Guides to the questions we are asked before a survey. Every figure carries its source and every date says when it was checked.
Most people think commercial kitchen walls have to be stainless steel or white plastic sheet. The regulation says something narrower and more useful than that, and it leaves room for paint in the right positions. Two Salad Kitchen sites, one in Mayfair and one in the City, and what actually went where.
A shopfront is the only part of a business that works when the business is shut. In the City it also takes more punishment than any other elevation on the building, and in our experience almost all of it in the bottom metre. Two City units, and what the frames show.
A void is a deadline, not a job. For managing agents it is a date on a spreadsheet. The agent has a re-let date, the landlord has an empty month and the decorator is one of four or five trades that all want the same week. This is a flat we turned round in Stoke Newington, and what we have learned about doing it without the date slipping.
An outdoor dining structure fails faster than the building it stands against. It fails in a pattern too. Not evenly across the face, but at the joints, the end grain and the bottom rail. We repainted the terrace enclosure at Sal e Pepe in Knightsbridge in 2025, then took the terrace roof off and carried out the carpentry that followed. This is what the failure looked like and what the preparation involved.
Cat A sounds like a specification. It is not one, and that is where the arguments start. We decorated four office floors, eight flats and all the communal areas at Sackville Street in Mayfair, in phases from 2022 to 2024, for main contractor Pryer Construction. SFS is CHAS Elite accredited and SSIP assessed for both contractor and principal contractor scope under CDM 2015; the detail is on our accreditations page.
We repainted the external steel fire escape at Sackville Street in Mayfair over a fortnight in October 2023, following the main building refurbishment. SFS is CHAS Elite accredited and SSIP assessed for both contractor and principal contractor scope. This guide explains what causes an external fire escape to fail, and what a proper, lasting repaint involves.
At Sackville Street in Mayfair we painted four office floors, eight flats and all the communal areas for main contractor Pryer Construction. Then we came back behind the kitchen fitters and the electricians to repair and repaint what they had opened up. SFS is CHAS Elite accredited and SSIP assessed for contractor and principal contractor scope, set out on our accreditations page. Making good is where decorating subcontracts go wrong.
If you own a flat on a lease, or manage a block, Section 20 is the rule that says the landlord must consult you before spending your service charge on major works. It is not complicated, but it is exact, and a missed step can cost a landlord most of the money. Here is how it runs, stage by stage.
A stucco-fronted terrace in Maida Vale, Notting Hill or Pimlico is the building this guide is about. The published cost guides put a full front repaint at a few thousand pounds. On a period front with blown render, cracked mouldings and a scaffold licence, the real number is higher, and here is where it comes from.
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