Learn to like painting

Press, 9 December 1982, Page 25

Learn to like painting

No matter how you hate painting, the saving cannot be ignored. Unpainted timber cracks up before long and repairs to broken timber cost plenty. So learn to like painting. The secrets of success are few and simple — use good quality materials and follow correct procedures. Clean the job thoroughly, buy suitable paint and use proper tools. All surfaces must be

i cleaned; the best of them t washed with sugar soap or a good cleaner. > Broken surfaces need to be ) scraped of ail powder, flakes and loose old paint. Where paint in bad shape ; has to be stripped off, a 1 chemical stripper can be r painted on and left until the : old paint . blisters, then > scraped off with a paint scraper. Strippers do not > need neutralising these days.

Scrapers are one of the tools painters do not always think of but are quite as important as brushes. Putting on the new paint is the last, easiest and most pleasant part of painting. Rollers (lambswool or foam) do a first class job on wide, smooth surfaces such as ceilings and need to be used with light, even pressure to take care a pattern of

"bands” does not develop. Brushes are necessary to tidy up edges and for narrow and shaped surfaces where rollers will not fit. Nothing will replace brushes for many paint jobs, and only the right brush will do — a 2.5 cm-wide brush for narrow work (such as window frames) and wider ones for wider work.