VAT Increase coming in January 2011

How does it effect you?

With the new increase of the current VAT rate from 17.5% to 20% in January 2011 I was wondering how this will effect painters and decorators like myself. I was wondering if the increase would put people off having any decorating done because they think the increase will make the decorating job cost too much.

I hope people don’t think like this and actually think about what little difference it will make, especially by using a local independent tradesman who isn’t VAT registered. If a job costs £500 including the materials now (£400 labour and £100 materials) the same job in the new year will only cost an extra £2.50 as the materials are the only thing effected by the VAT. So, instead of paying £500 now you would pay £502.50 in January.

Still think the VAT increase will make that decorating job cost too much?

If your based in the Southend on Sea area and would like an estimate for some decorating in the New Year why not contact us or fill in our decorating estimate form to arrange an onsite visit.

A quick tip for when your painting skirting boards, when decorating a room and you are having a new carpet fitted, but not for a few days after you have decorated, a quick tip is to cut the carpet around the room about three inches away from the skirting boards, removing the carpet, but leaving the gripper rods (mind your fingers on these) and the underlay. This will allow you to paint the skirting boards all the way to the bottom and not get bits of fluff or carpet on the new paintwork.

Also, by removing only a few inches of carpet from around the edge of the room you won’t be walking on cold concrete or floorboards whilst you wait for the new carpet to be fitted. Another advantage of removing the carpet and painting all the skirting to the floor is if the new carpet if a different thickness you wont end up with that horrible yellowish line where you haven’t painted.

How to wallpaper a hall landing and stairs

Firstly you need to measure the walls you are going to papering the downstairs hallway, upstairs landing and stairs/stairwell to work out how much paper you need to buy, our wallpaper calculator can be used for this job.

So how do you measure a hall, stairs and landing for wallpaper?
Well it’s not as hard as you may think. If you think of the upstairs and downstairs as two different rooms, splitting the stairwell wall into two parts. Imagine the skirting of the upstairs goes all the way across the stairwell wall and measure as you would normally.
You will use a lot of paper on the stair walls as there is a lot of wastage, especially if you have a pattern paper.

Now you know how much paper to buy, and have bought it, you can start to paper. So where do you start?

Where to start papering the hall, stairs and landing

You should start by hanging the longest sheet first down the stairwell, and working along one way until a corner. Mark the wall using a plumb line to ensure your paper is vertical, then measure your drop of paper ensuring you allow for the angle of the stair stringer, mark the paper at either side at the bottom allowing for trimming.

Take your roll and lay it on the paste table, then take a straight edge and draw a line joining the two marks up, you should have a diagonal line. Cut the paper as you normally would, then trim the paper along the diagonal line, this will save you getting paste all over the carpet when you hang the sheet.

Paste the sheet and allow to soak, and then hang the first drop. You should then take the roll of paper and line it up with the one you have just put up, unroll it and ensure any Patten is lined up, then mark and trim as before, continue doing this until you reach a corner, then do the same the other side of the longest drop until the other corner.

Once the longest drops are done you can work as you would for a normal room.