Interior Painting in Gorinchem and the Wider Region

What is interior painting?

Interior painting means painting the walls, ceilings, doors and woodwork inside a house. I apply the paint evenly, coat by coat, until there’s no roller mark or brush stroke left to see. The result is a room that looks crisp and fresh, from the walls to the ceiling and the frames around them.

Interior painting comes up in a lot of situations: a room getting a new colour, a house made ready to sell or rent, or a renovation where the walls and ceilings get painted for the first time after plastering. The goal stays the same: an even, smooth coat that lasts. Want the outside of your house painted too? I do that as well, as exterior painting.

Dutch walls and “sausklaar”: what it means for your paint job

Ask a Dutch builder or plasterer about a wall, and you’ll likely hear the word “sausklaar”. It means the wall is smooth enough for a thin, breathable coat called “sauze”, the traditional finish on Dutch lime plaster. It isn’t the same as ordinary wall paint. A sauze coat is thinner and easy to redo later, while wall paint is a thicker, washable layer that holds up better in a kitchen, hallway or child’s room. Which one suits your wall depends on the material underneath it and on how you’ll use the room: easy to touch up again later, or a coat that can take a wipe-down.

On a freshly plastered wall, I talk this through with you first. Sausklaar plaster is ready for a sauze coat, but not every sauze finish holds up well on a wall you’ll clean often. Tell me what the room is for, and I’ll pick the coat that fits.

Plastering first, then painting, in one job

With me, you don’t need to arrange two different tradespeople for a wall that has to be plastered before it can be painted. I do the wall plastering and ceiling plastering myself, and once the plaster is dry enough, I paint straight over it. That saves you a second appointment and a second tradesperson waiting on the first, and it saves me painting a wall whose history I don’t already know.

That comes through in what clients say too. For Anne in Tilburg, I did the plastering and painting of the loft in a single job:

“Wat een vakman! Heel erg tevreden. Hij heeft bij mij het stukadoor werk en schilderwerk gedaan en ziet er echt keurig uit. En niet geheel onbelangrijk, hij werkt ontzettend netjes en ruimt alles na afloop van de klus netjes op. Ik kan hem alleen maar aanbevelen! 👌🏼” Source: Anne, Tilburg (Werkspot review, in Dutch)

If a wall needs a crack or a hole fixed before it can be painted, I sort that out first too, through plaster repair. That way the repair disappears under the paint, and you don’t need to find someone else for it separately.

Walls, ceilings, doors and frames

I paint every part of a room that needs it. Walls get an even colour, corner to corner, without the overlapping bands that show up in low light. I finish a ceiling with the same care, including around a light fitting or where it meets a sloped section. And I take on doors and window frames too, if you want that, in the same colour as the walls or a clearly different one.

Want something other than a flat, single colour, a decorative finish on a wall instead of plain paint? That’s possible too, decorative painting is one of my services. I talk through exactly what you have in mind first, so we’re picturing the same thing before I start.

For doors and frames I use a different paint than for the walls: a hard-wearing, washable finish, applied with a brush instead of a roller. That takes a different technique, because this kind of paint shows a streak or a drip mark faster if you work too quickly or overload the brush. I take my time with that, so a frame ends up looking just as crisp as the wall next to it.

Repainting a wall that’s already painted

A wall that’s been painted before can simply be painted again. I check the state of the existing coat first: is it a chalky, breathable layer, a smooth wall paint or something else, and how well is it still holding on. Where needed, I sand or prime first, so the new coat holds properly and doesn’t start peeling again after a few months.

Going from a dark colour to a light one usually needs more coats than the other way round. I tell you in advance how many coats to expect, so you’re not caught out if the wall doesn’t cover after the first one. Would you rather start over completely, with a bare, freshly plastered wall instead of building on old paint? I look at what that would take too.

Ceiling first, or walls first?

Ceiling first, then the walls. Paint from the ceiling can spatter or drip onto the wall, and that’s easier to deal with before the wall itself is finished than after. The same order applies to a plastered ceiling being painted for the first time: the ceiling gets its coat first, then the walls underneath.

Would you rather keep the ceiling in its plaster finish instead of painting it? That’s fine too. A plastered ceiling doesn’t have to be painted if the natural finish already looks good enough. I talk that through with you beforehand, so you don’t pay for a coat you don’t actually need.

Hiring a painter: one room or the whole house

You can hire me for a single room, several rooms at once, or the whole house in one go. For one room, I usually plan the job over a few days, including drying time between coats. For a whole house, I work room by room, so you’re not living in the middle of paint and masking tape everywhere at once.

Moving out, or getting the house ready to sell? I also paint an empty house in one continuous job, with no furniture or anyone living there to work around. That goes faster than an occupied house, simply because nothing is in the way.

How I approach interior painting

I work in a fixed order, so the result is just as sharp everywhere and nothing is left in the way once I’m done.

1. Photo and first look. You send a photo of the room, and I can see the state of the walls and ceiling and roughly how much work is involved.
2. Price. Based on the photos and a few questions, for example about the current colour and the one you want, I give you a price quickly.
3. Preparation. I cover furniture and flooring, mask off frames and edges, and fix any small holes or rough patches first.
4. Painting. The paint goes on in coats: ceiling first, then the walls, then the frames last or as a separate step.
5. Checking. I check the result in daylight and in raking light, so a missed spot or a thin patch stands out straight away.
6. Clean-up. Masking tape comes off, floors and furniture go back where they were, and the room is left tidy.

For a single room I usually work alone. For a whole house or a bigger job, I bring a colleague along so it’s finished faster.

What determines the price of interior painting

What interior painting costs depends on a few things: the surface area of the walls and ceiling, how many coats are needed, and whether the doors and frames are included. A wall going from a dark to a light colour needs more coats than one staying in the same colour family. The state of the surface underneath matters too: a wall that needs plastering or repair first is a different job than one that’s already smooth and ready to paint.

It also matters whether it’s one room or a whole house. With several rooms in a row, the preparation is often more efficient than with a single room, simply because there’s less separate masking, covering and cleaning up.

I don’t give a price without seeing the room, not even a rough estimate based on floor area alone, because that rarely matches the real state of the walls and the number of coats needed. Send me a photo and I’ll quickly let you know what’s involved.

Interior painting in Gorinchem and the region

I paint interiors in Gorinchem and the wider region around it, from the Alblasserwaard and Vijfheerenlanden out towards Dordrecht and the Utrecht area, and I’m regularly in Brabant too, for painting as much as for plastering. I run this business myself, as Sterk Stukadoor, Dutch for “strong plasterer”: Osman is the tradesman behind it, and I bring a colleague along on bigger jobs.

Interior painting is often the last step of a bigger job: plastering first, then paint, and after that the room is ready to live in. I plan that in as a single job, so you don’t have to coordinate two tradespeople who have to wait on each other.

What customers say about my painting work

Reviews on this site are quoted exactly as clients left them on Werkspot, most of them in Dutch. Milja’s review, about the painting itself, happens to be written in English:

“Very efficient and the result is great. Would recommend!” Source: Milja, Rotterdam (Werkspot review)

Milja had her bedrooms and living room painted, and that’s exactly the kind of job I do most under interior painting: a few rooms at once, finished sharp and quickly. I’ve been in this trade for close to twenty years, and Sterk Stukadoor scores 4.9 out of 5 across 34 reviews on Werkspot.

Want your walls, ceiling or woodwork painted, with or without plastering first? Send a photo of the room, and I’ll tell you what it needs.