Redoing living room - order to do stuff ....

goggle

I moved in 3 yrs ago and am finally getting round to sorting my living room out!
The new sofa has been ordered & is ready to be delivered whenever I want it
The new carpet has been ordered & should be here in the next week for fitting whenever I am ready
The walls need doing - there are a few holes that need patching from where the previous owner had a unit attached & the whole thing needs freshening up ...

Obviously if I have to lift the carpets, it makes sense to do the decorating when the carpets are up - but I'm struggling to find a decorator who can fit me in before Christmas ...
I have painted many walls before & that doesn't faze me but am thinking that the skirting is going to take a long time to sanding down, gloss, dry etc - not the sort of thing I could do in an evening or two!

I don't *need* the carpet fitted/sofa delivered before Christmas (which to me is weeks away yet!) but at the same time I do want it soonish!

Should I wait for the carpet/sofa & do things in the right order or will it not make any difference to the decorator if the carpet is brand new-fitted for painting the skirting?

Yes, I know I've made a mistake not booking the decorator as soon as I ordered the sofa but I now need to work out what's best ...

cattie

It will be much better if the skirtings & other wood work were done before the new carpet is laid. Doing things properly to start with always pays dividends.

I recently decorated my bedroom in my new home, but it needs a new carpet & that won't be ordered until the 2nd bedroom & hallway is redecorated, which is likely to be 2 or 3 months away yet. So my bedroom skirtings have had a quick coat of paint just to smarten them up for now, but it is my intention once the old carpet does come up to get the skirtings sanded & properly painted before the new carpet goes down.

Don't rush into doing things for the sake of having it done quickly, as you'll probably regret it.

wallbash

I have painted many walls before & that doesn't faze me but am thinking that the skirting is going to take a long time to sanding down, gloss, dry etc - not the sort of thing I could do in an evening or two!

We are just talking skirting ?? 1st evening sand down ,undercoat.
2nd evening gloss??? ...........thats two evenings, sorry can't see a problem.
The only small concern most carpet fitters would like the paintwork to be done a number of days before work, paint may be dry but not hard.

goggle

wallbash wrote: »

We are just talking skirting ?? 1st evening sand down ,undercoat.
2nd evening gloss??? ...........thats two evenings, sorry can't see a problem.

Really? you reckon I could sand down & undercoat a whole room's skirting in one evening?
I was thinking that it would take me hours to sand down, sort of half an hour per metre or something ... maybe it doesn't need to be sanded as much as I am thinking?
You can tell I've never done a whole room - walls I've painted loads of times, but never the trims!

(I was thinking that if I could get the skirting done, I could paint the walls/ceilings after the carpet had been fitted if needed, but I think the skirtings need to be done before the carpet ...)

The chap I wanted to do it isn't free till Jan, there's a friend of a friend who may be able to help me, but his wife's just had a baby & he wanted a couple of weeks off to spend with her ... darn Christmas getting in my way!

wallbash

Really? you reckon I could sand down & undercoat a whole room's skirting in one evening?

We are talking a standard room ..........15x 12 ....... only skirtings , standard height ........ not too fancy . Need to be sanded down enough to paint not stripped down to wax/varnish!!

To be honest with a quick drying undercoat , cancel 2nd evening.
Will admit I have a 1/2 sheet sander plus a palm sander , if the skirtings plain will use ( no carpet or very careful ) a small roller .

Yorkie1

I chose to do the skirtings and balustrades on my stairs the weekend before the carpet was fitted on it. The redecoration of the walls / ceiling happened about 2 years later!

Ruski

Sanding down isn't as involved as you seem to believe it is - it's done to knock off any surface irregularities, and to provide a key for the undercoat to stick to by lighly scratching the surface of the old gloss.
On your hands and knees I'd expect to do the skirting in about half an hour, without any power tools : + whatever time it takes to plaster or bandage your fingers and knuckles from ripping them to pieces on the gripper rod (presuming you've gitten rid of the carpet).

Don't fret - it really doesn't take long

HTH

Russ