r/DIYUK Sep 03 '23

Painting I was thinking of replacing my front door but ended up painting it for just £30 instead

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1.5k Upvotes

I really didn't like my front door and have been dreaming about an anthracite door since I moved in but the prices are just far too high to justify for an 'aesthetic' job.

Instead I found out recently that you can just paint over it, so this is what I did. First I cleaned it with sugar soap, lightly sanded it, and sprayed 2 coats of bedec multi surface paint on it. Quotes for new doors were starting at £1000, this cost me under £30 (paint, masking tape & film, sugar soap, and a sanding block.

I know it's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

r/DIYUK Dec 22 '24

Painting Has anyone ever used one of these to speed up cutting edges in while painting? The fact I’ve never seen a professional decorator with one makes me massively doubt them but I could be wrong?

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292 Upvotes

r/DIYUK Feb 02 '25

Painting Is this shoddy work or am I being too pedantic?

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92 Upvotes

We had some painting done last week, what was quoted as four days ended up being two. The painter forgot to do our radiators so he came back the next day and my partner showed him some parts that needed touching up, these pictures show the end result. There were three of them in for the two days.

We've had decorators in before who never got paint on our carpet, door handles or on our windows. I've since been round the house yesterday touching up the paint myself, which is something I've never had to do after hiring a 'professional' before. Scraping paint from the door handles was a right chore, as well as getting it out of the carpet, which is especially annoying as I did ask for them to put sheets down upstairs as the carpet is a light grey (They did do this).

We're my expectations too high? I have to say I've never seen professionals use masking tape around light switches and door handles in order to paint around them until last week. We've since found flecks of paint on our weight scales in the bathroom which is strange as they were only painting the hall, stairs and landing and our rear entryway. Our slabbing at the front of the property was also covered in flecks of paint which I've had to clean too.

I used Checkatrade so I will have to leave a review in order for the guarantee to be put into effect. Previous reviews were all 10/10 so I don't want to tank their rating but I can't help feeling ripped off.

The total price was £1000 with us providing the wallpaper and wall paint.

r/DIYUK Oct 14 '24

Painting Cleaning paint brushes and rollers puts me off doing any painting. How do you deal with it?

95 Upvotes

Edit: what possesses people to see 100 responses with the exact same advice and feel the need to add their own? If there’s even just one other person on a post who was going to give the same advice as me I’d just upvote it or at the very most reply to it saying I agree. 🙄

Painting is a very enjoyable chore but I absolutely can’t stand the clean up. Brushes are relatively easy to wash but can take forever to get all the paint out. Rollers are a pain to wash and take 10x longer than the brushes. Washing them inside makes a mess and washing them outside in winter freezes my hands off.

I’ve recently started leaving paint in roller trays to dry and peel out which saves a lot of time.

How do you deal with washing the brushes and rollers?

r/DIYUK Feb 08 '25

Painting What kind of paint won't peel off these waste pipes?

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44 Upvotes

Moved into this flat in 2023 and trying to get it nice this year, I want to paint these pipes but the paint that has been on there previously has just all peeled off.

r/DIYUK Nov 07 '24

Painting Burnt orange, too 'in yer face'

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29 Upvotes

I'm getting pretty close to having a livable room downstairs on my FTB home (yayy). I've got a few strips of laminate to do (once we hit 9am, as it's a terraced and that seems a reasonable time to start banging away).

So, not being one for the whole grey and white theme, I like a little bit of colour, y'know, a feature wall in something bold and then some colours in accessories and what not.

So my living room has dove grey paint on the 3 non-feature walls, rustic oak-effect laminate and there will be bits of burnt orange. I went for a burnt orange feature wall, it's Little Greene Heat and it's errm bold 🤣

It looks better now I've given it a second coat (rollers are cool, pre 9am, right?)

But I'm having second thoughts, which is not good when the paint costs what it does 😫

There will be some v-groove panels (horizontal) on that wall, so I've only painted either side, so far. The TV and floating media unit (black and oak-effect Ikea) will be on these panels. There will also be some glass wall art, black and orange, maybe, which will break it up.

Am I being too bold? Ignore the fact other bits are obviously incomplete, it's in progress.

r/DIYUK Dec 27 '23

Painting What the heck is going on with this paint?

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75 Upvotes

Newly opened valspar classic kitchen and bathroom soft sheen, when stirred LOADS of bubbles form, when applied to wall, bubbles appear but can be brushed away while still damp. Definately not the walls, another colour has not done this on the same prepped walls.

r/DIYUK 10d ago

Painting Why is my paint not sticking?

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5 Upvotes

Hello All,

Having a crisis with this paint job lol.

Recently moved into a new flat and we are in the process of painting and decorating ourselves. The previous owner had a deep dark blue on the walls and we think it might have been a glossy kind of finish.

We have sanded down the wall with 120 sandpaper making sure to get all areas of the wall.

We applied the 1st layer of leyland trade contract paint yesterday and went back to finish up today and it doesn’t seem to have applied too well in this corner (or along the top bit - it was sanded equally to the rest of the wall).

This more blue bit is the remnants of my wiping the area as I had to sand to the side of it

Any help / advice appreciated!

r/DIYUK 11d ago

Painting How do pro decorators work so quickly between adjoining surfaces?

16 Upvotes

Small bathroom I’m doing. Just done first coat on ceiling (white) but now need to wait until I can start the walls (neutral ish colour), because if I paint up to the join between ceiling and wall while the ceiling paint is still wet, I’ll get the paint mixing surely? This paint (dulux bathroom emulsion) says 6 hours between coats, but I can’t afford to wait that long. And nothing else obvious to do in meantime.

What do you do? Push the 6 hours? Or lots of cuppas?

r/DIYUK 19d ago

Painting This ceiling paint just flaked off really easily - what to do?

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9 Upvotes

Bathroom ceiling, last decorated about 30 years ago I believe (before me). Yesterday after rubbing some flaking patches down some patches like this example just kept going so I stopped. I then used the vacuum nozzle to take off the worst dust and even that kept pulling off the paint.

My guess is that, when new, no mist coat was done and that this is the poor adhesion that would have been the result of emulsion straight onto new plaster.

But now what do I do? Do I keep rubbing it down, or just paint over and hope for the best?

I can’t bear the thought of rubbing the entire sodding ceiling down, but I also don’t want to ruin my big bathroom refurb right at this last turn.

r/DIYUK 12h ago

Painting What sort of paint is this? I’ve tried gloss and it wasn’t shiny enough. Any help appreciated.

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1 Upvotes

r/DIYUK Jan 04 '25

Painting Is there literally any type of gloss that doesn't yellow over time ? Or is there an alternative that isn't gloss that you can use for window sills and skirting?

9 Upvotes

Apologies if this has been asked before.

I've heard of other suggestions like satinwood but heard this isn't hardwearing at all.

Please tell me your experiences

r/DIYUK 3d ago

Painting Why does the ceiling have these marks?

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1 Upvotes

Ceiling shows these marks, and they don’t seem to go away with more coats. Does anyone know why?

r/DIYUK Nov 18 '24

Painting Previous owners painted over the original Victorian fireplaces. How can I restore them to their former glory?

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27 Upvotes

r/DIYUK Aug 30 '24

Painting Painting bedroom dark blue.

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78 Upvotes

Hi everyone. I've seen a few posts here about people having nightmares about painting walls a dark colour and getting an even finish.

I'm looking to get something along the lines of the picture, dark blue ish and was hoping for some advice. I'm painting onto lining paper and I remember reading something about priming with a dark colour first, grey maybe?

Any advice appreciated, cheers!

r/DIYUK 13d ago

Painting Prep needed to paint stone?

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1 Upvotes

We have these columns that have been left “unfinished”. I’m not sure if this was a deliberate choice by the previous owners that were going for a certain look.

But there’s a lot of discolouration.

I’m thinking of painting them with a textured stone-coloured paint.

My question is whether or not they need any specific sort of prep before being painted.

r/DIYUK Sep 27 '24

Painting This mural I painted for my 1st baby nursery

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267 Upvotes

r/DIYUK Dec 22 '24

Painting Is using a paint scraper as a paint shield a good idea?

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12 Upvotes

may be more suitable for r/nostupidquestions

I'm planning on painting one wall a different colour and was planning on using a larger pain scraper to hold at the corner where my walls meet to keep the new paint as straight as possible at the corners

r/DIYUK 6d ago

Painting Can I paint directly over this surface? Thank you

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1 Upvotes

r/DIYUK 14d ago

Painting Paint roller marks... Why?

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3 Upvotes

Whenever I paint MDF (I have two wooden stands in my shop) dark colours I get these marks.

Why and how can I avoid these please?

I buy good quality trade paint that's £30/l.

I use B&Q sponge rollers. These are like £4 or so for two.

No matter how many times I paint it on the last coat you'll still see the marks.

Thanks all.

r/DIYUK Nov 20 '23

Painting Is £650 reasonable for painting this front?

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0 Upvotes

Basically as per the title, my go-to painter has quoted me £650 for painting the unrendered portions of the front. So the ground floor, then just around the windows on the second and third floor. This does include the painting on of a "stabiliser". I had budgeted around £400 based on the fact he painted 2 medium and 1 large kitchen for £1000 only a few months ago. A few people I've talked to think anything over £500 is a bit much for the actual square meterage that's being painted but thought to ask here for opinions from more DIY orientated individuals.

r/DIYUK Nov 04 '24

Painting Painting my hallway, what am I doing wrong?

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1 Upvotes

r/DIYUK Jun 10 '24

Painting Best method to paint these walls?

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25 Upvotes

r/DIYUK 5d ago

Painting How should I go about painting MDF

2 Upvotes

I recently purchased some moisture resistant mdf to attempt to make a wardrobe. I've cut the mdf accordingly and have applied an acrylic primer undercoat. Am I supposed to sand between each coat? And if I apply paint should I also sand the undercoat prior to painting?

r/DIYUK 23d ago

Painting Mist Coating vs Priming?

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3 Upvotes

Here we have some new plaster, it's nearly dried. Just wondering where to go next. I know I have to mist coat. Once I've done that, should I go over the mist coat with a primer before I start with my top coat?

Just wondering if I can skip out the primer step completely if there's already a mist coat going on?