Exterior Repaint, Cecil Street

The photographs at the start of this job show the problem plainly: flaking paint across the brickwork, an original unpainted facade weathering unevenly, and garden wall pillars that had taken years of rain without protection.

Failing paint on masonry is not a cosmetic issue once it reaches this stage. Where the film has broken, water gets behind what remains and lifts more of it with every freeze, so each season removes a little more than the last.

The finished facade is cream with white detailing, sharp cut-in lines at the bay window reveals, and a blue front door. The rear and side elevations were finished to the same standard rather than being treated as the parts nobody sees.

The garden wall pillars were finished with new caps, which closes the view from the pavement.

When you are comparing quotes for work like this, the things that separate a good job from a cheap one are mostly invisible by the time the scaffold comes down. These are the ones worth asking about.

Ask what happens to the failing paint. On a facade that is already flaking, the only durable answer is taking it back to a sound edge. Coating over loose material buys a season, and the next winter lifts more than the last.

Ask about the parts nobody sees from the pavement. Rear and side elevations, the tops of sills, and the back edge of the gutter are where a rushed job shows first, because they take weather and nobody inspects them.

Look at the cut-in lines. Where the wall colour meets white detailing at a bay window reveal, a sharp line done by hand is the clearest single indicator of care on an exterior.

Ask whether the garden walls and pillars are included. They sit in the same view as the house. Leaving them weathered undoes the effect of everything else, and doing them later means paying for access twice.