Decorating and refurbishment without the project-managing

Between the emergency trades and the major projects sits most of what a property actually needs: walls made good, rooms redecorated, external joinery painted before it rots, a tired flat brought back to lettable standard. GEM delivers this work with directly managed trades, so plastering, decorating and finishing happen in the right order without you playing project manager.

Preparation is the whole job

Our decorating teams prepare properly; that is the entire difference between a finish that lasts eight years and one that peels in two. Filling, sanding, sealing stains, priming bare timber and letting plaster dry before it is painted are invisible in the photographs and decisive in year three. Externally, preparation matters even more: paint applied over failing paint is a scheduled repeat visit, so we strip back to sound substrate first.

Plastering that suits the wall it is on

Skimming over a failing surface is decorating's original sin, so our plasterers investigate before they float: blown plaster comes off, damp gets diagnosed rather than hidden, and period solid walls that need to breathe are repaired in lime rather than sealed in gypsum. New plaster then gets its drying time and a mist coat, not a rush to full colour that ends in peeling by spring. On patch repairs we feather into the existing surface so the join disappears under paint instead of telegraphing through it.

Void turnarounds between tenancies

Void turnarounds are core work for us. Give us the checkout report and the void dates and we will quote a fixed scope programmed to finish before the new tenancy, covering making good, decoration, small repairs from the inventory and a professional clean at the end. For full refurbishments we run the programme end to end under one quotation, from strip-out through to photography-ready handover for marketing, with every trade sequenced by us rather than by luck.

Outside: render, masonry and gardens

We handle render repairs, masonry painting and the patios, decking and boundary works that complete a property's presentation. On stucco-fronted terraces we cut out blown render rather than skimming over it, because trapped moisture is what cracked the render in the first place, and repainting over a failed patch buys two years at most. Garden works follow the same logic: patios laid to falls that shed water away from the building, decking framed on proper supports, and fences and gates built to survive more than one winter of southwesterlies.