Painting is the last thing to enter a job and the first thing anyone notices when they walk in. It is also where rushed work shows most: a ceiling with shadows in raking light, an unfinished door edge or a wall that marks at the slightest touch all give away that the preparation stages were skipped.
At Grupo Construcciones Alicante we paint homes, commercial units and communal areas across Alicante and the province, and most of the work happens before the tin is opened: masking, sanding, cutting out anything loose, sealing and filling. Only once the surface is uniform does the finish go on, with as many coats as the colour and the surface require. We work in occupied or empty properties, and always leave the place clean at the end of each day.
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It is the job with the best ratio between what it costs and what it changes: painting a whole property costs a fraction of any other trade and leaves it unrecognisable. That is why it is the first thing done before putting a flat on the market, and what makes every euro work hardest when the budget is tight.
Beyond appearance, good paintwork protects. Water-based enamel on joinery takes knocks and cleaning without yellowing; washable paint in the hallway survives children’s hands; and on a façade, an elastic coating over a proper primer stops water entering through hairline cracks and appearing later as damp inside. Cheap paint is expensive because you have to do it again in two years.
Good paintwork starts long before the tin is opened. This is the order we work in:
We look at the property and check the real condition of the surfaces: whether there is texture to remove, whether the existing paint is sound, whether there is damp, cracking or staining likely to bleed through. That determines the preparation needed.
A fixed quote room by room, stating the type of paint, the number of coats, the preparation included and any joinery work. You know what is being done in each room and with what product.
We mask floors, furniture, joinery and fittings with sheeting and tape before starting. It is what separates a tidy job from cleaning off splashes for weeks.
We prepare the surface: sanding, cutting out anything loose, sealing cracks, filling and a coat of primer where the surface calls for it. The final result rests on this stage.
We apply the coats required and inspect in raking light, which is how shadows and missed touch-ups show. What you cannot see head-on shows from the side.
We remove the masking, touch in edges and junctions, clean up and leave you the colour references used in case you ever need a repair.
Emulsion paint. The standard interior finish. Matt hides wall imperfections better and is the usual choice for living rooms and bedrooms; satin withstands cleaning and is used in kitchens, bathrooms and hallways. The difference between mid-range and cheap paint is coverage: cheap paint needs more coats, so the saving disappears.
Enamels and lacquers. For doors, wardrobes, skirtings and railings we use water-based enamel: it doesn’t yellow over time like solvent-based paint, smells far less and dries faster, which makes working in an occupied home possible. Spray lacquering gives the finest, most uniform finish, and it is how old doors are renewed instead of replaced.
Removing textured finishes. Very much in demand in properties from the seventies and eighties, of which Alicante has plenty. It is resolved with skimming compound and sanding, or with plasterboard where the wall condition suggests it. It transforms how the home reads, and it is the moment to renew switches and lighting.
Façades and exteriors. Here the sun and the salt air rule. Anything flaking is cut out, a stabilising primer is applied and then an elastic or siloxane paint, which lets the wall breathe while repelling water. Access by scaffold or rope, depending on the building.
The honest answer is that savings almost never come from where people think. Materials are a small part of the cost: what you pay for is preparation and hours. Dropping the paint quality to save a hundred euros across a whole property means an extra coat and a finish that marks sooner; that is not where to cut.
Where you can adjust is the scope. Painting only the rooms on show, leaving ceilings that are still sound, keeping the joinery if the existing enamel is holding up, or choosing a light colour that covers in fewer coats are all decisions that lower the price without lowering the quality. We set it out in blocks so you decide where to invest.
And a practical warning: if there is active damp, painting over it solves nothing. The stain returns within weeks. First find the source (a leak, a pipe, condensation from poor ventilation), fix it and then paint. Otherwise you are paying twice for the same job.
Painting and finishing work we carry out regularly in Alicante:
As a rule, two finish coats over a prepared surface, plus a primer where the surface is new, very absorbent or has been filled. Strong colours or dramatic changes of tone sometimes need a third. The quote states how many coats each surface receives: if a quote doesn’t say, it is impossible to compare it with another.
Yes. With water-based enamels and paints the smell is manageable and drying is quick, so we work room by room and hand each area back tidy every evening. What helps is clearing objects from whichever room is being done that day, and expecting the furniture to be stacked in the centre and covered. On large jobs it is quicker and more comfortable with the property empty.
An average flat where walls and ceilings only need preparing and painting takes three or four days. If textured finishes have to be skimmed off, it runs to a good week, because the process involves compound, sanding and vacuuming the dust before painting. Lacquering the joinery adds a couple of days, with drying times between coats.
With samples on the actual wall, looked at through the day, not from a chart in the shop. The light in Alicante is very strong and colours read considerably lighter and more saturated than on a printed card under fluorescent light. We put test patches of the shortlisted tones on the wall that concerns you most and you decide on the real thing.
First find where it comes from: a roof or façade leak, a pipe, or condensation from poor ventilation, which near the coast is more common than people think. Once the source is fixed and the area is dry, it is cut back, a specific stain-blocking sealer is applied so the mark cannot bleed through the new paint, and then it is finished. Painting straight over it only guarantees it comes back.
Yes, complete façades as well as light wells, entrance halls and garages. We provide a detailed quote for the owners’ meeting, covering the access method (scaffold, platform or rope access), the preparatory repairs, crack treatment and paint system, along with the safety plan. On a façade, the preparation is what determines how many years the finish lasts.