Straight answers before you commit.

As a guide, a standard bedroom — walls, ceiling and woodwork, properly prepared — usually sits in the region of £450 to £750 for two coats, and a large through-lounge with cornice and panelled doors more typically £900 to £1,600. A full three-bedroom house redecoration generally lands between £6,000 and £12,000 depending on condition and finish.

The spread comes almost entirely from preparation, not paint. A wall that needs lining, filling, sanding and sealing takes several times longer than one that simply needs washing down, and old gloss on woodwork often has to be burnt off or fully abraded before anything new will sit flat.

We quote in writing after seeing the rooms, with the specification and number of coats stated, so you can compare like for like rather than guessing what a headline figure includes.

Inland, a good masonry finish will hold eight to ten years. On an exposed seafront elevation in Brighton or Hove, expect five to seven — and on south-westerly facing render, sometimes less.

Salt-laden wind is abrasive as well as corrosive, and it drives moisture into hairline cracks that then open up over winter. The elevations that fail first are almost always the ones facing the prevailing weather, which is why we often specify a shorter maintenance cycle for one face of a building than for the rest of it.

Longevity comes from cutting out and making good failed render, priming bare substrate correctly and using a coating rated for coastal exposure — not from adding an extra coat over a poor base.

Older solid-wall buildings need to breathe. Lime plaster and soft brick move and dry through their surface, so sealing them with an impermeable modern coating traps moisture in the fabric and causes blown plaster, flaking and damp long after the decorating looks finished.

Where the fabric calls for it we use breathable, permeable systems, repair original mouldings and beading by hand rather than sanding profiles flat, and keep existing detail intact.

If your property is listed or in a conservation area, check what consent applies before work starts. We're happy to discuss specification with your architect, designer or conservation officer.

Ask what preparation is included, how many coats are quoted, which products will be used by name, who will actually be on site, whether they carry public liability insurance, and how the property will be protected and left each day.

Ask for recent work in your type of property, not just any photographs. Period sash windows, lime plaster and hand-finished joinery are different disciplines from spraying a new-build.

A quote that can't answer those questions in writing isn't a quote — it's a number.

A single well-prepared bedroom is usually two to three days. A through-lounge with woodwork is three to five. A full house, worked room by room so you can stay living in it, is typically three to six weeks depending on size and condition.

Anyone promising a whole house in a few days is skipping drying times, and drying time is not optional — filler, primer and each finish coat all need to cure before the next stage.

We give you a written schedule before starting, and phase larger programmes so bedrooms and bathrooms stay usable throughout.

Light near the water is brighter, cooler and more reflective than inland light, so whites that read soft and warm in a showroom can look grey and clinical in a Hove seafront room.

Never choose from a printed chart alone. We paint large samples directly onto the wall, or onto boards moved around the room, and look at them in morning light, afternoon light and under your own lamps in the evening.

Sheen level matters as much as colour. A flat matt hides an uneven old wall; an eggshell or satin will show every ripple you didn't fill.

Paint is more forgiving to maintain and easier to patch. Wallpaper adds texture and depth that paint cannot, and can disguise a wall with a slightly uneven surface once it has been lined properly.

Specialist papers — grasscloth, silk, hand-blocked and wide-width — need lining, exact pattern matching and careful handling; the material cost is often only half the story.

In hallways and stairwells that take knocks, a durable paint is frequently the more practical choice, with paper reserved for a feature wall or a quieter room.

Clear surfaces, take down pictures and curtains, and empty wardrobes if the insides are being painted. We move and protect furniture, but a room that starts clear is a room that gets finished faster.

Flag anything fragile, any recent damp, and any surface you'd rather we didn't touch. Tell us where we can fill water, park and set up.

Plan for smells and drying: rooms with fresh emulsion are usable within a day, but freshly hand-finished woodwork is best left alone for longer.