Decorating Materials

Decorating Materials

Buy the best tools and equipment you can afford, especially paint brushes.
Buy good quality paint and materials. Buying cheap paint is often a false economy as many more coats are usually required.
Follow the manufacturers instructions on tins and other materials. don't always interpret too literally as there is usually a degree of flexibility, especially in diluting paints.
Try to ensure that you have bought enough materials to complete the job. This is essential when buying wall-paper.
Give paints time to dry between coats.

**ROUGH GUIDE TO USING MATERIALS**
FILLERS	Fillers come in two catergories; ready to use and those you mix yourself. The only one that you would normally mix yourself is filler bought in powder form that you mix with water to form a paste. It is cheaper to mix this kind of filler yourself than to buy it ready-mixed. This kind of filler, e.g.Polyfilla™, is used to repair cracks in plaster, holes and other general repairs. Linseed oil Putty is only used to repair and fill holes in wood, glazing around wooden and metal frames and windows. Brummer or wood filler is used to repair holes in wood and dries rock hard so apply it as smoothly as possible.
PRIMERS	Primers are used to apply first coat to bare wood and metal. For galvanised metal a special zinc primer must be used otherwise your subsequent coats will eventually flake off.
SEALERS	Sealers are used for preserving, waterproofing and preventing problems occuring to subsequent coats caused by chemicals and fungi seeping through from the underlying surface. Many different sealers are used to counteract different problems.
UNDERCOATS	Undercoats/basecoats provide the surface for the following finish coat. This is by far the most important stage in getting a first class finish. If necessary a second or even third undercoat should be applied if needed.
FINISHING COATS	Gloss, semi-gloss, eggshell and matt are the usual type of finishes used; a high-gloss finish being far the most common. It is often difficult to get an undercoat to match various stronger colours and manufacturers normally recommend two coats of finish.
EMULSIONS/LATEX	These are paints, (which are water-based) for use on ceilings and walls. They are easy to use and dry quickly. They can be used on interior wood but lack the hard-wearing qualities of undercoat and gloss.
ABRASIVES	A very important part of decorating is preparing the surfaces to be painted. Sandpaper is the most commonly used material for rubbing-down. Sanding pads are useful too. Lots of materials can be used, e.g. Pumice stone.
THINNERS	The two most common thinners used are water(for emulsions/latex) and Turpentine Substitute or White Spirit( for solvent based paints). Special spirit thinners are needed for cellulose paints.