Be Excellent To Each Other

I know this is a "how long is a piece of string" type of question, but should I decide over the course of the weekend that I really can't be arsed to redecorate my living room, how much wonga can I expect to have to spend if I want a professional decorator type to do it for me?

Any painters and decorators on here who want to quote?

One room, no fancy frills, probably about £200 to £300.

Do it yourself, 'professionals' aren't all that when it comes to painting.

Plus, it's not hard and doing it yourself is much cheaper.

I know a good one (if you live near Bristol).

Ouch, that's too much at the moment. The only thing that I'm not too keen on doing myself is stripping the wallpaper, I'd rather just slap the paint on the existing wallpaper but I've been led to believe this is a silly thing to do. The room is going to be painted white, and currently looks like this:



No, I don't live near Bristol, but cheers anyway Grimsdottir.

You *can* paint over wallpaper, but it will look like you did.

Hire a steam paint stripper from HSS, will cost about £30. Takes about 2 hours to strip a medium sized room, as long as it's not mental glue holding the paper on.

I bought a streamer from b&q for about £15, and it totally does the job.

Save a LOT of time and effort.

Do you mean a stripper? Is there a handy B&Q-website-link-me-do you can point me at?

I got a sort of shreddy metal thingy, which is useful if you're stripping paper that's painted or vinyl - it pierces the surface and allows the water to get to the glue. Stripping is pretty easy, and a steamer makes it really easy. Do it!

B&Q linky.

Ok, slightly more than £15, but I was pretty close

Turn off the breakers for your light switches and sockets before using a steam stripper, health and safety fans!

Something like this:

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.j ... earch=true

It's just a big kettle that boils water and vents the steam onto the wallpaper.

Open up all your windows and you'll want to let the walls dry a bit before painting them. Also be prepared to do a bit of filling here and there, unless your house is new or recently plastered then the walls aren't always smooth enough to look good if you just paint them. Depending on how bad they are you may need to get them skimmed or a cheaper but less good alternative is to put up lining paper and paint that.

I had all my walls skimmed when I stripped everything, mostly because in my surveyor's report before buying the house it said 'THE WALLS ARE ALL COVERED WITH WALLPAPER, THEY MIGHT BE ALL CRACKED UNDERNEATH', which isn't much of a selling point.

They were a bit cracky, but when I come to sell the house there won't be any paper anywhere. Thinking ahead, me.

Eh? 'THE FLOORS ARE COVERED WITH CARPET, THERE MIGHT BE DEAD PEOPLE BURIED UNDER THE HOUSE'

Uh... bit of a thicky thicko here, but how exactly would one go about filling in cracks in the wall? Polyfilla presumably, but how does one use it? Don't wanna embark on this project if it's gonna be a ballache, don't really have the time to be fucking about with things, just wanted to get it done

Depends on the extent of the cracks. If there are lots of cracks, everywhere, then for christ's sake get it skimmed by a plasterer.

For smaller cracks, it's most effective to, ironically, chiv out a gully along the line of the crack, just a small one, to make filling it look better overall. It's hard to fill a hairline crack, it's easier to fill a slightly deeper gully. You fill it with polyfiller (don't buy a tub, buy a box of power and mix it, waaaaay cheaper), wait for it to dry, then sand it down and paint. For small cracks this will look totally fine.

Now, don't do what I tried to do, and use this method for a wall FULL of cracks. I tried to paint it and it looked shit, and took forever.

What CG just said. Also get some decorator's caulk, it's excellent for tidying up around skirting boards and coving, just run a bead of it around and smooth it with the end of your finger, makes it all look much tidier. The thing with decorating is that it's actually piss easy, it's not like some trickier jobs, if it looks right then it is right. I actually don't mind decorating if it's just the odd room, it's satisfying to finish and see what you've done.

Just get the wallpaper off first, even if you do that and then decide to get someone in you'll have already saved a bundle.

Instructions would be on the tub shirley? Unless you get one of those tube applicators it's jsut a case of smearing it on with something flat.

Yeah, instructions on the tub, but if I decide that it's too much hassle after reading said instructions, then I've wasted time and petrol going to B&Q

I am ace best at painting and decorating and will come and fix up your living room for a mere £97 and two tubs of Ben and Jerry's.

I am assuming that isn't a serious offer, but if it is then consider yourself hired.

I'm just looking at some pics of my house when I bought it in 2006, and I still can't believe the difference. 10 days before we were due to move in we had bare walls that needed skimming, no carpets, no shower, nothing painted. It was absolute hell (example below), and sadly I still haven't finished everything off yet.

Plumber came round today and reinstalled the downstairs loo and put a sink in, which now looks nice. I now need to box off the pipes, touch up the paint, put architrave round the door, and put skirting in, and then *that* room might be considered finished.

You've made the critical mistake of not asking how big the tubs have to be.

Don't rent the steamer... buy it, as it'll cost exactly the same and it's yours to keep forever.

I am doing what is undoubtedly the biggest room of my house - stairwell, upstairs landing and second living room, as they're all connected. Gradually getting there (it's hot and tiring work, especially the higher reaches) and have now got the polycell, filling knife and sandpaper to prep the walls for painting.

A bit of plaster came away here and there as we went, but generally it's been alright.

In theory, you could always do all the stripping, hire a decorator to sort the plaster and such out, and then paint it yourself.

Aw, I would if you were nearby, because I kind of enjoy decorating, but I am far away and will undoubtedly be bust laying Rock Band forever and ever.

The thought did occur to me after I posted that, but I reasoned that there has to be a limit as to how big a single tub can be, and that limit can't be that high

Bought a steamer now, so I'm all geared up. Anyone want to place any bets on whether I fuck up?

If you've got small cracks then use something like Polyfiller Basecoat. You use a roller and paint it on.

Pish! A scraper thingy (basically a triangular bit of metal with a handle) a couple of sponges and a bucket of warm water are all you need. You could strip that in a day, and paint it in one as well (though you'd need to let it dry first, obv, and probably do some pollyfillin', but that's a piece of piss). Definitely not worth paying someone to do. Painting yourself is easier, cheaper, more fun and more satisfying.

one scoop:

Mimi's ice cream tubs. Yesterday.

In two flavours!
'Whimsically nutty' and 'Horstachio'!

Can't you just get some mates in and have a decorating part? Pizza, beer and paint - can't go wrong...

Heh. What a difference a P makes.

Just DIY. It's quite good fun, and you'll get a sense of achievement out of it.

Honestly, you really want some chav nicking your cd's whilst he's having a cuppa?

Oh, and get the correct paint.

gnnk.

Hit him, Mr. Chris. It's the only way they learn.

I can see thi's becoming's a real bugbear's for MrChri's.

The ' was there to denote the missing "isk"

"isc", shurely?

Depends, I tend to spell things in many different ways, mostly due to which I think is in favor at the time.

favour, not favor, unless you're American, in which case you're always wrong anyway.

Yeah, but no, but...

I'm sure it won't color your opinion of me.

I've already got some (unopened) tubs of paint from when I moved in 2.5 years ago with intentions to decorate then.

What exactly IS the correct paint?

In my experience 'interior' and also not 'Jade White'

It doesn't depend; it's always 'isc'. From Compact Disc. It wouldn't have a k at the end, unless you've spelt it wrongly.

I wouldn't discount that option, either.

I don't think it's Jade White (green and white?).

I just hope I've got enough of the fuckin' stuff.