Tips for painting large room

[ccam108]

I've got a large room to paint white all over and I'm looking for some tips.

I'm helping out a charity who have taken over a shop unit and converting it into a youth centre. We have stripped out all the old shop fittings and plan to take it back to plain flat white walls ready for the "creative" team coming in to ready the unit for opening.

There is about 50m of wall, 3m high, plus the ceiling. The walls are a mixture of white, black and red painted, with repair patches where fittings were. The ceiling is white with about 40 circular light fittings, and more repair patches.

I can organise a number of helpers but we are all volunteers and no-one has any experience decorating anything larger than a bedroom. Of course, being a charity, we want to spend as little as we can on paint, and the finish doesn't need to be all that perfect.

Any tips on what paint to get, what tools to get to make life easier, or anything else we should know?

 

[dcdec]

Don't be tempted into buying dirt cheap emulsion, its a false economy, far more coats required than a good paint with high obliteration. I covered a black ceiling with three coats of johnstones coverplus (white).

You could use 12 or 15" roller sleeves but you would have to buy a pole (which is way quicker than the arm) and a bracket. 3m high you may have to use a pole actually unless you've got a couple of tall guys.

Prime filler with thinned emulsion
Don't mess about with sissy abrasive papers, get p90 and get stuck in
Have one person cutting in with another rolling behind them
Self adhering floor protection film is good when you have multiple persons tripping over dust sheets all day
The masking tape with attached plastic sheets that are statically charged are great for protecting windows and sills.
Roll walls up/down left to right (or right to left) don't start in the middle like they do on home make over shows
Don't squeeze every last drop off the roller as it will then start to remove paint.

Sure others will have some ideas, good luck with it.

 

[ccam108]

Thanks that's very helpful. I'll look at getting self-adhesive floor protector - I hadn't thought of that.