Decorating a house you are still living in

One zone at a time, not the whole house at once

Rather than opening every room simultaneously, we complete a zone — say the hallway and landing, then bedrooms one at a time — so the rest of the house stays fully usable throughout. This takes slightly longer overall but means you are never without a bedroom, bathroom or kitchen.

• Furniture moved to the centre of the room and sheeted, not carried out
• One bathroom always left untouched if there is more than one
• Landing and stairs kept clear as the main thoroughfare

Smells, dust and where children and pets go

Sanding produces dust that travels further than people expect, and some coatings have a noticeable smell while curing. We seal doorways with barriers during sanding and ventilate rooms after coating, and we will tell you plainly if a room is better avoided for a few hours rather than pretend it is not an issue.

Working around a working household

If someone works from home, we agree quiet hours for sanding and avoid the room they are on calls in until later in the day. Evenings and early mornings are usually left free of noisy work, and we clean tools and surfaces down before leaving each day rather than at the end of the job.

• Daily clean-down so the house is liveable overnight
• Noisy prep work scheduled away from agreed quiet hours
• A running list of what is finished and what is still open