So you are in the mood to repaint the interior of your entire house. You have already decided on which colours would go on which walls on which rooms, and you have even picked new tiles and shutters to match. The only thing you have not decided on yet is whether to paint the skirting boards first or last, or how to deal with painting the skirting boards at all.
What is the proper way of painting skirting boards? Here are five tips to bear in mind when you paint your boards.
1. The boards are the last to go. When you repaint an entire room, you always start from the top down to the bottom. Given that principle, you ought to begin your repainting job from the ceiling, to the cornices of the ceiling, to the walls and down to the skirting boards. Thus, in answer to the first question, then yes, the boards are the last thing you should worry about when it comes to repainting an entire room – unless you are going to put paint on the floor too. In that case, the floor comes last.
2. Clean them. Make sure that your baseboards are clean first before you apply the paintbrush to them. Wipe the dust, dirt and scuffs away from the boards with a simple mixture of soap and water. Be certain that you have all the mouldings on the boards covered, or you will have dirt mixing up with your paint. That would be very unsightly. In case there are dirty spots that are too stubborn to remove, do not despair. Just try a water-and-vinegar solution to clean them, or maybe some bleach would do the work.
3. Protect the floor. If you are not planning on replacing your flooring too, take care not to put paint on them as you work repainting your skirting boards. What you do here is to insert a thin slab of cardboard between the boards and the floor and move the cardboard as you work along your boards. If you do not feel like dragging a piece of cardboard with you whilst you work, you can use newspaper to cover the floor instead. Just make sure that parts of the newspaper are slipped safely in the space between the boards and the wall.
4. Pull the carpets back. Are your floors covered with carpets? Certainly you would not want to have paint all over them as you work on your skirting boards. To protect your carpets, pry them off the floor with a wallpaper knife and pull them back to expose the floor. Then you can insert cardboard or newspaper in the gaps between the boards and the wall and paint to your heart’s content.
5. Keep your brush dry. Be gentle with painting your skirting boards. Do not soak your brush all over with paint. Just have enough paint on your brush and use downward strokes.
Painting skirting boards do not have to be a chore, and painting your skirting boards in the proper manner will save a lot of trouble on your end.
For more skirting boards tips, please visit the website Skirting Boards.
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Five Tips for Painting Skirting Boards
So you are in the mood to repaint the interior of your entire house. You have already decided on which colours would go on which walls on which rooms, and you have even picked new tiles and shutters to match. The only thing you have not decided on yet is whether to paint the skirting boards first or last, or how to deal with painting the skirting boards at all.
What is the proper way of painting skirting boards? Here are five tips to bear in mind when you paint your boards.
1. The boards are the last to go. When you repaint an entire room, you always start from the top down to the bottom. Given that principle, you ought to begin your repainting job from the ceiling, to the cornices of the ceiling, to the walls and down to the skirting boards. Thus, in answer to the first question, then yes, the boards are the last thing you should worry about when it comes to repainting an entire room – unless you are going to put paint on the floor too. In that case, the floor comes last.
2. Clean them. Make sure that your baseboards are clean first before you apply the paintbrush to them. Wipe the dust, dirt and scuffs away from the boards with a simple mixture of soap and water. Be certain that you have all the mouldings on the boards covered, or you will have dirt mixing up with your paint. That would be very unsightly. In case there are dirty spots that are too stubborn to remove, do not despair. Just try a water-and-vinegar solution to clean them, or maybe some bleach would do the work.
3. Protect the floor. If you are not planning on replacing your flooring too, take care not to put paint on them as you work repainting your skirting boards. What you do here is to insert a thin slab of cardboard between the boards and the floor and move the cardboard as you work along your boards. If you do not feel like dragging a piece of cardboard with you whilst you work, you can use newspaper to cover the floor instead. Just make sure that parts of the newspaper are slipped safely in the space between the boards and the wall.
4. Pull the carpets back. Are your floors covered with carpets? Certainly you would not want to have paint all over them as you work on your skirting boards. To protect your carpets, pry them off the floor with a wallpaper knife and pull them back to expose the floor. Then you can insert cardboard or newspaper in the gaps between the boards and the wall and paint to your heart’s content.
5. Keep your brush dry. Be gentle with painting your skirting boards. Do not soak your brush all over with paint. Just have enough paint on your brush and use downward strokes.
Painting skirting boards do not have to be a chore, and painting your skirting boards in the proper manner will save a lot of trouble on your end.
What is the proper way of painting skirting boards? Here are five tips to bear in mind when you paint your boards.
1. The boards are the last to go. When you repaint an entire room, you always start from the top down to the bottom. Given that principle, you ought to begin your repainting job from the ceiling, to the cornices of the ceiling, to the walls and down to the skirting boards. Thus, in answer to the first question, then yes, the boards are the last thing you should worry about when it comes to repainting an entire room – unless you are going to put paint on the floor too. In that case, the floor comes last.
2. Clean them. Make sure that your baseboards are clean first before you apply the paintbrush to them. Wipe the dust, dirt and scuffs away from the boards with a simple mixture of soap and water. Be certain that you have all the mouldings on the boards covered, or you will have dirt mixing up with your paint. That would be very unsightly. In case there are dirty spots that are too stubborn to remove, do not despair. Just try a water-and-vinegar solution to clean them, or maybe some bleach would do the work.
3. Protect the floor. If you are not planning on replacing your flooring too, take care not to put paint on them as you work repainting your skirting boards. What you do here is to insert a thin slab of cardboard between the boards and the floor and move the cardboard as you work along your boards. If you do not feel like dragging a piece of cardboard with you whilst you work, you can use newspaper to cover the floor instead. Just make sure that parts of the newspaper are slipped safely in the space between the boards and the wall.
4. Pull the carpets back. Are your floors covered with carpets? Certainly you would not want to have paint all over them as you work on your skirting boards. To protect your carpets, pry them off the floor with a wallpaper knife and pull them back to expose the floor. Then you can insert cardboard or newspaper in the gaps between the boards and the wall and paint to your heart’s content.
5. Keep your brush dry. Be gentle with painting your skirting boards. Do not soak your brush all over with paint. Just have enough paint on your brush and use downward strokes.
Painting skirting boards do not have to be a chore, and painting your skirting boards in the proper manner will save a lot of trouble on your end.
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Black Marks between the Carpet and the Skirting Boards?
Light coloured carpets make a room nice and cosy. Some people go for stark elegance in a room, so they choose a pristine white carpet to achieve this look. But no matter what kind of look you are trying to get into a room, you would not be successful if you end up having black marks between your carpet and the skirting boards of your room. These black marks under the skirting boards and on light-coloured carpet are just nasty.
What causes these black marks on carpets right under the skirting boards? The culprit that you are looking for is air. Air is everywhere; we all know that. And in houses, air under the flooring can escape through gaps and leave behind it a trail of dirt and dust. Thus, when black marks appear on the carpet directly under the boards, it means there are gaps on the flooring and the wall that is being used as an air vent.
The solution to this dilemma is clearly to fill the gaps that serve as the escape route for air. It is an easy enough solution and all the supplies that you need to buy are some flexible sealants, flexible tape, cedar paper and a carpet knife.
The first step to solving the problem is to pull back the carpet to expose the gaps. If you need to cut it with your carpet knife, go ahead and do it. Once you are done, just pull the carpet back. Afterwards, remove the layers of carpet underlay underneath the actual carpet, again to expose the gaps under the skirting boards.
Before you start working on sealing the gaps, clean first the area underneath the skirting boards so you would not have to deal with dirt trapped in your sealants. Sweep it, vacuum it, wipe it away, or just do anything you need to do in order to get the dirt out of there.
Once the gaps are clean and dry, apply the flexible sealant into the gaps. Let the sealant dry, and then slip the cedar paper into the space underneath the skirting boards. Tape the paper in place by using the flexible tape. In finishing this, you have just put a stopper on the escape route the dirty air is using.
This just leaves you to deal with the dirty stain on your carpet. Before you deal with that, you first replace all the carpet underlay that you removed prior to working on the gaps underneath the skirting boards. After you have replaced the carpet underlay, you may refit the carpet as you see fit. Then we get to the cleaning part. It is just collected dust, so all you need to do is to get a hardworking carpet cleaner to get the job done.
Light-coloured carpets are lovely in a room, but they can be nasty when there are black marks on the place where the carpet meets the skirting boards. Just stop the gap under the skirting boards, and your carpets will be fine.
Resource Box: For more tips and tricks on home improvement, please go to Skirting boards.com.
What causes these black marks on carpets right under the skirting boards? The culprit that you are looking for is air. Air is everywhere; we all know that. And in houses, air under the flooring can escape through gaps and leave behind it a trail of dirt and dust. Thus, when black marks appear on the carpet directly under the boards, it means there are gaps on the flooring and the wall that is being used as an air vent.
The solution to this dilemma is clearly to fill the gaps that serve as the escape route for air. It is an easy enough solution and all the supplies that you need to buy are some flexible sealants, flexible tape, cedar paper and a carpet knife.
The first step to solving the problem is to pull back the carpet to expose the gaps. If you need to cut it with your carpet knife, go ahead and do it. Once you are done, just pull the carpet back. Afterwards, remove the layers of carpet underlay underneath the actual carpet, again to expose the gaps under the skirting boards.
Before you start working on sealing the gaps, clean first the area underneath the skirting boards so you would not have to deal with dirt trapped in your sealants. Sweep it, vacuum it, wipe it away, or just do anything you need to do in order to get the dirt out of there.
Once the gaps are clean and dry, apply the flexible sealant into the gaps. Let the sealant dry, and then slip the cedar paper into the space underneath the skirting boards. Tape the paper in place by using the flexible tape. In finishing this, you have just put a stopper on the escape route the dirty air is using.
This just leaves you to deal with the dirty stain on your carpet. Before you deal with that, you first replace all the carpet underlay that you removed prior to working on the gaps underneath the skirting boards. After you have replaced the carpet underlay, you may refit the carpet as you see fit. Then we get to the cleaning part. It is just collected dust, so all you need to do is to get a hardworking carpet cleaner to get the job done.
Light-coloured carpets are lovely in a room, but they can be nasty when there are black marks on the place where the carpet meets the skirting boards. Just stop the gap under the skirting boards, and your carpets will be fine.
Resource Box: For more tips and tricks on home improvement, please go to Skirting boards.com.
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