Like most trades , painting and decorating is skilled.
like carpet cleaning their are guys who set up as painters and decorators, with very little knowledge and very little skill, and their are the guys who are time served, that have served their appenticeship.
My son in law is a p/d served is time with a local reputable well known company for crap money, worked for a couple of firms for a while on a resonable wage , nothing special but above average, now I knew he could do much better on his own , a risk he really didnt want to take having only recently having a daughter at the time, in the end i persuaded him other wise , and over the last couple of years he has got busier and busier to the point he is now taking on an apprentice.
Why is he doing so well ? because he is skilled and a perfectionist , his custy tend to be high end are willing to pay decent money.
Mark your assuption of slapping paint on is hardly a correct analogy, well it is if thats all you want I suppose. a good painter is capable of any number of tasks, including rag rolling, glazing , broken coulour techniques, graining , marbleing , combing ,metal leafing to name a few and all of this with out even going down the path of paper hanging, wood staining etc.
qualified painter/ decorator 3 years .
c/c perhaps a combined total of a couple of weeks if you go on most courses.
slapping a bit of paint on, some people do talk crap
I do hope you dont have the same attitude when your cleaning Mark!!!
Geoff.
ps Forgot to say I can slap a bit of paint on, but I do know it wouldnt be PROFESSIONAL standard.