Exterior painting in Donegal.

A gable facing the Atlantic and a sheltered rear wall on the same house are two different jobs. Driving rain, salt in the air on the coastal side and weeks where nothing ever fully dries out will pull apart a coating that would sit happily on a house in a dry inland county.

So the product is chosen for the exposure the wall actually gets, and it is named in the quotation. Not “masonry paint”. The product, the system it belongs to, and the number of coats.

Breathability matters as much as the film. Trap moisture behind an impermeable coat on an older render and it comes off in sheets two winters later, taking the surface with it.

Flaking is taken back to a sound edge rather than feathered over, cracks are opened out and filled properly instead of skimmed, and powdery or chalking render is stabilised before a finish coat goes anywhere near it.

Algae and mildew are killed and washed off. Painted over, they grow back through the new coat and the wall is green again inside a year.

Timber is scraped, sanded, filled and spot-primed. Rust is taken back and treated, not sealed in — paint over rust and it lifts from underneath while the surface still looks sound.

All of that is set out in the quotation surface by surface, so you can see what the price is actually buying.

Exterior work is scheduled for the drier stretches and moved around the forecast. Coatings go on inside the temperature and moisture limits the manufacturer sets — a coat put on a wall that only looks dry on a bright afternoon is a failure with a twelve-month fuse.

That does mean Donegal weather occasionally moves a date. You hear about it as soon as it is known, and the work goes back on when conditions will let the finish last.