• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

I hate decorating!

9fingers

9fingers

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I suppose I must get off the internet and make a start on decorating the "nursery" ready to equip as the "office".
My son is 27 now and it has not been touched since then so I suppose it is a fair enough interval between licks of paint.
Management reckons we need a new carpet in there too :shock:

How long have you managed to get away between decorating rooms?

Bob
 
Haha, I'm not old enough to have owned anything that needed painting for that length of time so I can't compete in this one! ;)

Cheers
Mark
 
When we came here I set myself a target of one room a year. For the first 6 years that went well but this year have yet to do anything. Main bedroom is next on the list plus hall landing and stairs.
Bedroom requires wooden floor and we've yet to find the solution of where to sleep during the 4 or 5 weeks it will take me to achieve.
 
TrimTheKing":1lxiw4up said:
Haha, I'm not old enough to have owned anything that needed painting for that length of time so I can't compete in this one! ;)

Cheers
Mark
Click to expand...

We moved in 1982 to this place as a small bungalow. Built on both ends and added another floor over the next 3 years to give a 4/5 bed house. Once I had recovered from that exertion, a son appeared and he is still here :shock:

Well I'm 60 now and if this round of decoration can last another 27 years, I will either have already been taken out of the house in a box or my son will be in charge of decorating for his old fart of a father!

Bob
 
Not as long as that, I think we had our hall and staircase painted professionally about 12 yrs ago (awkward access and height).
I started the round of major decorating earlier this year before events stopped proceedings.
We had a new fireplace and kitchen fitted in January. I'd just finished the kitchen, started fitting new skirting boards in the lounge and was painting the last bit of the Utility Room when I was rushed into hospital!
The plan was that we would redecorate all downstairs with new carpets and then the staircase and landing.
Also planned was to rebuild my shed ( bigger), free up up a lot of space in my garage workshop and clear out the loft!
As I'm not allowed to lift things remotely heavy yet, I had to employ someone to trim my hedge (for £500 - think of all the stuff I could have bought with that?!).
So it looks like I will probably be very busy next year? [emoji3]

However I have managed to work my way through a list of minor maintenance problems that occurred whilst I was in hospital - door bell, side gate, shower light - oh and deal with spiders!! [emoji2]

Rod
 
I feel like I've been doing nothing but decorating since forever!

We have a new extension on the back of our house which has resulted in the entire ground floor needing decorating. having finished that I'm now seconded to my daughters place decorating her lounge and rear extension.

Decorating at my daughters though is always only part of the story. There are always bodges to be uncovered and corrected. 20% of the suspended floor in the lounge needed replacing because of underfloor debris piled up over the damp course level and a fireplace hearth that seems to have been constructed by removing some floor boards and filling with rubble and then putting a bit of cement on top - again with no regard to damp issues. 30+ bags of rubble had to go to the dump from the hearth and elsewhere.

Its frustrating when you can't fix all the bodges. The extension part has cheap 8x4 chipboard on 2" battens as the flooring. In a couple of places this soft chipboard has broken. The previous owners solution was to pour concrete into the holes! In some places they have poured it over the central heating pipes too. Mondays job is to hide it all with ply and try to end up with something stable and even enough for laminate flooring.
 
I don't envy you at all Robert!

At least if I uncover bodges, they will have been of my own making!

I wanted to put up some spur bracketing for shelves and despite a search could not locate my stud finder so I ended up borrowing one. Not very good and hyper sensitive on 50Hz detection which de sensitised the edge finder. Any way with a few probing holes to confirm, I found all that I needed.
This morning I took up the old carpet ready for decoration and there marked out on the floor was the location of all the studs. If only I'd remembered that 30 years previously, I'd had the foresight to mark out the floor :cry:

Bob
 
Decorating is easy, when you know how.

My father is a retired professional painter and decorator, and I have worked for him for quite a few years. If any of you have any questions, or want any tips to make decorating easier and more enjoyable, and get that finished result looking fantastic, don't hesitate to ask.

However here's a few tips:

- Don't buy paint from B&Q, and other DIY stores, the quality is poor and will result in you needing to apply extra coats, and get a finish that is patchy and uneven. From personal experience I have found that Dulux and Crown paints at B&Q are inferior to the Dulux and Crown paints obtained at professional trade shops.

- Don't buy the cheapest brushes and rollers, you'll spend ages picking out brush hairs and pieces of roller fluff from the paint, and you'll also end up with a patchy rough finish.

- Do all preperation (sanding/filling/dusting) before painting anything.

- Paint the ceiling first, and then the walls. Before the final coat on the walls, you can prime and/or undercoat the woodwork.

- When painting the ceiling, you don't need to cut in to the wall, you can go onto the wall an inch of two. This will make it easier to cut in with the brush when you come to paint the wall. Just make sure you brush out the edge (called feathering the edge), so you don't have a fat edge.

- When painting ceiling and walls, use a brush to paint the edges first. Use a 2" to 3" brush, and go on to the wall or ceiling about 4" to 6" away from the edge, so that you have a nice wide band of paint to go on to with the roller.

-Matt emulsion is best on walls. A satin finish emulsion will show up any lumps or depressions, whereas a matt finish will hide them. Modern matt emulsions are now tougher and will survive knocks, rubbing and cleaning.

- Eggshell on woodwork instead of gloss looks so much better, and is now as tough as gloss. Also, the brushes are easier to clean (just use water)

- Modern acrylic eggshells are now just as good as oil based paints. If you're going to use them on top of old oil based paints, make sure you degrease and sand first, or the water-based eggshell will crinkle and peel off a few weeks or months later.

- Inbetween applying coats of paint you don't need to clean brushes and rollers. You can keep water based paint brushes and rollers in plastic bags until you have finished the job. They can stay in bags for quite a few months, use 2 bags to insure you have a good moisture trap. Oil based paint brushes and rollers can be kept in water for many months. Don't put them in white spirit or turps.

-Cleaning brushes and rollers properly is essential or they will go rock hard when dry. The best way is to wash them in a sink full of warm water, until the water is full of paint. Empty the sink and repeat until the water stays clear. Then finish off with a little liquid soap (Fairy Liquid type stuff) and rinse.

- I recommend Little Greene Paints: http://www.littlegreene.com/?loc=GB. A little bit more expensive than paints like Dulux and Crown, but a lot more cheaper than Farrow and Ball. The quality is alot better than Dulux and Crown, but the same as Farrow and Ball. You only need to use Farrow and Ball if you want a very matt chalky type finish on walls and ceilings. But be prepared to pay twice as much as Dulux and Crown paints.

Cheers :obscene-drinkingcheers:
fred
 
Thanks for taking the time to write up all the tips Fred :eusa-clap:

I've always done the gloss work last on the grounds that spills of emulsion are easier to wash off oil based paint than the other way round.
Perhaps for the professional, drying time is the key factor, gloss can be done at the end of the day leaving it overnight to dry.

I don't paint ceilings. They are all artexed and original sparkly white.

I'm doing all the prep now and that is the tedious bit. just rubbed down the first lot of filler put in last night and re-done the bits I've missed. Enforced coffee break now whilst it dries.

Quite agree about buying branded gloss paints but surprised there are poorer grades of branded paint in the sheds. Not had trouble with shed emulsion though but we only tend to go for pale colours so nothing much to cover up. I usually use two coats anyway.

I quite like roller painting walls especially when SWMBO used to do all the cutting in. Now her arthritis means I've lost my decorators mate :cry:

I've been very disappointed with nearly all water based paint on wood so always buy oil based.

Onward & Upwards!

Bob
 
9fingers":l2xsblqg said:
......
This morning I took up the old carpet ready for decoration and there marked out on the floor was the location of all the studs. If only I'd remembered that 30 years previously, I'd had the foresight to mark out the floor :cry:

Bob
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Been there. Done that. Another 'favourite'...I had got fed up keep going up into the loft to turn off the isolating valve to the CH header tank and so I'd inserted a screw-driver slot one in the feed pipe running up the back of what was to be a built-in cupboard. I carefully marked up reference points on the jambs so that once the cupboard carcass had been fitted in place I knew where to drill the hole for access in the back panel.

Then SWMBO painted the jambs before I had a chance to drill :text-baaa:
 
Yes thanks Fred - it's nice to have it confirmed that I have picked up the correct way of doing things over the years [emoji3] though I didn't know about Little Green paints.
I tend to use Trade Paints now mainly Dulux and use Satinwood on my woodwork.
I also generally paint the woodwork before the walls as I find you can wipe emulsion off the wood easier rather than the other way round - I do protect the skirting with sheets etc.

Bob we have Artex ceilings but I think you'll see a difference in whiteness with a coat of fresh white paint?

Rod
 
Rod":28bh7bbh said:
Bob we have Artex ceilings but I think you'll see a difference in whiteness with a coat of fresh white paint?

Rod
Click to expand...

I have only painted one Artex ceiling and that was the worst thing I could have done. Whatever the whiteness is in Artex, it does not yellow; add to that the little crystalline flakes that reflect the light, means it stays white for years - 30 so far in our case.

Once paint has been applied the reflectors are lost and all paints seem to yellow over time irrespective of how good a quality paint you buy.

Maybe a fresh coat will be whiter to start with but not for long in my experience.

Bob
 
You mentioned buying oil based paint Bob but that is getting difficult to do.

Since all the new laws on volatiles most paints are water based. Most seem to go yellow over time too.

Based on reviews I've gone for Leyland water based gloss (which is eggshell really) and matching undercoat for woodwork here and at my daughters. Reviews say it does not yellow so I'm hoping they are right. Leyland trade vinyl matt has proved a good emulsion so I've stuck with that where possible too.

Last time I used Dulux trade it went yellow within a year. I don't trust it now.
 
You had me worried there for a moment Robert.

I picked up a 1.25 litre can of Johnstones white gloss in In-Excess the other day and did not really study it but just checked and thankfully it is oil based.

I'm going out to get some emulsion tomorrow so I'll have a look round to see what is still available out in the sticks. Might have to start stocking up with proper paint.

Bob
 
I used Leyland paint on the upstairs doors and they went yellowish in less than a year. Read that Johnstones do the same?
Dulux changed their formulation last year after complaints and court cases - the downstairs doors I painted a year ago are still looking fine.

Rod
 
Everyone has talked a lot about painting which is the easy bit for me. It is paper hanging that I have never got to grips with. I now get a man in to do that bit.
 
Andyp":22v3m4u1 said:
Everyone has talked a lot about painting which is the easy bit for me. It is paper hanging that I have never got to grips with. I now get a man in to do that bit.
Click to expand...

:lol: Me too. Apparently the last time I tried to paper a ceiling (in 1974), the neighbours commented on the range and breadth of my profanity vocabulary.
 
I've been meaning to flag up the excellent paints from Zinsser. They do one called Cover Stain that is so thick with white pigment it blots out nearly anything with one coat.

They also do a free booklet on painting difficult surfaces.
 
RogerS":di92opfk said:
Andyp":di92opfk said:
Everyone has talked a lot about painting which is the easy bit for me. It is paper hanging that I have never got to grips with. I now get a man in to do that bit.
Click to expand...

:lol: Me too. Apparently the last time I tried to paper a ceiling (in 1974), the neighbours commented on the range and breadth of my profanity vocabulary.
Click to expand...

As far as I am concerned the ability to paper a ceiling is second only to walking on water, anyone who can do it will always have my respect!

Terry.
 
The trick to wallpapering ceilings, is to buy ready-mixed wallpaper paste, and to use it straight from the tub. Apply the paste with a short hair/flock roller, and make sure you don't roll out the paste too much. You need plenty of paste on the paper to create suction as well as adhesion. This way, the paper wont start to peel away from the ceiling when you're halfway across the ceiling.

Cheers :obscene-drinkingcheers:
fred
 
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