Painting Tips and Tricks, Preparation

Your living room's looking a little tired and could do with a make over, so you decide to redecorate; here's a few painting tips and tricks you may want to consider. One of the first thing you need to consider is probably one of the most expensive parts of any redecoration; the floor; is it carpeted; if so will it go with your new colour scheme, if not you may have to replace it. If it's ok your colour scheme with have to be decided taking it into consideration. If you decide to replace it leave it down till the end of the job, it will act as a dust sheet when painting.
The day before you start the job check you have all the tools you need.

Tape Measure,

Pencil,

2 Sets of Steps,

A Plank,

Internal Filler

2 Scrapers 3” & 11/2 “

Decorators Caulk

Small Hawk for filling

A Float for filling

Sandpaper & Block

Plastic Containers for paint

Sugar Soap

1 Flat Screw Driver

1 Flat Philips Screw Driver

A Bucket

6” Brush for pasting

Pasting Table

Large Shears

Plumb Bob

10” Papering Brush

A 21/2” & 11/2” Paint brush

White Spirits

Dust Brush, the most important tool

A Roller & Roller Tray with spair sleeves

Extension Pole

Stiring stick

Dust sheets

Two sets of steps come in handy. The ones I've suggested from amazon have a tray at the top to hold your paint and tools. The trestle type steps offer more stability so you could have one of each; if not next door may have a pair if you only have one set.

A plank will save you a lot of time; the one above is telescopic so you can adjust the length, a great idea that will be my next buy as you can see from the picture our rooms are quite big. As a younger man all we used was an 8" x 21/2" x 8' peace of timber; dose the job and a lot cheaper. On the other hand to save any expense it can be done from the top of your steps, I wouldn't recommend it but it can be done.

The tape measure has a locking device which is handy, but when you release it let it in by hand, it come in quite fast and may trap part of your finger and it won't last to long ether. I did put a 16ft tape in but on second thoughts I've seen some of the houses in the U.S. so it's 25ft; you could buy one at fifty feet for a few more dollars, but it's money you don't need to spend.

Buy the best paint brushes you can; they should be about 3/4" thick at the stock which in turn holds more bristles, which holds more paint; the handle should be nice and round for easy grip. Always clean after use and you'll have them for years.

Plastic containers will also come in handy for painting; again there's quit a few large food containers out there that would do. I've included wallpaper hanging tools as well, should you need them; you can make up your own 'Plumb Bob' with a set of keys and a 8' piece of string.

Ok your ready to start; take down all the light fittings where you can; move as much furniture out of the room as possible and move the larger objects into the centre of the room, making sure you stack it so you can get your plank over the top of the centre of the room and on to the two pair of steps. Put dust sheets over the furniture and carpet to protect them from falling paint.
It's a good idea to buy 4 or 5 large dust sheets; it's amazing how they come in handy and you'll probably have them for the rest of you life; if not old bed sheets, polythene, anything to cover up.
Polythene's ok to cover the furniture but not such a good idea on the floor, if you stand on it at one end of the room it moves the other end; dust sheets for the floor then.

One word of warning at this point; if your painting the celling and a large blob of paint falls off your roller, wipe it off the dust sheet other wise it will soak through; even though it's probably water based if you find the stain under the dust sheet at the end of the job when it's had a couple of days to dry, it's very hard to remove.

That's it your ready to go.

I'll take you through the whole process of decorating a room through a series of hubs.

Qualifications: It was my first job I served my time from 15 years of age and been at it ever since.

I was lucky in that my peers where Alan Smith & Fred Marshall two old paper hangers who never removed there caps and knew every trade trick in the book. As a kid I would paste the wallpaper as fast as I could; while they put it on the wall from both sides of the room. It was amazing to watch.

It's your tape measure, you'll notice that any trades man who comes to price a job for you always as a tape in is hand.
In this group of hubs I hope to be able to give you the confidence to be able to do your own decorating and do other peoples to.