Paint Brands and all that jazz...

danmurray

If you go to a Johnstone's or Leyland trade centre, you can get really good deals on paint like 15 litres of trade matt in either magnolia or white for under £30.

Even smaller paint shops can offer a better deal than likes of Homebase/B&Q. My local paint shop has 10lt Dulux trade matt for only £24 at the moment; Johnstone's Covaplus for only £17. That's the best price I've come across yet.

Dulux is great paint but Johnstone's is considered better than Dulux for certain products (see http://www.johnstonestrade.com/news/disputed-best-by-test-claims-settled.aspx). At the end of the day though, if you're only wanted a quick fix up, who cares.

I'm sure you've probably got it sorted now anyway but I thought I'd add my own tuppence

Roaming

Still working on it danmurray! Its slow going with many fronts to fend simultaneously.

I'll have a look around to see what we have in the area.

Thank you!

VoucherMan

Doesn't answer your question but in case you have a local shop

I went to the local paint shop at the weekend & had a 2.5 litre tin mixed. Cost about £13 compared to about £19 or £20 for Dulux off the shelf emulsion. Looks just as good to me.
Brand on tin - Macpherson

CashisKing

Macphersons trade paints are a decent trade between price and quality

Roaming

Great advice everyone! I went out and found a local Johnstone's trade shop and found a colour I liked. For the bedrooms at least.

They said they could even mix up Farrow and Ball colours for their own price! Sounds good to me! We wanted to use Dulux Light & Space but think we need to think practically.

Might be putting on first cost tomorrow morning

I have a question about walls where we have just removed wallpaper, paste, and pink stretchy layer of something followed by chalky paint (distemper?). Wall has been sanded down, followed by a wash with sugar soap, some Polyfilla to fill up dents and holes. The wall was still chalky so we have now applied a solvent based acrylic primer to stabilise it.

There are however, some patches where the wall is not smooth - difference between peeled paint and underlying plaster I think. Well, quite a few actually, so now we have to find out how to make the wall all smooth for painting.

What are opinions on using Polycell Smooth Over? Or, Polycell 3-in-1 Basecoat? We don't want to pay to have to have it skimmed.

Leif

Roaming wrote: »

What are opinions on using Polycell Smooth Over? Or, Polycell 3-in-1 Basecoat? We don't want to pay to have to have it skimmed.

I've never used those, but you can scrape a coat of Easi-fill over, which will fill pores. Use a wallpaper scraper, and drag over so you only fill dips. The advantages are a) cheap and b) easy to sand. Be warned that holes in walls are easy to miss. Professionals will shine a powerful light at an angle to highlight depressions. A bright LED torch will do the job too.

I once tried some Unibond No More Cracks ready Mixed Filler. It is complete carp.

Roaming

Leif... Thank you! We'll give that a go tomorrow then. I'll try putting up some photos of what kind of wall imperfections we need to cover up.

Roaming

This is how the wall looks in places now. We've put a layer of Alkali primer on it hence the white colour.

These imperfections can be felt so I'm wondering if its ok for us to use Easi-fill on the wall now to see if we can smooth it over?