A painter and decorator works with all fabrics and paints to a high finish, carrying out work to both internal and external of properties.

A painter and decorator works on a wide range of painting and decorating projects ranging from  house renovations to new-builds, all the way to complex jobs such as painting bridges, or maintaining historic buildings. A painter and decorator makes walls and ceilings shipshape and attractive using a variety of systems, wallpaper and other finishes.

It's one of the most in-demand construction trades and you'll need to master a range of techniques for making places look good, often training in new skills throughout your career. Specialist techniques include applying decorative paint finishes such as stencils, colour glaze, graining, marbling and lettering.

This competition has been designed to reflect the role of a painter and decorator and the standards that are expected within the construction industry.

Competition overview

Competitors will be marked throughout the competition:

  • Ability to work to tolerances of millimetres The design will be marked for accuracy, opacity, finesse and quality
  • Competitors will lose marks for inaccurate measurements, and poor finishing
  • Competitors have to work in a safe manner and will lose marks if this is not adhered to

General information:

  • At the Regional Qualifiers the maximum working time for the task is 6 hours
  • At the SkillBuild National Final the maximum working time for the task is 18 hours

Core competencies

To take part in this competition you should be able to:

  • Read and understand scaled drawings and work from a set design.
  • Being able to work in methodical way for wet to wet painting and opacity.
  • Familiar and practiced in the application of paint using various types of synthetic brushes.
  • Being able to produce a good standard of detailing with accuracy.
  • Familiar with cutting-in using a selection of different colours.
  • Accurately mark out using chalk lines, trammels, beam compasses, straight edges & masking tape.
  • Familiar with wallpaper application – sizing, pasting, hanging & cutting.
  • Work in a safe manner.

See also: