Painter And Decorator | Explore Careers

Meet Lee

Lee has been a decorator for 27 years and does a wide range of jobs for a housing association.

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Hi, I'm Lee Murray. I'm a multi-skilled operative, mainly a decorator. I work for Yorkshire Housing.

I qualified as a decorator. I went to college at 18. I did it full time for a year, qualified when I was 19 and then I haven’t looked back. I’ve been a decorator for 27 year now.

It can vary. If I'm decorating, I'll be setting me, getting property prepped up, filling, taping up. You know, masking, dust sheeting everything up. And then I'll go in there and spray it, spray it all white. Stain blocking. You know, stuff like that. Making it back to a brand new property, basically.

I do a little bit of floor laying. I'm learning how to do joinery and plumbing. If there's all else I can put my hand to, I will.

Good communication skills in my job. Especially when you're dealing with a lot of tenants and what colours they want and what the desired finish they want and you know, stuff like that.

Know how to paint really. Know how to hold a brush, Know how to load the roller, know how to lay it off. Know how to fill, know how to rub down. It's a lot of intricate things in decorating. And people don't see that. Doing it to a professional level, there’s certain skills you need, like caulking, especially easy-fill and knowing how to rub it down and how to get it smooth and maybe plastering, you know, get that right and then paint will sit on it right.

Yeah get into it. If you feel like you're artistic or you know good with your hands, it's very good to get into building trades. You know, you don't have to be a decorator. You can be a joiner, plumber, art excer, roofer. There's several jobs in building world. So if you think you're good at one stuff have a go at it.