Painting house internals - any tips

[Lincolnshire Ian]

Hi everyone 

I asked about spray painting the inside of the house a few days ago, I've had some great responses and decided to go down the brush and roller route.

We want to make it as painless as possible to paint the inside of the house and will be using platforms, rollers with extendable handles, good quality masking tape etc. 

Does anyone have a "hack" which made their painting easier. Maybe it's a brilliantly simple tool, but really effective, maybe a type of paint that made your life easier etc,etc.

Many thanks 

[Russell griffiths]

Work backwards 

look at your finish paint, then read up on the primer / undercoat for that paint. 
do not rely on a mist coat of watered down cheap arse contract Matt 

everyone does this, but it’s not 1980 anymore, the top coat anti scuff Matt paints don’t like sticking to it, there are lots of videos on problem jobs. 
 

don’t put £100 a tin top coat over £10 a tin primer. 
 

I’ve got a couple of horror walls that might have to go back to bare plaster. 

[Oz07]

2 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

Work backwards 

look at your finish paint, then read up on the primer / undercoat for that paint. 
do not rely on a mist coat of watered down cheap arse contract Matt 

everyone does this, but it’s not 1980 anymore, the top coat anti scuff Matt paints don’t like sticking to it, there are lots of videos on problem jobs. 
 

don’t put £100 a tin top coat over £10 a tin primer. 
 

I’ve got a couple of horror walls that might have to go back to bare plaster. 

Is there any universal mist coat you can use? I used that cheap Leyland in last place for mist and put the dulux diamond matt over the top no problems and that was pretty expensive paint 

[Russell griffiths]

42 minutes ago, Oz07 said:

Is there any universal mist coat you can use? I used that cheap Leyland in last place for mist and put the dulux diamond matt over the top no problems and that was pretty expensive paint 

Same here, I thought I had no problems until I scratched a bit of wall, then discovered it wasn’t really stuck on to the mist coat very well, did some research and found the thick non porous anti scuff paint doesn’t really like the chalky contract Matt. 
if you watch all the YouTube stuff and ask 100 painters 80 will say they still use contract Matt, but the other 20 have been to sort out a new set of problems that are just coming to light with the newer scrubbable paints. 

[SimonD]

As I'm using clay paints, which may behave differently to the scrubbable paints, I use the auro plaster primer https://www.auropaint.co.uk/product/plaster-primer-no-301/ It goes on a treat and works far better than mist coat. but as it works with emulsion, it might be fine.

[Oz07]

2 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

Same here, I thought I had no problems until I scratched a bit of wall, then discovered it wasn’t really stuck on to the mist coat very well, did some research and found the thick non porous anti scuff paint doesn’t really like the chalky contract Matt. 
if you watch all the YouTube stuff and ask 100 painters 80 will say they still use contract Matt, but the other 20 have been to sort out a new set of problems that are just coming to light with the newer scrubbable paints. 

What about if super diluted? Still same?

[Russell griffiths]

1 hour ago, Oz07 said:

What about if super diluted? Still same?

That’s sort of what the paint manufacturer say, just use the top coat diluted as a primer

contract Matt is just for really cheap low spec jobs. 

[MrSniff]

May be obvious, and apologies if so, but good quality roller sleeves and brushes, and definitely a good solid adjustable pole - a lot easier to roller larger areas using two hands on the pole than one hand on the roller handle.
I found a 14” roller a good compromise size wise.

[Russell griffiths]

As above 

use what the professionals use, a 12-14 inch roller on a frame, so fixed both ends, not a roller on a handle that you can’t put even pressure on. 

[Oz07]

1 hour ago, Russell griffiths said:

That’s sort of what the paint manufacturer say, just use the top coat diluted as a primer

contract Matt is just for really cheap low spec jobs. 

I meant the mist coat super diluted. There must be a way to make it stick to another paint else they are basically saying you need a fresh plastered wall if your going to use this paint ie not suitable for existing walls without re skim. 

[Russell griffiths]

2 hours ago, Oz07 said:

I meant the mist coat super diluted. There must be a way to make it stick to another paint else they are basically saying you need a fresh plastered wall if your going to use this paint ie not suitable for existing walls without re skim. 

No not really 

they said diluted contract Matt goes chalky as it has a cheap base with lots of cheap filler products as a bulking agent. 
once the walls are all sealed up you can use the good gear straight on by diluting the first coat a bit to thin it as they are generally very thick. 
 

because of the thickness they don’t suck in well but sit on top, and because of the scrubbable nature stuff doesn’t stick well to the surface so the underside doesn’t stick well to the coat below. 
 

I phoned a couple of technical help lines and they all said the only people using contract Matt are the mass house builders.