Painting over a few decades - advice

Painting over a few decades - advice

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untruth

Original Poster:

2,834 posts

188 months

Thursday 13th February 2014
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tbc said:
Don't be tempted to touch it for about 3-4 weeks
Just came out of a rental where the rather questionable contractors would paint days after plastering and it was always horrific, so I'm ready to wait until every last bit is a soft pastel pink!

Pooky67

577 posts

158 months

Friday 14th February 2014
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Congratulations! It is a relief to not have to deal with bad walls. I've tried it both ways and I think I'll always choose to skim from now on.

untruth

Original Poster:

2,834 posts

188 months

Tuesday 18th February 2014
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Now looking all nice and tidy.






megaphone

10,694 posts

250 months

Tuesday 18th February 2014
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Get a white matt mist coat on there, it will give you a great base to paint on once it's all dried out.

Gtom

1,593 posts

131 months

Tuesday 18th February 2014
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It's a bet late for this (and being honest the best way IS re skimming) but I use this paint when in the same situation

http://www.diy.com/nav/decor/paint-woodcare/primer...

It may take two or three coats but so long as you have done all the filling and sanding right the a real good result can be achieved.

untruth

Original Poster:

2,834 posts

188 months

Sunday 2nd March 2014
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So I've been spending my precious weekends stripping 6(!) layers of paint on door frames, for better or for worse.

Finally broke the back of it today, leaving the room-side of each frame unstripped - it was repainted by old occupier (a painter/decorator) very nicely. Turns out after peeking under one of their painted bits that it was stripped before they eggshelled it, so I've saved myself the same task on the room side, and will just key it and paint over (thus starting the paint layer cycle all over again for a future generation).

Once done, I will be chemically stripping the last flecks of paint from the stripped frames, giving it a sand and a fill in parts, keying the newer paint, and then get our colour rolled out...

Photos. I'm learning on the job so there's some slightly crappy dents in the wood where I got too enthusiastic, and I've not managed to totally avoid burning the wood... but not too shoddy.



Got 2 weeks until we can mist coat the new plaster so the timing isn't too bad.[url]

untruth

Original Poster:

2,834 posts

188 months

Saturday 15th March 2014
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Been a month since plastering. Still got that dappled look in parts, although the pattern hasn't changed in weeks.

Is this close to being suitable for a mistcoat, or does it need to dry further?




Gtom

1,593 posts

131 months

Saturday 15th March 2014
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You could have mist coated after a week! If it's well ventilated and the heating is on mist coat it as soon as the plaster is pink! On site I have seen it done after 2 days and been totally fine.

untruth

Original Poster:

2,834 posts

188 months

Saturday 15th March 2014
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Ha, thanks. Good to know I've left ample time...

I'm not in a rush anyway as I've got door frames to paint strip before I mist, which I'm nearly done with. Don't wanna do anything to the walls until I've cracked that painfully tedious task.

untruth

Original Poster:

2,834 posts

188 months

Monday 31st March 2014
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Another update. It has taken a good few weekends to actually do it, but I've stripped back all 5 door frames and surrounds. I've not done the inner frames because that'll require taking doors off and I don't quite have the enthusiasm for that yet.

For anyone who is interested, after a lot of internet advice browsing, I made a final hybrid way of working which really worked for me:

1. Heat gun and scrape 3-4 top layers of paint, mainly the tough outer paint.
2. Brush on chemical paint stripper. I did a comparison of Nitromors and TX10 and I found TX as good, if not better. And, it's only £25 for 5L, much cheaper than TX10.
3. Wirewool rub down the surface, which will pull 99% of the paint off, leaving a few ingrained bits, which you could probably remove if you really kept going at it.
4. Wash down with sugar soap/water mixture

Which brings me to 5... which will be to sand it down ready to be painted.



Doing this near new plaster was a bit nerve wracking. I masked every adjoining piece but it wasn't fun to do as I spent half my time trying not to get anything on it.

Anyway, I'm now at the point where I have lots of options. I can do the insides of the frames (easy bit), or I can mist-coat walls. I'm thinking of finishing stripping all of the stairway wood as I'd rather do that when I can make a mess easily without worrying about freshly painted walls.

Craikeybaby

10,369 posts

224 months

Thursday 3rd April 2014
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Good work. I'm beginning to thing I should have done that on our door frames, but it would probably have been better to do it before painting the room and getting the carpets fitted rolleyes

untruth

Original Poster:

2,834 posts

188 months

Thursday 3rd April 2014
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Craikeybaby said:
Good work. I'm beginning to thing I should have done that on our door frames, but it would probably have been better to do it before painting the room and getting the carpets fitted rolleyes
It's frustrating to still not be painting the walls (I've even bought the mixed paint!) but I know it'll pay off. I don't want to be sanding near newly painted walls, so that will come first.

As for carpet - I've destroyed the (already pretty bad) carpet that came with the house doing this. Melted it in a few places! I would rip it up until replacement but the floorboards need totally replacing on the landing as there's a few holes in the floor(!) that it's covering up. So, carpet won't be ripped up until I have the guts to replace the landing floor.

My main debate is whether I paint the walls once frames are sanded, or work my way down the stairs and get the banister and skirting/stair construction stripped first, then paint walls. It's never ending.

untruth

Original Poster:

2,834 posts

188 months

Sunday 6th April 2014
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Here we go, I took the plunge. Sanded all the wood down and filled the entire house with dust, cleaned up... then had just enough time to practice my cutting in with a mist coat, though I can't help but think even though the contract emulsion was 40% watered down, it still came up pretty white on one coat.

|http://thumbsnap.com/xryx7R4a

Anyone got any experience with one of these Shur-Lines? Apparently pretty good on the end of a pole...


Just spent a day on various configurations of my multi-ladder on the stairs painting the ceiling, and I'd quite like to not have to do so again. The stairs folds back on itself which actually means the clever platform thing is only useful for one half of the ceiling.

untruth

Original Poster:

2,834 posts

188 months

Sunday 6th April 2014
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Got up early to catch the light and do my first ever ceiling. SO messy to do but I'm pretty pleased with my work. Amazed how good the plaster finish actually is once it's been painted.

This is 2x 40% mist coats in quick succession, which I think has worked well.






untruth

Original Poster:

2,834 posts

188 months

Tuesday 8th April 2014
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Fin.



So much good advice here. Can't wait to bugger up the walls after such a run of good luck.

blaineuk

2,614 posts

246 months

Tuesday 8th April 2014
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You should have mist coated the walls at the same time as you did the ceiling

untruth

Original Poster:

2,834 posts

188 months

Tuesday 8th April 2014
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Ideally I would have, but I have to do things in bits as I have very little free time.

Any big issues with not doing it at the same time? The ceiling paint final coat is the same as the mist coat paint - Glidden contract - so I'm not too worried about getting a good corner join.


untruth

Original Poster:

2,834 posts

188 months

Sunday 20th April 2014
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This weekend... stripped 90% of the bannisters and removed the dreadful carpet (which I kept setting on fire/melting with the stripper so good riddance beacon of failure).








untruth

Original Poster:

2,834 posts

188 months

Monday 5th May 2014
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And finally, at long last, everything is stripped and sanded. There is nothing left to do but to paint the walls (at last). I did of course open another can of worms by realising that we could put some proper storage under the stairs, so have ripped off the plywood cover in glee.








Yazar

1,476 posts

119 months

Tuesday 6th May 2014
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Looking very good.

Quick question- Why are you leaving the staircase as-is? Appreciate tastes differ but seems an ideal time to change it to the traditional design (I'm assuming you can keep the staircase and just buy and swap the bits).


quick google says yes:
http://www.hwkservices.co.uk/replace-handrailbalus...
http://www.westmidscarpentry.co.uk/stairs.html