Where do you do your work?

[Nanako]

Hi all, amateur here, i have lots of ideas on renovating my house, and i'm already a month and a half into doing it, with great results, i have done a lot of painting and sanding and created some shelves of my own from scratch, i have a lot of nice things to show

I live in a ground floor apartment with carpets everywhere though, and this has been causing a problem. Carpets are hard to clean, but more importantly they are soft. So for most of this time, whenever i need a smooth stable surface, i've been working in my kitchen. The kitchen now looks like a disaster area

So much dust and sawdust trampled in, spilled paint, splashed paint, footprints in paint, wood offcuts lying around, etc, its going to take a lot of focused effort to clean it all once i'm done. And three times now i have had to repaint parts of the kitchen wall (That i just painted!) because paint splashed onto them while i was mixing it. Paint doesnt really wipe off, its engineered to stick to things!

But i don't know what else to do. Theres nowhere else in my house that has nice flat surfaces. Its pretty big as houses go, and i have a front and back garden, but both are largely just grass and tarmac, nothing is even, and there's nowhere to rest things

My kitchen has to be cleaned up soon, and i don't know what i'm gonna do after it is. So many of the activities involved in decorating make a lot of mess, and some messes are hard to clean.

What do you guys do? Where do you do your work? Do you have special equipment to create stable, easily cleanable surfaces?

Is there perhaps some kind of self balancing table i could set down on uneven grass and have it be a level stable surface?
I don't have a garage or utility room of any sort, the closest thing is that i'm using one of the bedrooms for storage, but it has uneven flooring and is a cluttered mess too, turning it into a workshop would be a project in itself

Thoughts or advice?

 

[Wayners]

X board. Correx sheets. And many other products you can cover floors with. Put plastic over then the sheets to protect floor.
You also should have you're tools linked to a vacuum with power tackoff. Also rig up a dust extractor out the window or air scrubber.
Living in such a dusty environment will damage you're health or even worse over time.
You should be cutting outside of in a booth inside with filtered air.
Get some self storage for a while to create a working space.
Work on one room at a time.
Get a zipping door covers.

 

[Nanako]

X board. Correx sheets. And many other products you can cover floors with. Put plastic over then the sheets to protect floor.
You also should have you're tools linked to a vacuum with power tackoff. Also rig up a dust extractor out the window or air scrubber.
Living in such a dusty environment will damage you're health or even worse over time.
You should be cutting outside of in a booth inside with filtered air.
Get some self storage for a while to create a working space.
Work on one room at a time.
Get a zipping door covers.

that is a lot of equipment i dont think i can afford, what is X board?

 

[Wayners]

£25 to £30 sander bodged on a vacuum. You can buy a shop vac starting around £30.
Roll of duck tape and some plastic bottles for the bodging together..
Dust masks around £10 for a pack.
Maybe it's me as I'm working full time but I don't think that's a lot to to spend to save your lungs and sand surfaces.

X Board is floor protector. Many DIY stores stock it

 

[Nanako]

£25 to £30 sander bodged on a vacuum. You can buy a shop vac starting around £30.
Roll of duck tape and some plastic bottles for the bodging together..
Dust masks around £10 for a pack.
Maybe it's me as I'm working full time but I don't think that's a lot to to spend to save your lungs and sand surfaces.

X Board is floor protector. Many DIY stores stock it

Oh my lungs aren't in dangere, i always wear an full set of sensory organ protective gear when i'm sanding anything. Goggles, respirator mask, and ear protectors, put on in that order.

 

[Nanako]

My problem right now is, i need a flat surface to work on. But outside of my kitchen, i only have carpeted rooms, and a bumpy uneven outdoors to work with. How can i create a flat working surface? I need it for:
1. Putting scales on so i can weigh paints as i pour them into a bowl, for mixing precise quantites

2. Woodwork of all descriptions

 

[foxhole]

Have a workshop , but do a lot of work outside on a simple trestle table , I adjust the size with pallets and for a flat surface I cover with sheets of mdf .Luckily can get loads of 1/3 sheets 9mm mdf for free from local printing works where everything seems to arrive on large pallets covered with mdf .