Painting - your tips please

[Peppin]

Am planning to put house on the market in the new year, so the getting it ready process starts soon. Really every room needs to be painted. I can't afford to pay a decorator so will have to do it myself at weekends. I am dreading it!

Would be grateful for any tips. e.g. how long should I allow to paint one room? What stuff do I need? Are rollers or brushes better?

I will be painting in light neutral shades and there is no dark paint or wallpaper to go over so should think 2 coats would be enough. I don't want to spend a lot on F&B paint so thinking of going for Dulux.

you need to sand any loose or flaky paint off or your new paint will flake too.
i find a 120 grade sand paper best then wash the walls with sugar soap.
The best order to paint is ceiling, wall, wood then 2nd coat ceiling wall wood so top to bottom.
I like crown trade paint, if you have a crown decorator centre near you they have the 5l vinyl matt on offer at £25 much cheaper than B&Q and better quality paint, you can get it tinted any colour too.
i just painted my Dc bedrooms and they took me 3 days each. 1 day to line the walls, and then 2 days to paint to allow for drying times between coats.

Thanks heather.

Paint colour choices are befuddling. DD wants a lilac bedroom but as we are selling, I think better to go neutral and she can have lilac in the next house. Do people agree that neutral is best for selling?

Thanks delphic. Walls are already lined in lining paper but I think the bumps come from bits of dried paint that have been left and dried onto the walls. Also I think the plastering underneath was probably a bit rough. However, I'm not able to strip the paper off and re-line so will have to make the best of it.

Did DD's room this weekend. It took 2.5 days! I need to speed up!

Thinking about doing my kitchen/living room next. Does anyone know what that clear stuff is that you can paint over any paint to make it more durable and wipeable? The wall by the bin is really marked and is always going to get really marked, but I don't want to use sheeny paint all over so was thinking it might be a good solution to use this clear stuff as a top coat just in that area. Does anyone know what it is?

Cling film!

wrap your brushes/ roller in cling film if you stop for a break. It stops them drying out.

1/2 an onion left in the room overnight gets rid of the paint smell but leave a window open.

You can get a sort of round pointed brush, about half an inch thick. They are brilliant for doing corners with ceilings and woodwork.

Lots of ideas floating around, this may help make sense of some of them.

The clear coating you are looking for is Polyvine Decorators Varnish. It comes in dead flat (which isnt dead flat!) satin or gloss. Make sure it isnt the Polyvine wood varnish which looks similar but isnt.

Proper tough paints I know are Dulux Diamond range, or Little greene Ultimatt (Intelligent Matt) or Mythic acrylic latex. Mythic is astounding, as it is scrubbable in the matt finish, which is actually matt too. You get what you pay for by and large.

On bare plaster you can use 2 coats of acrylic matt, first coat diluted by 15% with water. It is a bit / lot more expensive paint than cheaper vinyl matt paint, but a third less on labour.

having said that, on existing ceilings in good condition I have been assured that Leyland vinyl matt in white is reliable and economical, but other contract or vinyl matt paint, i am not convinced, but I am in a minority :)

If you have stains on the ceiling, I wouldnt muck about, just apply 2 coats of Blackfriars problem solving primer or mythic multi purpose primer, you will be amazed at how nice and white it looks and stays. leave about 4 hours between coats though, else the second coat will reactivate the stain.

You can make your own bathroom paint, add a sachet of Anti fungicidal solution to satin paint. The satin is the minimum sheen to choose, matt is too "porous" to resist the spores.

Synthetic brushes in acrylic or water based paint are a must. Damp them before use, clean them every few hours, wash them out at night, never in warm or hot water! I dunk mine overnight in a cleaner called Krudkutter, it keeps them immaculate. Picasso is the best brush for emulsioning. The Wooster kit I recommend is top of the range and will last you a lifetime, that works out cheap, if you paint remotely regularly.

I absolutely dont subscribe to the idea that DIY equals slapdash or shouldnt look good. With decent kit and decent paint, you can match the standards of a lot of average decs who wont go the extra mile because the price is too tight to do otherwise. The main advantage the average dec has have over you is speed and they should know instantly how to get over a problem, otherwise, if you have the time and a painty mind, go for it.

A lot of painting is over thought, trying to get the nirvana of cheap and perfect. If you want perfect, you need to invest in tools and paint and have a real talent and a steady hand. I get most things right first time, but if I don't, I dont have a "that'll do" attitude, that is the start of along slippery slope.

At the end of it, prospective buyers / the new people should walk in, see nothing but solid flat neutral colours everywhere, framed in nice smooth woodwork, and you will have a head start on the guys who slap on cheap coats and hope people are dim enough not to notice.

BD

If you are repainting to freshen up for selling my tips would be

1. Use waterbased paint on woodwork - much easier to apply & to clean up if it gets where it shouldn't. I think Oil based is longer lasting but you wont be there and waterbased lasts a pretty long time too.

1. Use Crown or Dulux - cheaper and any professional decorators I have had prefer them as they say coverage is better.

1. If you like a F&B colour then get a tester pot - give a piece of card a good few coats and take it to one of those places where they zap it to copy the colour.

1. Use matt emulsion

1. If you wrap your brushes in clingfilm really tightly they will last overnight if you are short of time for washing

1. I wouldn't bother with painting a protevtive coat around the bin. Save a bit of the colour from the same tin and if you get a mark just touch up over it. I used to regularly touch up hallway when DC toddler to cover finger marks etc.

7 If you are doing windows , one of those razor blade scraper things gets ill aimed paint off glass really easily so dont worry too much about perfect masking tape on the glass.

Good luck !

I've name changed back now. Thanks for your tips, especially acmasterpainter. I totally love your site (which someone up the thread pointed me to) and have bought the Wooster kit and also a Picasso brush, which are brilliant. We've done one bedroom, all the exterior masonry, and this weekend did all the sanding and filling in hallway and landing to make a good start next weekend on that. It will take ages because the bannister and spindles are all painted. Andy, for something fiddly like that, would you use a 1 inch brush? Mine are 2.5 inch and 2 inch and those are going to be far too wide for the bannister spindles. I would love your brush recommendation for that sort of task.

Also, at the moment the bannister and woodwork have been gloss. I don't love gloss, but having painted the bedroom door eggshell I can see that eggshell is not going to be hard wearing enough for the stairs. Do you think satinwood finish would be? Or should I stick with gloss?

Thanks again for all the tips. I am almost starting to enjoy this painting. I just hate all the washing up afterwards!

For spindles, if you can do it with one person stood either side, that helps a lot.

There are a few options really for applying paint to spindles.

Not sure if you have square or round, but if you have a mini roller, try applying the paint as well as you can with that, then lay off with a 1" brush.

On square spindles a small paint pad is pretty handy for applying and laying off, with a small brush just to sort out the tops and bottoms.

If you have a hand rail that you want to keep natural wood, spend the time masking it up underneath and on top (spindles tend to start on landings and paint can drop from there down on to the handrail below).

Not wishing to pick at others advice, but I am afraid I absolutley dont subscribe to the idea of slapping paint on and tidying up messes afterwards. It makes no sense on any level - time, finished standards just don't match protecting what you don't want to paint. Also masking tape greatly reduces the incidence of bitty woodwork.

Best paint for spindles is natural wood finishes / polish! Painting, oil gloss is the easiest to keep clean, Satinwood is pretty tough though. Big warning though, white oil based paint from mainstream suppliers is still yellowing badly . This is why something like Mythic Semi gloss in white (acrylic latex) is a real gem on well prepared and primed woodwork. Dulux Ecosure I am assured is a good a drop of white water based gloss. Sikkens Satura is a top waterborne paint, but you need to be good, a lot of pros have trouble, so probably best to steer away from that. Water based gloss isnt as shiny as oil based gloss. Acrylic paint takes 7 days to cure, so when people say it isnt very tough, invariably they hit it before it has set right the way through.

btw great news to hear that you went with the proper kit :) Another advantage of using such high quality products is that you are dealing with a couple of absolute gem companies who will look after you, if there is any problem whatsoever. I better go now before I get on to fillers, sand paper etc :)

Hi Andy. Thanks again for your help. I will prob go for the Dulux Ecosure as am painting to sell and don't want v expensive paints (though rest assured, I am planning all Mythic and Little Greene in my next home).

I have only seen quite big paint pads but will have a look for a little one. The whole bannister and spindles are all painted white so no need for too much masking up. Would you use the Wooster mini-roller on the spindles then?

On the fillers, I have taken your advice and got the French stuff you recommend. I seem to always end up with too much of it mixed up though! Sanding, I have a little electric one but it takes so long!

Oh and I have square spindles

The mini roller would be fine on the square spindles, and tidy up with a dryish 1" brush. Small paint pads are tricky to get hold of, I used a local merchant who had a box of the small 1" wide pads they were seconds and noone but me ever bought them. I have seen 1 small one included in these DIY packs, but not best way to go. Try online decorator stores for Peter paint Pads

Toupret TX110 filler, better to mix little and often, too good to waste.

Have you got the Abranet starter kit. That rips through the sanding even though it is manual. Or use Abranet and an interface pad with your little sander if it is velcro backed? I have trimmed them to suit various sanders in past, got to get creative, got to use the abranet!

I am just double checking with a colleague to make sure you do the right spec for Eco Sure. For starters though, prep the spindles with the Abranet sanding block- a few seconds per side with 180 grade, vacuum clean. Or if the paintwork is in good condition, you could use a liquid sander like KrudKutter Deglosser or Owatrol ESP, both of which are watery liquids that you wipe on and leave a few minutes to dry before painting.

Here you go, you can trust this advice from a good mate of mine who has been painting with acrylic woodwork paint longer than anyone. 2 coats of Ecosure with a little trick (deglosser) to make sure it sticks.

I've used Ecosure Gloss on top of existing oil based paint with good success.

I dull sanded with 180 grit Abranet, went over with Krud Kutter Gloss Off and applied 2 coats of Ecosure Gloss. This system covered and adhered well. If Gloss Off isn't available, ESP should be fine. It may even be better.

Tell them to avoid using the Ecosure Undercoat as it doesn't stick to old oil paints very well.

Definitely get one of those Dulux paintpod machines. It is so much quicker, looks much neater and uses far less paint.

opinions differ.

Andy, thanks for the advice re the Ecosure. That's really helpful.

I haven't got the Abranet starter kit though I did nearly get it - but was put off by the idea of manually sanding all the woodwork in the house! I have this electric sander, which is OK but does take quite a long time going over lumps and bumps. Do you think the Abranet strips would work with this sander? I'm not sure about the sizing - sander says 90x197mm and Abranet strips seem to be 70x125mm.

Peppin

the Mirka Abranet strips come in 70 x 125, 70 x 198 and there is a Handy at 80 x 238, so not really suitable, but the rolls are 115 x 5m or 10m, which you can easily trim to suit. The Abranet will transform your sander ie it will sand better than ever before. When the abranet eventually clogs just vacuum it clean and carry on. You wont get the full dust extraction effect of Abranet though because I doubt the sander has the number of holes on Mirka sanders or sanding blocks.

For kitchens, I only use the 70 x 198mm hand sander, it is a brilliant size where you have panelling, 2 swipes on each section and it gets a perfect hard base for next coat, dust straight into the vacuum. 180 grade is my most used grade. This stuff has literally revolutionised decorating and is the perfect kit for DIY who hate sanding.