Painting & Decorating

Preparation is most of the job — the paint itself is the last step

Painting and decorating is deceptively simple to describe and genuinely easy to get wrong — the visible finish is almost entirely determined by preparation done before a single coat of paint goes on, not by the paint itself.

Surface preparation is where a decorating job is actually won or lost: filling cracks and holes properly rather than skimming over them, sanding back to a sound, even surface, removing flaking or failed old paint that new coats would simply sit on top of and eventually fail with, and applying an appropriate primer or mist coat on new plaster or bare surfaces so the finish coats bond and cure correctly rather than absorbing unevenly. New plaster in particular needs to be fully dry before painting, and painted too early, moisture trapped behind the paint film can cause bubbling, staining or adhesion failure that only shows up weeks after the work looked finished. Once preparation is complete, application technique and product choice both matter for the final result — the right paint type and finish for the room (a kitchen or bathroom needs a more moisture-tolerant paint than a bedroom, for example), correct coverage and drying time between coats, and careful cutting-in at edges, ceilings and around fittings for a genuinely crisp, professional finish rather than visible brush marks or roller lines. External decorating carries its own preparation demands — old, failing paint or coatings need removing properly, and timber in particular needs checking for rot before painting, since painting over damaged timber simply hides a problem rather than fixing it. Whether internal or external, the paint itself is genuinely the easy, quick part of the job — everything that happens before it is what determines how the finished result actually looks and how long it lasts.