Help with nightmare decorating!

BB78

Please help!! I’m trying to decorate my flat & its not going well.
I had a wall moved 2 months ago & have got to decorate the lounge, hall & bedroom, I’ve been doing the prep & trying to paint for over 2 weeks & I don’t seem to be any further forward.

I bought a 5ltr tin of trade (non-vinyl) emulsion which should have been enough to do a mist coat everywhere & 2 coats to all the ceilings, so far all I’ve managed is a mist coat to the walls & ceiling in the lounge & a patchy 1st coat to the lounge ceiling & I only have about a litre of paint left. :eek: I know fresh plaster sucks moisture & I watered the paint down for the mist coat but with every hour that passes more of the plaster is showing through the mist coat, is this supposed to happen? at this rate I’m going to have to do several more mist coats plus undercoats before painting on the pale colour I’ve chosen.
I desperately want to achieve a nice finish and seem to have spent a small fortune so far & it’s still looking crap! I’m apparently useless with a roller, its killing my shoulder, neck & arm & giving me pins & needles in my hand, the extension pole for the ceilings is about as useful as a chocolate teapot & I’ve got knackered knee’s & badly bruised shin’s making the stepladder a tool of torture.
The rooms total 30m2, what am I doing wrong & why is this taking so long? I’ve got a new sofa being delivered Wednesday so the lounge has got to be finished & I’m having my tonsils out Friday so want the place clean & tidy so I’m not breathing in dust & crap anymore & it’s all got to be done before the new flooring is laid on the 27th! I’m sick of living out of boxes, everything feeling dirty & dusty & desperately need a rest! Am I using crap tools, should I try a paint pad instead or should I just admit defeat?
I’ve already bought the colours I want to use so can’t get the Dulux Paint Pod, are there any other paint roller/sprayer systems worth getting that will make this job easier/quicker to complete?

Are you a Painter & Decorator in the Crawley area looking for some work this week??

Doozergirl

I think your mist coat might have been too thick if you've used way too much paint although you always end up using more than the tin says. It's hard without seeing your room to know how much you might use.

You should be able to slap a mist coat on - it doesn't matter that you can see the plaster, the whole point is to allow the plaster to soak up water instead of all your paint, not to actually coat the wall to any great degree.

I've got a roller where you actually fill the inside of it with paint. It's been brilliant painting this weekend, I've covered far more than I ever would - I could do a whole coat to DS's room in an hour. It's heavy when it's full so being a proper girl I've not filled it up. Also the extension pole fell off almost immediately but the actual roller is great.

nickj_2

5 lits isn't enough to do a mist coat and 2 coats on ceiling
you only need 1 coat of mist to seal new plaster
don't worry about plaster showing thru - as long as it has a thin coat over it - it will be fine
you don't need to blank out the plaster totally with thinned emu
you can now get a prper coat of coloured emu on walls
go to your local builders merchants and get a decent roller and sleeve , hamiltons are very good , don't bother with anything from diy merchants they are usually rubbish

BB78

Doozergirl wrote: »

I've got a roller where you actually fill the inside of it with paint. It's been brilliant painting this weekend, I've covered far more than I ever would - I could do a whole coat to DS's room in an hour. It's heavy when it's full so being a proper girl I've not filled it up. Also the extension pole fell off almost immediately but the actual roller is great.

I've looked at those & wondered if they were any good but at £30 didn't want to waste money finding out. I had one of the edging rollers once; supposedly it made cutting in a thing of the past... it was totally useless!!

BB78

nickj wrote: »

5 lits isn't enough to do a mist coat and 2 coats on ceiling
you only need 1 coat of mist to seal new plaster
don't worry about plaster showing thru - as long as it has a thin coat over it - it will be fine
you don't need to blank out the plaster totally with thinned emu
you can now get a prper coat of coloured emu on walls
go to your local builders merchants and get a decent roller and sleeve , hamiltons are very good , don't bother with anything from diy merchants they are usually rubbish

I used an online paint calculator & it came up with the 5ltr calculation, the rooms are small but I didn't think it looked like enough. I went & got a paint pad yesterday (Wilko's as everywhere else was closed) the handle screws on to the extension pole so I was hoping that would be better but wondering now if I should get one of the rollers that you pour the paint into as I'm obviously no good at getting on to the ceiling & walls & spreading it out without using too much & making a mess of it!!

andrew-b

I use paint pads. I've got the stanley maxfinish paint pad set though i get on better with a harris large paint pad (sell them in Homebase i think). Never tried painting with extension poles as I think your better off using the step ladder to get up close to where your painting. I know what you mean about bruised legs as i have weak leg muscles so have to push my legs into the steps to even get up the ladder. I seem to have permanently got bruises on my shins recently - no pain no gain i guess! Long socks and rolled up newspapers or magazines stuffed down them is one solution - or else buy some shin pads!
I've just miscoated our bathroom recently with 2 coats of dulux trade supermatt - following the instructions on the tin for how much to water down your first and second coats. The first coat was 1 part water to 3 parts paint and second 1 part water to 5 parts paint. Get yourself a paint kettle with measurements marked in it to do your mixing (a quid or two for a plastic one from wickes).

As already said 5L doesn't sound enough to me - i've used i guess about 3.5L for 16.5square metres. I've still got probably two top coats to go with coloured emulsion though i've got other works to do before i can get on with that....always seems so demoralising having to do it all over again doesnt it! But it's usually worth it at the end!

One thing i've learnt about decorating is it always takes longer than you think it will and the more time you spend on the preparation the better the final result is ...so hang in there and keep going you'll get there eventually...plus you'll have saved a packet in decorating costs at the end of it (not that i want to put Misgrace out of a job! )

Andy

BB1984

when you worked out your square-meterage, did you use the floor areas of the rooms? That would massively under-estimate as you need to know the area of the walls...sorry if that was stating the obvious but just thought I'd check! 5l is way way too little for that amount of painting. I would mist-coat and then do a "proper" coat of white too, as an undercoat so that you'll get a great finish from 2 coats of your coloured paint.

BB

Doozergirl

BB78 wrote: »

I've looked at those & wondered if they were any good but at £30 didn't want to waste money finding out. I had one of the edging rollers once; supposedly it made cutting in a thing of the past... it was totally useless!!

One of those came in the box too. I didn't even bother with it, I can tell it's going to be completely useless too.

H hates the thing that you fill with paint too! He wasn't happy with it on the ceilings - I don't know if that's a gravity thing with the paint inside being at the bottom rather than the top. He got out his regular roller for that but I'd definately use it again - you're right though at £30 and the amount of rubbish in the box with it, I wonder if it is worth it. It was for me as I'd have given up and paid someone!