A mess

Having spent the best part of a week restoring the original front entrance by stripping, sanding and repainting the doors, we were keen to protect our “masterpieces”. So when the guys starting stripping the underside of the front door canopy, we stressed the importance of using a suitable gel-type paint stripper. Anything else would run off like water and end up firmly embedded in the sandstone front steps. Imagine the surprise when they proceeded to strip the old layers of paint, without any protection - and using conventional, runny, paint stripper. Under normal circumstances, this could have had a happy ending, but with strong winds and a token gesture of a polythene sheet, which was put down after we had to tell them – again – to protect the steps, it was downhill from there.

The concoction of old paint and chemical paint stripper has now been splattered over the newly restored doors and original brickwork. And with the usual helplessness we’ve seen over the last few months, we had to take charge and demand the guys use our own white spirit, wire brush and high-pressure washer. Not surprisingly, the paint has not been properly removed and next week will start withh a restoration exercise of the front door area. A complete waste of time and another example of a badly executed piece of work.