Redecorating room: order of jobs and best way to do them...

[Ambra]

Ok, so I am starting the redecoration of the house, one room at a time. Currently all the rooms are wallpapered, and then some of them are painted over.

I started in one room on Sunday. First job - remove wallpaper. I have a steamer for this job, although some of the paper basically came off by just a light pull. I am planning to finish this part in the next day or so.

There are some cracks, and I will those, probably polyfilla, or similar. Once the wallpaper is off, it seems like the walls were painted (one coat of magnolia looking colour), and I will need to sand down to get rid of flaking bits.

So, should I follow this order:
1. Strip the wallpaper
2. Wash the walls (with what???)
3. Sand down flaking paint
4. Fill the cracks
5. Sand down the filling
6. Sand down the skirting/doors/windowsill. What is the best way to do this - manually, electric sander (got Bosch multitool), liquid sander?
7. Wash down the walls again to get rid of any sanding dust that settled
8. Paint the skirting, doors and windowsill (do I need undercoat? I was hoping to use a water based paint)
9. Paint the ceiling & coving
10. Paint the walls

11. Arrange for new carpets to be fitted.

Does this sound ok? Did I miss anything? Last time I repainted the house (different one), it was just painting over the existing paint with all walls in good order, so it was easy. And no wallpaper (apart from one border, that took a whole day to get rid off!)

 

[Nige F]

2 with sugar soap 6 manual/power 7 tack rag only needed Then 9- 10 - 8 You must have an undercoat , but that and gloss can be acrylic (water based) Maybe missed decoraters caulk in the corner cracks . Otherwise OK

 

[JohnD]

as a rule of thumb, start at the top (9, 10, 8 ) because of drips. Leave the floor till last as it will get stuff dropped on it.

The top 600mm or so of walls will often have a lot of dust and dirt on it, especially near radiators

if you are carrying stuff into the room, even steps, the door and frame are likely to get knocked and scratched.

The carpet fitters will probably scratch the skirting.

clean all traces of paste off the walls with warm water and a wide metal scraper.

(7) I use a soft brush and a vac if there is a lot of dust. Wear a mask and hat.

when you think you have patched the plaster and got it perfect, give it a mist coat of matt white emulsion and see the blemishes you didn't notice. IMO a coat of white also gives you a nice surface to paint or paper into.

Good idea of Nige's about caulk - also for wall-to-ceiling joint cracks which will open again if you use filler.

 

[Ambra]

Great advice, thank you very much. I did a bit more last night and have only 3/4 of one wall left to de (steamer ran out of steam)

There is coving in all the rooms, so no cracks wall to ceiling. I have never heard of decorators caulk - will definitely look to get some for the corners of the room.

I was thinking of giving a white coat to the walls first, any suggestions on what paint I should use? Can I just use any white paint, maybe a bit more watered down and apply with a pad or roller?

 

[JohnD]

Dulux Trade Supermatt, thinned with water per instructions on the tub. One mist coat will not be enough.

http://www.icipaints.co.uk/products/info/dulux_trade_supermatt.jsp

 

[Ambra]

Dulux Trade Supermatt, thinned with water per instructions on the tub. One mist coat will not be enough.

http://www.icipaints.co.uk/products/info/dulux_trade_supermatt.jsp[/QUOTE]

Ok, so should I do two or more coats? Basically, until it is nice and even all over?

 

[JohnD]

yes and yes

but as soon as you see the remaining blemishes, cure them and patch-paint the repairs before you do the whole wall.

 

[Ambra]

Ok, sorry for another question.

So, I now removed wallpaper. The paint under in some places was quite easy to remove, so I know have a whole wall nice an clean of all the wallpaper and paint.

However, in other places it is not as easy - it is doable with a bit help from a steamer and lots of scraping (elbow grease). It is not all smooth and even - there are patches with paint, and patches without, so the wall is sort of a map!

Now, my question - is it ok to leave the paint on the walls and paint over? Or is this a bad idea and I will end up with the lines showing where the paint under was and where there was none?

Is it worth the effort to scrape all the paint? In couple of places using the steamer I had a thin layer of plater 'blow-up' (I would say no more than 2-3 mm deep, 10-15 cm in diameter). It won't be much problem to repair these, I think.

 

[Ambra]

Another question: when sanding skirting boards, doors, windowsill - do I need to sand down to the wood, or is it ok to just simply 'roughen' up the surface in preparation to new paint?

Basically, give a light sanding, apply the undercoat, and then the final paint?

Sorry for all the questions - it is my first 'big' project, and I just want to get it right. I am sure other rooms will be easier! (and less questions!)