ajwt2

I've put together a little blog of how I have recently painted my bathroom. It took a lot longer than I thought it would!

hopefully some people will find it useful? I certainly didn't realise how long it would take to prepare and clean the darn walls in the first place.

Decorating My Bathroom

My new house had a lovely lime green bathroom, full of mould and generally nasty looking bits on the wall. However in just one day I managed to turn it into something that you might want to clean yourself in! Just a couple of coats of paint was all it needed, I didn't even replace the tiles.

Prepare the Bathroom

First things first, I took everything out of the bathroom that I possibly could, even took out the carpet (it came up quite easily), and then covered the fittings with some dust sheets. There should be no problem with paint splashes everywhere now!

Preparation is the key to painting any room, and the bathroom is no exception:

Polyfiller the Bathroom

First of all fill in all those gaps, cracks and holes with some quick setting polyfiller, I would recommend the stuff that you can get in the squeezy tubes, far less hassle than mixing the stuff up yourself. I bought the cheapest polyfiller spatula I could find. I like the cheap ones as they are a little bit more 'bendy' which means you don't accidently take a lump out of the wall

Once the polyfiller has dried, sand it down flat to the walls. At this point you may find that some areas my need a little bit of touching up, just go over them again with polyfiller, wait until it drys and then sand down.

Clean the Bathroom

Now go over the whole bathroom walls and ceiling with a fine piece of sandpaper, you are aiming to get as much of the top grease, grime, mould and mildew off as you can before you apply any paint. Now hoover up as much dust as you can, and go over the bathroom walls and ceiling with some sugar soap solution (I got mine from a DIY store, don't forget to wear gloves, the stuff started to melt my hands!) to try to remove the last bits of dirt and grime.

Now let everything dry completely and make sure that you don't have any dust or dirt remaining on the bathroom wall or ceiling.

Paint the Bathroom Walls

Buy good quality bathroom paint! Go for a good known brand, not the DIY stores own brand and make sure it is for bathroom and bathrooms, otherwise I am told that you might end up with cracked and peeling paint in a few years time.

Mask off any areas that you don't want to get the paint on and then begin. I went all the way around the tiles, the light fittings, the skirting board (which I wasn't going to paint), and then for no reason at all, I masked off the edge around the ceiling. This last lot of masking was pointless, as I was going to paint the bathroom ceiling later, but I didn't think of that at the time!. Apply using the usual painting tools, I find a roller better than the pads, but it is a matter of personal preference. I found that the paint was a lot lot thicker than I had anticipated and only needed a small amount on the roller at one time. I think I could have watered it down with a bit of white spirit or something, but I just persevered and watched out for big thick dribbles of paint down the bathroom wall.

Let the paint dry for a couple of hours, and then see if you need to apply a second coat. (I found the lovely lime green paintwork that was there previously still showed through in some places, but it depends on how much of a colour change you have gone for)

I found a small brush (more like the ones used by artists), was really good for covering up the last little gaps in the paint, especially around the tiles.

Painting the Bathroom Ceiling

Once the wall paint had completely dried (and I mean completely dried!), mask off edge of the walls and start painting the ceiling. I went around the edges with a large paint brush, getting up and down a step ladder rather a lot. Once the edges are done switch to a roller brush and you should be able to reach up and do all the painting standing on the floor (well I'm 5 foot 8" and managed it!). If you wear glasses then I would recommend putting some goggles over the top of them or something, mine got covered in specs of paint.

Once the first coat had semi-dried I applied a second coat using the roller again. I ignored the edges this time as I had put a good thick coat on the first time around.

A New Bathroom

And that was it! My bathroom was looked a million times better, and all it needed was a coat of paint. I think the tiles could either do with being redone completely, or at least re-grouted, but I will leave that for another day

How I: Painted a Bathroom

Alastair Taylor

Driving along the motorway the other day I was musing about the big electricity pylons. Surely if these little turbines make economic and environmental sense (i.e the electricity they make more than compensates for the Carbon footpring required to make them) then surely we should have one installed on the top of each big electricity pylon?

It doesn't use up any more space, it doesnt really create an eyesore as there is already a great big lump of steel tower in your vision, AND the electricity can go straight into the National Grid.

I pondered this for a while, then decided to watch the road.

this sounds like an awesome idea. from my A-level physics you should definately put a sheet of glass infront of whatever you choose, they will really help to trap the heat in. Copper coils sound like a good idea, radiators aren't actually that great at exchanging heat with the environment and actually work more on a convection current (i.e force a small draft of air up past the fins at the back of them)

I wouldn't dump the water directly into the pool either, put another heat exchanger there. That side should be easy as the pool water will quickly suck all the heat out of the warmer water.

there are plenty of online estate agents now who charge maybe £50-£100 for listing your home on their site. Other than that they dont get involved.

Of course the main issue is that if you dont market your house effectively you wont get such decent offers, I hate to say it but estate agents may well earn their 3% by managing to sell your house for that little bit more.

Hello my name is Ali and I run a home improvement website the idea is to help out as many people as possible by giving them all the information they need to make the right choice.

As the site has developed I have learnt a great eal about DIY adn will be happy to share with one and all!