Coventry. Send a photo, and Ryan will tell you honestly whether it needs filling now.
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Send a photo of the crack, and Ryan can tell you honestly whether it needs filling now.
When Is New Plaster Ready to Paint?
New plaster on an extension is ready on the same terms as anywhere else: dry all the way through, not just on the surface.
Painting it too soon is one of the most common causes of a job having to be redone.
Wondering how soon new plaster is ready for paint? The honest timing range and the test to use are on the page about how long after plastering you can paint.
What Order Should It Be Done In?
Getting the running order wrong is what turns one job into two, so it is worth settling before anyone starts. Plastering, then decorating, then flooring.
Renovating the whole house rather than just the extension? The full room order is on the page about what order to decorate a house in.
After an extension, four points matter more than the rest.
Every wet trade finishes before the decorating starts. Plastering, screeding, tiling and any making good. A single plasterer coming back for one patch after the room is painted undoes a day’s work.
Skirting and architrave go on before the floor. Painted in the open with nothing underneath, so the floor covering meets a clean, finished edge rather than a masked one.
Kitchens and bathrooms go in after the walls are painted and before the final coat on the woodwork. Fitting marks architraves and skirting, and the last coat is what covers it.
Flooring is second to last. Nothing gets dropped on it, and the doors get trimmed to the new level once it is down.
The most expensive mistake in this cluster is decorating before the building work is genuinely finished. A snagging list that comes back after the paint is on turns one decorating job into two.
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Tell Ryan where your build has got to and get a decorating date that fits the sequence.
Living in the House While It Is Done
Most extensions are decorated with the family still in the house. That is a different job from decorating an empty one, and it is worth planning rather than enduring.
Dust
Containment, Not Tolerance
Sanding filler and old plaster produces very fine dust that travels. Doorways get sheeted, the route in and out is protected, and the work is contained as it goes rather than swept up at the end.
Sequencing
One Room Out of Use at a Time
The new space is usually decorated first because it is empty. Where the work runs into existing rooms, they are taken one at a time. That way the household keeps a kitchen, a bathroom and somewhere to sleep.
Access
Doors, Stairs and the Route Through
Decorating brings equipment through the house every day. Agreeing which door is used, where materials are stored and where the cutting-in is done saves more disruption than anything else.
Timing
Drying Time Is Not Dead Time
Rooms need to be left alone between coats and after the last one. Planning which room is unusable on which day is the difference between an inconvenient fortnight and a miserable one.
Wondering how long paint needs before furniture goes back against it? That is on the page about moving furniture after painting. Godiva Decorators handles painting and decorating after building work across Coventry, sequenced so a household never loses every room at once.
How Long Does the Decorating Add to the Build?
Less than people fear once the plaster is dry, and much more than people fear if it is not. The two halves are worth separating, because only one of them is the decorator’s.
The waiting. New plaster is days to weeks before it takes paint. That sits between the builder finishing and the decorator starting. It is not decorating time, and it cannot be compressed safely. That is why it belongs on the build programme, not something discovered at the end.
The work itself. A single-storey rear extension opening into an existing room, with new woodwork, is usually a few days to a week for one decorator. Where the paint runs on into the rest of the ground floor, the job grows with the number of rooms.
Wondering about a different house size or room count? The timings by room and by house size are on the page about how long it takes to decorate a house.
Then the drying at the end. Two clear days after the last coat of woodwork before anything is pushed against it. On a build that has already overrun, this is the gap that gets squeezed. It is also the one that leaves permanent marks.
Godiva Decorators quotes the cost to decorate after an extension in Coventry from a site visit, not a floor plan.
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Tell Ryan your build’s timeline and get a decorating plan that allows for drying time.
Decorating After Building Work FAQs
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