Paint & Weedkiller

[LoosingBattle]

Exciting holiday week coming up, toddler being packed away to Granny's and me and DH are doing the house and garden! Could do with some recommendations please!

Paint: We built our house 18 months ago and the builder used crappy cheap paint throughout, after 18 months of toddler, dog and a muddy garden the house is in dire need of painting right through. Looking for cheap(ish) but decent paint that we can wipe when the dog gets slobbery (boxer) and the toddler gets messy with her food etc.

Weedkiller: We haven't done much to the garden since we moved in, finally got the grass down but there are bits surrounding the house and at the front that have nettles, thistles etc of over 5 ft tall! Planning on cutting it all down and putting weed killer down before doing something with it next spring. Did a little bit already and the weedkiller I got was crap, didn't seem to do anything at all - any suggestions of what I need?

Thanks

what's wrong with the paint, apart from being dirty? Chipped, cracked, rough, peeling, gritty?

Get a Glyphosate weedkiller. It is sold as Roundup but the chemical is off patent now so exactly the same thing is sold under varous brand names. Cheapest at places like Wilkinson under their own name. Concentrate that you mix in a garden sprayer is much cheaper than tiny bottles of readimix. Lock away any remaining chemical if you have children in the house.

Buy a 5-litre sprayer if you haven't already got one. Rinse out well after use and you can also use it to spray greenfly, mildew etc.

p.s.

the weedkiller soaks in through the leaves, so don't cut them all off before you spray. Leave it until it all looks dead (may take a week or two)

If you cut the tops off you it will grow back and you will have to spray again.

Excellent, never knew that about the weeds. Thanks for that.

Current paint is very thin, ridiculously thin. Possibly just a base coat that was used when plaster was put up and we should have painted straight away. Didn't have the time or money for that. Now in the places I have tried to wipe it the paint has come off and looks terrible. I need something thick to cover it up and wipeable to get rid of the -bloody dog slobber as soon as it hits the walls!

perhaps the plaster was new and it was given a coat of non-vinyl matt that the damp plaster can breath through.

if you have washed it off, give it one or two more coats of Dulux Supermatt thinned with water per instructions (white is cheapest) then you can apply a more durable vinyl emulsion in your choice of colour.

the white coats will give an even colour and absorbency to the wall so you need less colour to cover. It will also highlight to the eye any blemishes so you can fill and smooth them (and base-coat again) before applying the finish.

Personally, I think weedkiller's more trouble than it's worth when you've got weeds that big. I'd just dig / pull them up (nettles come up beautifully with a fork) so that you've got a clear space to work in, and then spray the regrowth with glyphosate, so it's getting at all the young fresh leaves. When I've worked in professional gardens, that's what I've seen done.