Help! idiots decorating!

[not so handy with a brush]

Hello

Firstly go easy on us if this sounds like a story of a couple of sorry losers.

Basically we are decorating the hall and landing area of a circa 1950s house. Wes tripped off the existing wallpaper and backing paper only to be left with a wall with half yellowly paint finish and other parts what appears to be bare wall. The bare wall parts look a concrete colour but am really not sure what it is. The yellow segments are paint of some sort but because it is only covering about 50% of the wall in a very uneven pattern the surface of the wall is uneven.

Now us being the foolhardy idiots that we are believed that a good rub down with coarse steel hank loaded with sugar soap would result in a smooth paintable finish, well needless to say it didn't. Still not deterred we went out and bought what we believed to be great quality stuff, Leyland Vinyl Silk, in the belief that applied with our Wickes high performance short pile roller (before you say it we know wickes is utter crap, at least we do now) it would provide a smooth finish.

We have just finished the second coat having been undeterred by the first coats utterly terrible coverage and ability to provide a good finish, and the whole thing looks awful. The filling we applied and rubbed down extensively shows through but worst of all the contours of the yellowly paint and the bare concrete colour walls have been preserved like an archeologists dream through the emulsion paint. What we have now is more or less the same stripped down situation of two different surface finishes and heights but now with a healthy magnolia glow over it, in other words complete and utter rubbish.

Question is what do we do now? We thought maybe we should cut our loses on time on aggressive sugar soap work and painting and just hanging lining paper to paint but is this a good idea as we will have wasted days of work and a relatively expensive paint, which btw we would love to know is any good or not?

Mock us if you will but please offer some help as this is a nightmare job supposed to be finsihed for our parent's return!

Regards

 

[JohnD]

The yellow paint stuff: is it smooth, or is it thick, lumpy, and with the remains of an embossed pattern showing on it?

Do you think it is emulsion, or an oil paint?

Don't worry about the waste of paint you have already applied, it's done now. Halls often have quite a long drop as they have stairs in them, have you done any papering before? And have you papered a hall? Lots of DIY people get a decorator in as it is a bit difficult.


p.s. the problems are very unlikely to be caused by the brand of materials and tools you used.

 

[not so handy with a brush]

The yellow paint is definetly smooth and not particularly thick (1-2mm) and is definetly 1 layer of paint and has no pattern to it just a flat mattish finish. I am a complete novice but it seems to very very slowly rub off with a course steel hank with sugar soap but only if you really work at it so i am guessing it must be an oil based paint.

Well the sad thing is that i have done a little papering but not a great deal and we got the job instead of a local decorator just so we could earn some extra cash. we're not kids just a couple of recent graduates who are finding jobs hard to come by and need some cash, unfortunetly our enthusiasm has overcome common sense and we undertook this job as a result.

Do you think we need to line the walls then, no option?

 

[not so handy with a brush]

Also can anyone advise as to what pile i should be using when applying emulsion to a wall, we assumed short pile but if we have an uneven surface would medium or long pile help or would it just cover better but leave the same old problem?

 

[spice]

One of your mistakes was not only buying 'wicks' own brand, but buying silk paint as well. its the worse paint to apply if you have uneven lumpy walls, it only emphasises the imperfections.
The filler is showing through, cause you havent spotted the filler prior to painting, I ususally dab the filled areas twice or 3 times with paint from my brush, then roll as normal, and it never bleeds thru when I do that.
I would just take it on the chin that you have messed up, and accept you have lost a day or two's time doing it, we all mess up sometimes.

If your walls are uneven, but you filled your cracks and gouges etc, then what I would do is line the whole lot with heavy lining paper 1200 or 1400 grade, there is no wastage in LP, and works out approx £2.20 a roll.


Hang that up, but dont over butt, as the idea of LP is a smooth wall effect, then get some decent paint,pay a bit extra, preferably matt, if the customer wants silk try and talk them out of it lol,and go for the matt, you can get washable mat, as people went for silk thinking it was easier to wipe down.

You took the job on, so you have to finish, and if you have lost out on it, well, put it down to experience, and you wont buy inferior paint again.

 

[Growler]

You took the job on, so you have to finish, and if you have lost out on it, well, put it down to experience, and you wont buy inferior paint again.

Don't blame the paint.