Room Help

[WillWriter]

Hi all, new to DIY here and so any help would be appreciated

I will soon be tackling the Lounge of my house. We moved in a few months ago and the house is was built in 1999 and is a usual newbuild, Magmolia walls and white skirting etc. My plan is to do ceiling and coving first with matt emulsion, then do gloss and then emulsion the walls.

My questions are:

The woodwork is still white(ish) but has yellowy stains in places, these are not smoking etc but seem to be a paint reaction. Can I just go over these? Should I rub down all woodwork, sugar soap and then paint?
Can I just use a gloss straight over (Crown Solo seems to be the most recommended?)

Is my plan above the right order to do the work?

Cheers in advance

 

[misterhelpful]

Hi, Will.

You can just use gloss directly over the existing after you have rubbed down to provide a key. Use wet and dry paper (300 - 400 grit), wet and just sand enough to remove the sheen. Wipe off with a clean wet rag and allow to dry fully before glossing. You can clean the woodwork with sugar soap before sanding but if it's not particularly dirty, just use a drop of washing up liquid in the water you use when sanding.

It's usual for the gloss to be done after the walls but, if it suits you better to do the walls last, there's no strict rule other than to wipe off any emulsion you may get on the fresh gloss immediately with a damp cloth. Just be aware that if you plan to gloss slightly onto the wall before emulsioning, the emulsion won't adhere too well to the gloss so you could end up regretting it a few weeks down the line.

The yellow stains could be caused by knots/resins in the wood bleeding through and if so, you should apply a suitable primer after sanding to stop them continuing to bleed through in the future.
Zinsser B-I-N is good but you can also use aluminium wood primer, which usually does the job and is much cheaper. However, if like a lot of new builds you have MDF skirtings, architraves, etc, the yellow areas will not be caused by knots so you won't need one of those primers.
The gloss could have also yellowed where furniture had been placed by previous occupants (lack of natural light causes yellowing) but this doesn't really look like 'stains'.

Solo is regarded as the best oil based gloss but for guaranteed long lasting whiteness you could use a water based gloss, such as Johnstone's.