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House Repair / DIY Thread

Don’t skimp on decent and appropriate rollers and brushes/brush cleaning.

Replace bricky old skirting and architrave/doors instead of trying to make them good. Quite easy work and it’s a lot quicker and will give you a much better finish starting from scratch.
That's a good shout actually.

I used posh "expensive" paint before (Farrow and Ball) and it covered really well, allegedly it has more *pixels* of paint per litre so it applies / covers / lasts better than cheaper brands.

*You know what I mean... flakes of pigment... particles of colour... that stuff.

I'm sure you can get cheaper trade stuff that has the same amount of pigment, but just don't get fooled into buying cheaper watery stuff.

So if the paint costs a bit more, it stings in the shop, but when you are absolutely knackered and trying to do the last bit of a room and making a right mess, you will be glad you chose the right equipment and not the cheap stuff.

I've also tried the cheap route with watery paint that required 2 or 3 coats and it was definitely NOT a saving, what a nightmare. And I've tried cheap brushes / rollers etc and again, not a saving, takes forever, streaky, leaves marks and brush hairs, so don't be tight, get something decent from a trade outlet.
 
Any recommendations (or avoidance warnings) about paint brands?

Always go for the premium ranges, trade ones where possible.

They may be 50% more expensive but you'll get 400% more coverage.
Agree with @scaramanga. I recently bought a used garage door with motor, that needed to be repainted to match the house. I've only used the premium brands before, which here in Norway are Jotun, Butinox and to a certain degree, Flugger. Being "only" a garage door, I thought I'd try a cheaper brand, and thought how much of a difference can it really be? I mean, it's just paint!
Boy oh boy did I regret that! The cheap one turned out to be anything but cheap! It cost 30% less, but even after 3 coats, it was still nowhere near enough! In addition it was a pain in the ass to apply! It was like smearing out semi-liquid plastic, making it very time consuming.
So in the end I ended up needing at least two coats more than a premium brand, and it took 3-4 times more time, and the end result looked brick.
I had to sand it down and do it again, this time with proper paint.

So what was supposed to be 30% cheaper, ended up being 4 times more expensive and and awful lot of wasted time.

Buy premium!
 
Another bit of advice. If the house is currently bare, try spray painting the walls (probably don't attempt the ceilings on your first go).

As long as you prep properly it will be a lot faster and will look so much better.
 
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