From first call to final payment.

Call or send an enquiry through the site. You will get a response the same working day.

If the work is something McGreal & Co. is right for, a site visit is arranged. If it isn't — the job is outside the area, better suited to a different trade, or larger than can be taken on properly — you will be told that on the phone rather than after a wasted visit.

Usually thirty to forty-five minutes, at a time that suits you, including evenings.

Every surface to be painted is measured and assessed. Condition matters more than area: filling, staining, previous coatings and bare timber all change what the job actually involves, and none of it can be judged over the phone.

This is the point to raise anything you care about — colours you are considering, rooms you need kept in use, a date you are working towards, a previous job that went badly. It is easier to plan around all of it now than to adjust later.

Sent within three working days of the visit.

The quotation sets out the preparation surface by surface, the products by name, the number of coats, a start and completion date, and the total price with materials and labour shown separately. Insurance details come with it.

It is a fixed price for the work specified. If something is found once the job is opened up — timber worse than it appeared, a wall that needs more than filling — you are told before any additional work is carried out, and you decide. Nothing is added to an invoice without being agreed first.

There is no charge for the visit or the quotation.

The date in the quotation is the date the work begins.

A few days beforehand you will hear from us to confirm, agree access arrangements, and settle final colour choices so materials can be ordered in time. If anything is going to move, you will hear it as soon as it is known — not on the morning.

You will know each morning what is being done that day, and you will know the evening before roughly what time to expect us the following morning. Painting doesn't run to a factory clock — some days a surface takes longer than it looked like it would — but you will not be left guessing.

Furniture, floors and fittings are covered before anything begins. Rooms are worked through in an order that keeps as much of the house usable as possible, and if there are rooms you need kept in service, that is planned around.

The house is cleaned at the end of each working day. You are told where the work is up to and what is happening next.

Occupied homes are treated as occupied homes. It is your house, not a site.

The finished work is walked through together before the final balance falls due, under proper light.

Anything not right is put right then. Not booked in for a return visit, not left for the following week.

Left-over material is labelled with the room and the product and left with you for touch-ups.

Larger projects are paid in stages against milestones, with the schedule set out in your quotation. Smaller jobs are a deposit and a single balance on completion.

The deposit covers materials, which are named and priced in your quotation, and secures your start date.

Invoices match the quotation. Any variation agreed during the job is itemised separately so you can see exactly what changed and why.