Paint pods and the like
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Discussion

Gad-Westy

Original Poster:

16,139 posts

235 months

Wednesday 28th April 2010
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Moving into a new place that will need a chunk of painting doing.

just notice Homebase have paint pods on offer and I'm intrigued but sceptical. Online reviews seem very mixed so I thought I'd put my faith in Pistonheads instead.

Any one used one? Anything else out there that's better? Should I stop being a lazy sod and just paint everything the old fashioned way?

Laurel Green

31,000 posts

254 months

Wednesday 28th April 2010
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There have been a couple of PH threads on this subject before and, seem to remember a mixed bag too. Possibly with the antis coming out on top. Personally, I would use a good quality roller for the walls/ceilings and a decent brush for everything else. Also, I think the pod stuff doesn't cover as well and are limited to colours available, as well as being a tad more expensive.

scirocco265

421 posts

198 months

Wednesday 28th April 2010
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There are a few posts on this already. Used one myself and found it to be

1 - more expensive
2 - limited in colours
3 - poorer finish

but for the advantages:

1 - self cleaning brush (bliss!)
2 - not as messy (i also end up with paint all over myself)
3 - easier to do ceilings as les things to carry up a ladder

10JH

2,070 posts

216 months

Wednesday 28th April 2010
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I seem to remember that the paints were quite a lot more than the standard ones.

Laurel Green

31,000 posts

254 months

Wednesday 28th April 2010
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scirocco265 said:
- easier to do ceilings as les things to carry up a ladder
Buy a roller-pole, they're not expensive.

VxDuncan

2,850 posts

256 months

Wednesday 28th April 2010
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You could buy a new roller sleeve and throw it away with every tin of paint and still be in profit rather than use the paint pod paint...

In other news I bought a fantastic paint roller cleaning system for EUR2.2 in a nasty market in spain. Brilliant it is! Uses the force of a row of water jets to spin the roller and clean at the same time, all powered from the tap. Connect for a couple of minutes, all clean. Even has the plus side you can adjust eh angle of the jets to adjust the revs, going from "tickover" to scream, it's even kinda V8 ish in sound!

Laurel Green

31,000 posts

254 months

Wednesday 28th April 2010
quotequote all
Top Tip. Get someone in to do it - failing that; if you are going to use the same colour again, but not for a couple of weeks, wrap the roller up in a plastic bag. When cleaning the roller; leave in a bucket of water overnight as this will soften/dilute the paint and be easier to clean.

GreenDog

2,261 posts

214 months

Wednesday 28th April 2010
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Laurel Green said:
Top Tip. Get someone in to do it - failing that; if you are going to use the same colour again, but not for a couple of weeks, wrap the roller up in a plastic bag. When cleaning the roller; leave in a bucket of water overnight as this will soften/dilute the paint and be easier to clean.
Further to that don't keep cleaning your white glossing brush, just pop it in a jar of water and leave the next day then shake off the water outside and continue painting. The gloss paint on the brush doesn't harden whilst it's in water.

Gad-Westy

Original Poster:

16,139 posts

235 months

Wednesday 28th April 2010
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Hmmm, not sounding good for the paint pod. Appreciate the replies, I think its looks like I'll go with some decent quality old fashioned rollers/brushes.

freecar

4,249 posts

209 months

Wednesday 28th April 2010
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Cleaning a roller should take no more than two minutes and use no more than two bowls full of water!

I was taught how by an Aussie painter as he told me they aren't allowed to discharge emulsion-y water into drains.

First, use a scraper to scrape the roller lengthways into the tin, this will relieve the roller of about a cup full of paint (I kid you not!) keep scraping until paint no longer rolls up on the scraper. Now fill bowl with water and roll roller across the bottom of bowl, applying pressure to squeeze water into the crevices! Empty bowl and run water over roller while occasionally wking the roller down to get the water and paint out. By the time the tap has run about another bowls worth the roller should be clean!

Since using this method, a 12" roller, a roller extension and a trade size paint trough I can beat any paint pod wielding amateur, including cleanup!


N.B. there is a tool available that will speed the scraping stage up, it's usually a 4 in 1 painters tool but it has a plastic ring with a split in it, looped over roller and pinched tight this removes all the paint with one swipe to the bottom of the roller!

creasede

583 posts

191 months

Wednesday 28th April 2010
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dont do it!!

im a painter and decorator by trade, and they are god awful!

better off investing in a decent brush, roller cage and sleeve!

make sure you cut in first, then roller, this way u can roller over the cutting in, and sop you from having a thick line round your wall!

maser_spyder

6,356 posts

204 months

Thursday 29th April 2010
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Will they be empty rooms? Or with furniture/carpets etc?

If it's a completely empty room, consider hiring a paint sprayer.

I had a couple of houses to paint so bought one for myself (about £500).

My record - Whole house, 5 bedrooms, 3 x hallway, stairs/landing, lounge, kitchen, walls and ceilings, two coats everywhere - 6 hours.

The whole house was in bare plaster on the Monday afternoon when the carpet fitter called round to measure up. He asked when to come back, I said Thursday. He laughed, and said he'd call me Wednesday night to check....

Painted the whole house on Tuesday daytime, painted the skirting, doors and architraves on Tuesday night and Wednesday, carpets fitted Thursday as expected. Carpet fitter was amazed....

I'm not talking about the cheapy £20 sprayers you get in B&Q, the proper, airless type like this;

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/...

You can hire them for about £30 or £40 a day, which if you do your preparation beforehand, is more than enough to do the whole house, top to bottom.

HTH.

Arese

21,159 posts

209 months

Thursday 29th April 2010
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maser_spyder said:
My record - Whole house, 5 bedrooms, 3 x hallway, stairs/landing, lounge, kitchen, walls and ceilings, two coats everywhere - 6 hours.
Impressive!

maser_spyder

6,356 posts

204 months

Thursday 29th April 2010
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Arese said:
maser_spyder said:
My record - Whole house, 5 bedrooms, 3 x hallway, stairs/landing, lounge, kitchen, walls and ceilings, two coats everywhere - 6 hours.
Impressive!
bowtie

Seriously, a good paint sprayer is incredible.... It paints a 'fan' around 40cm wide, and for as long as your arm can move the gun across the wall.

The real beauty is, firstly, it's non-contact (with a roller, you take half as much paint off the wall as you put on!), and secondly, it's a never ending stream of paint. You don't need to re-fill until your paint pot runs out. I use 25L kettles.

You can paint a whole ceiling in around 2-3 minutes, same again for a wall. Basically, a whole room is around 10-15 minutes for a single coat, depending if there's any fiddly bits.

Best way to do it is paint the whole room white, then put your colour over the wall with a roller. Because it's a white base, you get a nice even colour in a single coat if you use good quality paint.

It's what the pros use!

scirocco265

421 posts

198 months

Thursday 29th April 2010
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maser_spyder said:
Seriously, a good paint sprayer is incredible.... It paints a 'fan' around 40cm wide, and for as long as your arm can move the gun across the wall.
Which one do you use? Will need to paint the whole house in the next couple of months after the extension is finished - had a look and there are quite a few. Would you go for a Wagner or would a B&Q one for £100 do?

maser_spyder

6,356 posts

204 months

Thursday 29th April 2010
quotequote all
scirocco265 said:
maser_spyder said:
Seriously, a good paint sprayer is incredible.... It paints a 'fan' around 40cm wide, and for as long as your arm can move the gun across the wall.
Which one do you use? Will need to paint the whole house in the next couple of months after the extension is finished - had a look and there are quite a few. Would you go for a Wagner or would a B&Q one for £100 do?
Definitely not a 'cheap' one. False economy!

If it's a single job, hire a proper, professional one to do it. The cheap ones will only end up putting a big splodge of paint in the middle of the wall, you'll get frustrated very quickly.

You need something like a Graco, cost new about £1200, or there's the Wagner model at about £600 that might be OK. You might find a second hand one on ebay for around £300 - £400?

In my instance, I was quoted 2 weeks and £1200 to paint the whole house.

Had a think about it, and decided it was cheaper to buy a new cheap sprayer (about £400), and do it myself.

Took me an afternoon to work out how the thing worked, and a day and a half for the first house, learning how the sprayer worked best.

Effectively, I 'earned' £400 a day, got a free paint sprayer, and got the job done 10 days earlier than otherwise.

Then I painted the second house, when you know how it all works, it's really, really quick.

You need to water the paint down by about 20 or 30%, the paint pickup sucks the paint up so quickly that unless it's really runny, it won't be able to suck it up fast enough!

The only down-side, is you do get some over-spray, so you need to be well masked up for the areas you don't want to be painted. Over-spray will rub off with hot water and a sponge, but it's easier to avoid it altogether if possible. Mask up all the windows, fireplace, floors, etc. before you start.

I've described it as a 'paint bomb', in that you mask up anything you don't want to be painted, shut the door, and explode the bomb!

The other little trick, is if you have any new woodwork, spray this with emulsion too, as it's a perfectly good primer.

Hope that helps!

johnvthe2nd

1,292 posts

219 months

Thursday 29th April 2010
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scirocco265 said:
maser_spyder said:
Seriously, a good paint sprayer is incredible.... It paints a 'fan' around 40cm wide, and for as long as your arm can move the gun across the wall.
Which one do you use? Will need to paint the whole house in the next couple of months after the extension is finished - had a look and there are quite a few. Would you go for a Wagner or would a B&Q one for £100 do?
I fell for the £100 B&Q one ... a garden sprayer would have been more accurate and give a better finish - I can't stress how bad it was.
I used it once and took it back .. I noticed that they didn't have any more on the shelves, and didn't put up any sort of a fight when they gave me my money back ...

I would normally just have put it in the loft and chalked it up to experience, but it was so badly represented in the description, and the CD they made to accompany it was a joke .. probably taken using one of those maser_spyder ones ..

so anyway, don't buy the £100 B&Q one ...(It actually was made my Wagner)

StevieBee

14,773 posts

277 months

Thursday 29th April 2010
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Not directly relevant but I remember a very accurate Viz "Top Tip" that went something like...


"Manufacturers of the paint 'Dulux Once' - I think the word you are looking for is 'Twice"!