Find a Decorator you can trust in Llanfechain.

Hiring a decorator for your project always seem easy until you get started. With a wide range of decorators available today, it can be quite tricky separating the boys from the men and selecting the right tradesman for your unique project. There are a number of things to put into consideration, questions to ask and lots more to ensure your decorating job is awarded to the right tradesman. In this post, we’re going to give you an insight on some of the essential questions to ask to make sure the prospective decorator is a good match. Let’s take a look!

• What qualifications do you possess? With the pool of decorators around in the industry today, qualifications are needed to help you determine the true specialists. A qualified decorator gives you an assurance (to some extent) that a quality work would be done to your requirements. Decorators, generally, can earn a degree which includes course work in architecture and are also licensed.
• How do you help me identify and communicate my style to you? If you have an idea and know what you want for your space, a good decorator should be able to get it out of you by showing you pictures and asking questions which can vary widely.
• Do you have examples of previous work that are similar to my project in style, scope as well as budget? A decorator that answers yes to this question is a good indicator that they can handle your project. If they don’t, you can ask for pictures of projects they feel is quite similar to yours

How To Choose Exterior House Paint

Painting the exterior of your house is a great way to give your home a new fresh look that improves it’s curb appeal, make it stand out and also increase it’s value. Exterior paints can serve a wide range of purposes, be it to make a statement in the neighbourhood, highlight some architectural features or to complement the nature. Hence, it’s very important to know the purpose of your exterior house painting project before choosing colour and proceeding with the task. In this guide, we aim to help you narrow down the paint colour selection to help you choose the right paint combination for your home’s exterior with relative ease. Let’s take a look!

✓ The neighbourhood’s style. At times, the style of the neighbourhood can help in selecting a house’s paint colours. For example, in the event whereby the neighbourhood is filled with Victorian homes, then a bold colour wouldn’t even be an option. Furthermore, if there are more ranch style homes in the area, an exuberant collection of pastels may not be the most suitable choice.

✓ To complement nature. Sometimes all that’s needed to know the best paint combination for your home is simply to look around at the surrounding landscape to get clues of the colours that’ll be perfect. For instance, different shades of summer green can be incorporated fr the exterior, meanwhile the fall colour combinations of red, brown and golden shades can also go well too.

✓ Look inwards for guidance. The existing fixed colours inside or outside a house can also be a great option to be used in the exterior colour scheme. This can be the colour of the material of the window trim, foundation or even the roof.

You should always wait until plaster is dry before painting. The time this will take varies depending on the room and property, but in general, it will take about a week. Your plasterer will tell you how long it is best to leave it before covering or painting their work.

How To Remove Old Exterior Paint

When the paint of your house is starting to peel, there’s the need to take a swift action. While some homeowners opt to cover it with vinyl siding or replace it with fibre cement siding, there’s no reason why you would want to hide the exterior of your house if it still looks great. When you don’t want to hide the beauty of your exterior, the only other option you’ve got is stripping or removing of the old paint. So how do you remove old exterior paint without much hassle? Let’s take a look!

✓ Propane blowtorch. Due to its affordability and effectiveness, this blowtorch has been one of the most popular means of removing old exterior paint amongst homeowners for quite some time. It makes use of high heat to soften the acrylic-latex paint which makes it easy to peel off with a putty knife. However, it can also be very risky to use as it’s always a dangerous game when it comes to open flames. What’s more? Applying an open flame to lead-based paint may release toxic lead fumes, therefore you’d have to be very careful if you wish to use this method.

✓ Electric sanders. Belt sanders are a great option to removing old exterior paint as they’re able to strip off the paint quickly. However, this must be done gently and carefully as you’d risk gouging the wood if you lay into the sander too hard. The problem with this method is also lead-based paint as the sander tends to convert everything to dust and direct them straight to your face, hair and lungs.

✓ Scrapping. This involves using a sharp, rigid putty knife or blade designed for painting scraping to strip the exterior paint. This method also involves dust but you’d have a better control over it than the sander.

How Much To Paint A House Exterior?

Do you feel your home is need of a lift to enhance its visual appeal or give it some TLC? In order to impress your visitor or potential buyers, kerb appeal is simply everything. Many homeowners are usually discouraged due to the thought that a painting job is always an expensive one with not so much value in return. However, in reality, painting your home’s exterior is actually one of the most significant improvements one can make as it tells your story and communicates your value.

The cost of getting a house exterior painting job done is based on a number of things which includes the type of walls you possess, whether it’s a maintenance project, whether it’s your first time of painting the house as well as your location. So what’s involved in a painting job?

✓ Scrapping off the loose paint.

✓ Brushing off cobwebs and dust on the surface

✓ Washing the wall

✓ Application of fungicide to mouldy patches

✓ Repairing minor damages

✓ Applying paint surface stabiliser

✓ Applying two coats of your chosen paint

✓ Disposal of waste as well as a full clean up of the site.

Below is a breakdown of the cost of painting the exterior of a house. Kindly note that this is just an example (using a semi detached house) to give you an idea of how much your project is going to cost.

✓ Costly scaffolding isn’t required here but platform towers can be need - this will cost about £80 to £100.

✓ Materials including sand or cement for repairs, plastic sheeting, tape, paint, masonry stabiliser as well as fungicide treatment will cost about £200 to £300

✓ Cost of labour for two workers £700 to £1000 based on the location

How To Paint A Room

Painting is a joyful task and it’s quite obvious why it’s one of the most popular DIY projects. Whether you’re painting as an experienced DIYer or as a newbie, this step by step guide will put you in the right direction. However, if you lack the confidence to carry out this task, then we’d recommend you get in touch with a seasoned professional who can guarantee the best results for help. This way, you get to save some time and additional money that would have resulted from possible costly errors.

So just before you head right into the task, there’s the need to determine the type of pain finish you would love to use which is to choose a colour. Now let’s get started!

• Prepare the room

✓ Remove all objects as much as you can from the room and cover the remaining furniture or objects with a sheet.

✓ Fill all holes on the surface to make for an even finish.

✓ Wash the wall with the help of a damp sponge. A sugar soap or diluted washing up liquid will work just fine.

✓ Tape the edges of objects you do not wish to paint like light switches, plug sockets and the likes.

• This step can be skipped if painting on an existing paint, but it’ll advisable to dilute small quantity of your selected paint to patch prime the holes that you’ve filled. If you have a large number of holes that was filled, then priming them would be smart.

• Mix or stir the paint thoroughly in a paint kettle to ensure an even and perfect mix.

• Now you’re ready to start painting! Start from the edges to form like a frame to work within with your roller. Once done, leave for about 4 to 6 hours to dry.

• For the second coat, simply repeat the above step to complete your painting project.

How To Paint A Radiator

First thing you should know about painting a radiator is that normal paints can’t be used to do the job, however that doesn’t mean it’s not cheap, easy and fun - it definitely is and even more so, when you do it the right way. With a few radiator painting hints here, it’s only a matter of time before you start painting your radiators every colour of the rainbow delightfully.

Painting a radiator is not one of the most common tasks on most people’s to do list, so we’ve created this article as an encouraging nudge to allow more people let their creativity manifest through a brush. However, this is not to say that this is a task for everyone though as you won’t like to make a mess of your radiator. If you know you can’t pick up a brush or bend a knee or your back here and there, then you probably shouldn’t. In such cases, hiring a professional painter would be your best bet to get the best results while also saving yourself some time and money.

To paint a radiator, you’ll need a paint brush, suitable radiator paint, dust sheet and a radiator paint brush (optional).

✓ Turn off the radiator and leave it to cool off. Once it’s cold, simply wipe out all dust, dirt or grease from the radiator.

✓ Protect the flooring under the radiator from any paint splatter with a by spreading out a dust cloth.

✓ Use a suitable radiator paint to brush out well and lay off evenly in a direction. Leave it to dry overnight. Then apply paint on the radiator in direction of the grooves with the help of a top quality brush.

✓ Paint in sections and move across the radiator slightly overlapping until you get to the end. The move to paint the other areas.

✓ Leave the paint to dry as instructed in the manufacturer’s instructions, then apply a second coat if necessary.

Over the years, UPVC spray painting has grown to become a standard practice. Previously, what was done when people wanted to change the colour of their UPVC window is simply to replace the old ones. However compared to the cost of replacing the units, it’s actually a lot easier to simply have your UPVC windows sprayed and even more importantly, at just a fraction of the replacement cost. If you’re thinking about spraying your upvc windows, then you’ve come to the right place! In this post, we’re going to take you through the entire process. However, if you lack the confidence needed to pull this off, we’d strong advise that you get in touch with a professional to avoid make costly errors or mistakes.

The first step to successful upvc window spraying is always to make sure that the upvc is properly cleaned by removing any loose dirt and residue, getting rid of any muck and grime which has developed over the years. You can also abrade the surface in a very light manner to leave upvc frames with a key to make the paint adhesions stronger. Once you’re done with the preparation, the obvious next step is masking off. This process requires you to protect the walls, glass, floors and brickwork from any potential over spray. To achieve this, you can make use of masking papers.

Upon completion of the masking off process, then its time to spray paint the upvc windows using a spray gun and spray painter. This requires a lot of practice as it could be very dangerous as you can inject yourself with paint, which can be seriously fatal.