Good old-fashioned paintwork, guaranteed to last longer
What we do:
We paint houses, inside and outside.
We can call on plasterers, bricklayers, joiners and other trades required to repair or renovate your home.
For exterior work ask us about the Duncan Maclean / Sikkens paints 25-year maintenance scheme.
Good old fashioned paintwork means doing the job the way it used to be done - properly and thoroughly to last for years. That includes:
- Remove all defective, failed, cracked and peeling paint back to a sound substrate.
- Repair surfaces with the correct materials for plaster, timber or masonry work.
- Rub down all surfaces until smooth and dust off. We use the correct primers for each different surface.
- Not over thinning the paint. We use paint conditioner rather than white spirit to improve the flow and obtain a smooth even coverage with each coat of paint.
- Apply sufficient paint to provide a good and durable finish. We apply a minimum of four coats on bare wood externally.
- Use good quality paints. We only use Sikkens Paints for external painted woodwork. Sikkens Paints come from the Netherlands and are made from high quality resins.
Correctly applied, Sikkens paints will last for many years. We have developed coating systems using Sikkens Paints which will last up to 8 years or longer.
History and development of the Duncan MacLean/Sikkens 25 year Maintenance Scheme
About our decorators:
My men have been working for me for years, some of them for over 20 years.
They are extremely good at what they do.
They have years of experience in renovating London houses.
We stay on each job until it is finished, with the same men.
We keep your house secure, we will even feed the cat, and keep the dog in, or out.
Where possible you will see the same faces each year.
We guarantee the finished job for five years. It will probably last several years longer.
Duncan J Maclean decorating was established in 1981 when I bought David McKague decorating. Over the next 5 years I built up the business, initially working on my own for a couple of years and then by hiring experienced decorators from the north of England and from Ireland.
In those days I believe the best decorators were those trained in Dublin. In 1984 I was looking for a durable paint to replace the Magnet lead based paints which we had been using up until then.
Having researched reports from the Timber Research and Development Association (TRADA) and others I settled on Sikkens Paints. Trials at TRADA had shown that Sikkens paints lasted longer than any other make in our climate. I developed a very good relationship with Sikkens UK and some years later the Technical Director Fred Sykes came and worked with me developing business in multi colour spraying and other special paint applications.
Along with the Sikkens paints we were using a resin based repair compound produced by Sikkens called Componex HR. Using this to repair open joints and damaged windows we were able to produce exterior paint jobs which would last for many years.
Where good quality hardwood windows had been installed in buildings we used Sikkens silicon based gloss called Rubbol SB - this extended the life of the paintwork by another 2-3 years. Unfortunately Sikkens no longer supply this paint in the UK and we have to bring this from Eindhoven. We now use this paint on south and west facing elevations exposed to long hours of u.v. radiation or sunlight.
More recently a new resin based repair compound has been produced, also from the Netherlands. This is called the Repair Care System. This is a great material and an improvement on the older repair compounds, with it we are able to re-build rotten windows successfully and extend the life of painted woodwork for up to 8 years and often much longer.
