Home DIY

Possibly not watered down the mist coat enough either?
But obvs differ to Airhead.

It was diamond eggshell I was thinking of but moot point as there wasn't as much left as I thought. Leyland eggshell it is. 3" short pile roller has done a nice first coat

But obvs differ to Airhead

At your peril

Or as the old builders saying goes. "If you can piss, you can paint".

Whoops, defer.

Ironically this is why your posts make me even less likely to hire painter decorators.

Hearing what goes into a quality job, I can't bare the idea of paying someone to do an average job - that I could probably do myself. Plus we don't have a good enough finish on the walls to warrant paying someone excellent.

I've got a mix of clients, most I've been working with for years and we've arrived at the point where I know what they want, what they're sensitive to and they know how to get the most out of the time I spend on their decorating.

It's not difficult to find out the techniques for successful decorating, it's having the time and energy to apply them. I've given advice to friends on materials and tools and how to achieve the finish they want and they are meticulous and achieve a very high standard. I wouldn't say I'm a natural for decorating but I've learnt over a long time, sometimes I wish I hadn't!

My parents used to get a guy called George Lees in to decorate. I’m genuinely astounded at the quality of his work - it’s lasted so long and the quality of the prep and his process really stands out. They tell me they definitely paid for it tho.

And my mates who are painters say that one of the big problems is that people often don’t want to pay good money because they believe they can do it themselves.

This must be the biggest problems with decorating, because it’s easier to understand how you could do it yourself. It’s the hardest of all trades imo.

I have 5 crittall windows to completely strip and repaint, one of them is 5m long. It’s taken literally a week so far and they are not all ready for primer yet.
I’ll do it properly with degreasing, mordant solution, zinc plumbate primer and metalshield but to pay someone to do this job would be a big chunk of refurb budget and I would imagine it’s several £k to do.

Doing it properly as I never want to do it again.

Edit, that’s not to say I don’t appreciate top quality work, quite the opposite.
Have worked with tradesmen in my youth and am self employed so get the ‘can you just’ and ‘it’s a bit expensive’ all the time and that’s dealing with businesses not the general public.

I mean, I definitely wouldn’t say it’s the hardest of the trades (but that’s too complicated a rabbit hole to fall down ;) ).

It’s a hard trade to sell though, for sure.

Yeah the finish in my folks place was done to an excellent standard and almost 15yrs on it still looks great.

want to pay good money because they believe they can do it themselves.

The thing is you can paint yourself though, and you probably painted as a kid. Whereas rewiring a house is not something you can just go an have a crack at.

I wouldn't put a 5year old up a 18' ladder

I mean, plenty people have a crack at wiring - some very diligently and some suicidally lol.

It'll be fine, cut it.

Just water Lego isn’t it?

I can smell weed in my house from our neighbour’s place (victorian terrace).
It seems worst in the two 1st floor bedrooms with fireplaces. The rooms below also have fireplaces but are semi blocked up with insulation board.

My logical mind says that if the weed smell can get through then surely smoke could which should be impossible.

We are going to block up the upstairs fireplaces and also speak to him about blocking his up as well. What is the best way to do it?

If the smell isn’t coming in through the windows then it might be through voids in the floor and ceiling.

Are the chimneys still present and are they capped?

We used to live in ex-LA block of six. We were first floor (with ground below and second above). Our neighbour in the other first floor flat was a weed smoker (terrible, noisy waster of a neighbour as it happens - full package).

We could smell it in our kitchen, even with all windows closed, so I can only think it was somehow coming through the shared brickwork.

Anything you do to block the fireplaces will need to be well sealed - don’t be surprised if you can still smell it.

During the winter the upvc windows are generally closed, or open on the locked but just open position so I’m pretty sure it’s not that.

From what the previous owner said, chimneys are still open/usable. Occasionally little bits fall down past the insulation board blocking the draft downstairs.

It could be floor voids, but it does seem like it’s emanating from those specific rooms and the fireplace, although I may be imagining it.

Tough to get a good picture but the box room is coming along nicely. This is using up the little greene paint from when we had the lounge done about 5 years ago. Went on like a dream but might need to order a small tin to finish it off.

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What’s the best way to strip paint back to the the plaster of a ceiling (bathroom, if that matters)? Last owners had the ceiling replastered and then not only did they paint it blue, but they also didn’t put on a mist coat so it’s started peeling off. I want to repaint but really need to get back to the bare plaster and seal it properly first.

If it's a smooth plaster then scraping with blades. Otherwise lots and lots of overpainting

Just to be clear, I'm not dismissing what it takes to do a good decorating job (especially from a time pov). But I'm saying that as a starting point it's very different for most people with much lower stakes.

Anyway, now that I've mugged all the decorators off....