Monday 22 August 2011

Paintblog or... gloss paint is runny or... get someone in to decorate

Now then, I was trying to work out how many years I’ve been painting and decorating.  My first recollection of a painting job was when my dad asked me to paint the shed.  I was young and stupid enough to think that it sounded like a fun job and don’t recall asking for any dosh – probably about 11 or 12.  Little did I know…  Still, I took the job and (eventually) finished it.

The suggestion from that little tale is that I have been decorating for the best part of 40 years, so there are a number of lessons that I have learned over that period.  Lesson one is that nearly all paint is quite runny – in fact I even manage to get non-drip paint to run from time to time.  Of the runny paints, gloss is generally the runniest so it’s the one we should take most care with isn’t it.  The second lesson is that you should take appropriate precautions whenever a paint job needs doing.

The job yesterday was to gloss up the garage door, it having been undercoated the previous day. The undercoating went without a hitch so there was no reason to suggest that the gloss leg would be any different.  It was a nice sunny morning and, because I know gloss paint is runny, I put a couple of dustsheets down.
Everything started off well.  I got a brush out to do the edges of the door because the roller doesn’t get into the gaps and seams.  

No problems there – I used the step to stand on for the top of the door then went down one side.  I opened the door a bit to bring the bottom of the door up to painting height and worked along the bottom.  Whilst doing the bottom, however, I took a small step to the left, for whatever reason, and just dinked the paint tin.  I didn’t knock it over but this was a full tin of paint so I hit it hard enough to knock about a saucer full onto the dust sheet.  

Expletives were muttered and I got down and scooped as much paint as I could back into the tin with my brush.  I then checked that the paint hadn’t gone through the dustsheet (old duvet covers being used for this particular job) and found that, unfortunately, a little had.  Garage door up, into the utility room and out with a cloth.  I cleaned up and got back on with the job – no worries.
The door edges were finished so now it was time to get the mini roller out.  This, of course, comes with a small tray.  The first job was to pour some paint into the tray – not too much because gloss is runny and we don’t want it dripping all over the place.  So I poured a bit in.  Then, somehow, I managed to over tip my paint tin the other way (towards me) so that a little paint came out of the “wrong” side of the tin.  I was holding the tin at this point so the paint was now also going over my hands as well.  More expletives – paint tin down, back into the utility room.  White spirit and soapy water came out this time and my hands got cleaned.  I also cleaned up the tin and checked the dust sheets yet again.

The bloody (OK, painty) result of the spills 1 & 2
Now.  Because things clearly weren’t going to plan, and because I’ve learned that precautions are generally a good thing where runny pain is concerned, I did 2 things.  The first thing was to turn the dust sheets around.  The paint I was using is a red colour and the garage floor is also a red colour.  The garage floor is also due for repainting.  So I figured that if any of the previously spilt paint did leak through it would do so onto surface that didn’t matter.  I was also conscious of the distinct possibility that I would tread in a patch of spillage and end up walking red paint all over the place.   

By this point in the story you will doubtless be unsurprised to know that I have managed to do the "paint trodden through the house thing" before as well…

That was the first thing.  The second thing was to place another dust sheet under the first two sheets.  The idea here was that there was every chance that I would spill more paint so I thought a dustsheet belt and braces approach would make sense…

OK.  I started painting the top of the door with the roller.  I was stood on the step and holding the paint tray in my left hand.  The thought then occurred to me that holding the paint tray, given what had already transpired, probably wasn’t the best idea – if I didn’t keep it really flat the chances were that further spillage would occur.  The other thing was that I didn’t need to dab the roller in the tray very often so why hold it? 

So, instead, I put it on the floor next to the step and everything went well.  I got near the end of the top bit of the door and thought I’d spotted a patchy bit where I’d already been, so I stepped sideways off the step to deal with it and went straight into the little tray…   

Paint went over the dustsheets, some went on the driveway, and also on my trainers.  Brilliant.  More expletives and a continually rising blood pressure.  

First thing was to take the trainers off.  Then, YET AGAIN, garage doors up, in for a cloth and white spirit.  I folded the dustsheets back and attacked the drive with the white spirit.  That got most of the spillage up out of the drive but then created a pink slick.  So, it’s back into the utlity for a big bucket of soapy water to dilute the slick and then mop it all up.  


Spill 3 result (to the edge and beyond)

Eventually, I finally cleared all of that up and carried on, except now I had watch my step around the patches of spillage that were left on the dust sheets.  The rest of the job went without a hitch but what was a 30 minute job probably ended up taking about an hour.  It also took a while for the blood pressure to recede.  Some people think painting is a relaxing job (including me – sometimes).   And there’s still at least one more coat of gloss to go!!!

A trainer on the way to the tip

So, folks, don’t ever underestimate the runniness of paint and remember, if you can afford it, that there are plenty of decorators looking for simple jobs like this to pick up from divvs like us.

Still...  It could have been worse





Until the next time

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