Newly installed drywall panels provide a flat wall surface, which is suitable for hanging wallpaper or painting after plastering, depending on your preference. Here, we are describing plastering itself, which is an essential step. If you do not feel confident, to do this yourself, rather find a plasterer through Mr-Skill. If you go ahead though, it is essential that you apply the dry wall compound in precise steps, in order to obtain the smoothest finish.
What You’ll Need
Drywall plaster mix
Drywall tape mesh
Drywall tape tools
Respirator (facemask)
Non-slip drop cloths
Tips and Cautions
Remember you could also get a plastering quote from one of our craftspeople on Mr-Skill.
Use non-slip cloths to cover floors before plastering, and tape up door and window frames to prevent fine dust from infiltrating the rest of your home.
Apply several thin coats of plaster mix rather than one thick layer to avoid lumping.
When sanding down after the final plaster application, be sure to wear a facemask.
STEPS
1. Cover each seam on the drywall panel with the self-adhesive mesh tape, and avoid tape overlap where the vertical and horizontal joints meet.
2. Use a trowel to pack the plaster through the mesh and into the seams. Don’t forget to cover screw holes carefully in the panels.
3. Gently scrape off excess plaster while it is still wet, using a trowel.
4. Leave the plaster coat to dry properly, and then sand off any high points with a drywall sander.
5. Apply a second coat and repeat the process per the above guidelines.
6. Sand the final plaster with fine-grit paper and wipe clean. Apply a coat of plaster primer paint. Once this is dry, you are ready to paint.
One of our London plasterers has built and plastered more walls than he cares to remember, but he can never resist the look of satisfaction on the clients face when he completes yet another successful job.
When done intelligently, and with an eye on what most other people want, redecorating can add pounds to the value of your home, and sometimes with very little effort too. This is one reason why Halifax PLC recently found that home redecorating is the United Kingdom’s most popular home improvement pastime.
People sometimes redecorate their homes with a view to a quick sale and then regret it when they move. Others do it just because this easy task is a great one for the whole family to share. The rest have better things to do and get decorator quotes on Mr-Skill instead.
If you choose to do a job yourself make sure that it is within your capabilities and that you have enough time to do it properly. It this is not the case, or if you fear for your safety on a high ladder do as people looking for painters in London do – play it safe and appoint a decorator to paint high ceilings.
Always make sure that you use the best materials and equipment too. Going cheap inevitably shows through the job and you will regret cutting corners. This means safe ladders, decent tools, and making sure that tiles, paints and wallpaper rolls are from the same batch. This is how professional home decorators achieve perfect results, as you will see when you find a decorator here.
When doing a redecorating job at home, always make sure that you protect your face and skin from the nasty chemicals that many paints and glues contain. Wear goggles and a facemask to protect your eyes and lungs, and a good pair of gloves to avoid getting blisters. When you do a job successfully around the house with the right materials, tools and equipment, you will have discovered why so many United Kingdom homeowners enjoy doing the same
People have been decorating their walls with paper for millennia. The ancient Egyptians and Chinese were the first to hang paper on their walls two thousand years ago, King Louis XI of France (1423-1483) commissioned Jean Bourdichon to paint 50 rolls of paper with images of angels because he found it necessary to move frequently from castle to castle and wanted to take the “wallpaper” with him, and the UK`s love of flock wall coverings developed after Henry VIII´s excommunication from the Catholic Church in Rome and the English gentry could no longer get tapestries imported from Europe.
These days, it seems that there is practically nothing you cannot do with wallpaper. They can be manufactured from many different materials – textile wallpapers include silks, linens, grass cloths, strings, rattan, and actual impressed leaves -, can be printed with life-size images or photographs and you can submit your own design if there is nothing suitable to choose from in the shop or online! Wallpaper can be printed in the style of a mosaic (see below) or as if the wall was bare brick and there was no wallpaper at all. There is even a charity in the UK promoting “wallpaper awareness” with examples of wallpaper designs over the last six centuries (for more information visit – Wallpaper History Society).
This really is wallpaper printed in the form of a mosiac
Whether you are looking for wallpaper that is modern or retro, Arabesque or Anglo-Japanese, geometric or neo-classical, the video below may offer some inspiration to you. Created with the assistance of the Cooper-Hewett National Design Museum in New York, it goes through three hundred years of wallpaper designs in a little over three minutes. Once you have chosen your particular favourite, you might then wish to use the services of a local handyman in London to help you hang it. In which case you will find our Tradesmen´s Directory an invaluable resource to help attract competitive quotes from handymen in London.
Wallpapering is one of those jobs that nobody can honestly say that they look forward to, and wherever possible will fix peeling wallpaper rather than remove all the old paper and start afresh. However, there comes a stage when completely redecorating the room can no longer be avoided and, reluctantly, you give up a Saturday afternoon to re-paper the room.
Whereas employing a handyman in London might be an ideal option to save you all the grief, people tend to feel that there is something personal about hanging wallpaper once they have been to all the trouble of choosing it, buying it and bringing it home. Nonetheless, the decision to do-it-yourself may well be regretted once you get to a corner!
Corners and light switches are the DIY-ers least favourite part of a room – whilst wallpapering at least – but there are some ways in which you can paper from one wall to the next, quickly and easily, in a smooth operation.
90 Degree Corners
When you reach a corner, it is much easier to hang a length of paper that has been cut into two vertical strips than to fold the paper into the corner – it looks better too! Measure from the last vertical strip to the corner at the top, middle and bottom of the wall (Some walls are slightly crooked and the corners not completely square).
Cut the paper to allow an extra inch (25mm) so it reaches slightly beyond the corner and paste this onto the wall – using a soft paper-hanging brush to smooth it into the corner. Then use a narrow roller to press the paper firmly against the wall and wipe off any excess paste.
Measure the width of the cut-off left over from the wallpaper you have just hung, and hang a plumb line that distance from the corner to get a perfectly vertical line. That line will enable you to start the next wall off correctly once you have pasted the cut-off up onto the wall.
270 Degree Corners
Some rooms have what is known as an “external” corner when there is a chimney breast or recessed window in the room. The procedure for papering around a 270 degree corner is exactly the same as above however use a side wall rather than a front-facing wall for aligning the two strips cut from the same length.
If you experience any difficulty manoeuvring your wallpaper around the corners of a room, look in our Tradesmen´s Directory for a local London handyman to come and give you a helping hand.
If you have read our Project Advice on “How to Wallpaper around Corners”, you will know that plug sockets and light switches are of equal nuisance when it comes to wallpapering a room. Every room has light switches and sockets, and as much as you might get away with making a hash of the wallpapering in a dark corner, you will notice poor wallpapering every time you go to switch on a light or put in a plug – so it is worthwhile to take the extra effort to paper around switches and sockets carefully.
Whenever you are dealing with switches and sockets, turn off the power from the mains before you start.
Hang the wallpaper from the top of the wall as normal and cover the switch or socket. Brush gently over the fitting with a dry paper-hanging brush to make a slight impression on the paper, but take care not to tear it. With the wallpaper over the fitting, draw two diagonal lines from opposing corners through the centre of the faceplate and pierce a small hole in the paper at the centre point. With a small pair of scissors, cut the paper to the corners and pull back the flaps.
Trim the flaps back to just inside the outer edges of the switch or socket so there is an overlap of about a quarter of an inch (6mm) covering the fitting. Partially unscrew the faceplate and pull it out a little way from the wall. Use a small paintbrush to ease the trimmed edges of the wallpaper gently behind the faceplate and smooth away any air bubbles. Put the faceplate back in place and secure the screws. It is best to allow the paste to dry before turning on the power.
Wallpapering around light switches and electric sockets is not particularly complicated, just fiddly and requires a steady hand. As you only get one chance to get it right, you may wish to use the services of a handyman in London to help with the most difficult aspects of wallpapering a room. There are plenty to be found in our Tradesmen´s Directory, or you can attract quotes from handymen in London by using the “Post-a-Job” facility at the top of each page.
Wallpaper has been popular in England for more than a century. Interior design quotes often allow for simply papering over a previous version when this no longer suits their client’s tastes. When wallpaper begins to peel off – perhaps because of damp or damage – it is time to remove the old paper and start afresh. How exactly do you do this? If you hired in help, this is what you would find a decorator would do.
You will need the following tools and equipment:
Good Ladder (and somebody to hold it steady for you)
Spray Bottle with Water
Putty Knife
Paint Scraper
Safety Knife with Retractable Blade
Steamer
Protective Goggles
Heat-Resistant Safety Gloves
A Dustbin (for removed paper)
This is how you go about the job:
Move furniture and curtains away from the wall, take pictures down and remove all picture hooks and nails.
Using the putty knife, loosen a seam at the bottom of a strip of wallpaper that is easiest to reach. If you are lucky enough to be working with modern paper, you can just tug upwards gently and peel it off. If the paper is an older washable kind, you first need to score through the outer coating and introduce moisture to soften the underlying paper, before you can scrape it off with your paint scraper. Dampen any bits that remain, wait ten minutes, and scrape these off as well.
If the wallpaper is stubborn, or if you are faced with multiple layers of old wallpaper, pop down to your local hardware store, rent a steamer and make your life much easier. After reading the instructions, fill the steamer with water up to the mark with the electricity turned off , power up and wait for the water in the steamer to begin to boil. Wearing your protective goggles and your gloves, rest the steamer on a part of the wallpaper for 30 seconds (remember to score through waterproof paper first). The wallpaper should scrape off easily, and you can move on to the next section.
When you are done, you will have a clean surface to work on, and your new wallpaper will be easier to hang too. It is not difficult to do this, with help from Mr-Skill. If you decide to have the work done for you, then you will better understand how a decorator quotes.
Coving and cornices are simple ways to finish off the look of a room and do not require any special skills to erect -just care and attention. Their use is especially useful when a new stud wall has been erected or a ceiling has been replaced, and fitting a cornice will remove the need to undertake detailed finishing of the corner where the wall and ceiling meet. Although this job can be done by yourself, if you have particularly high ceilings, or are attempting this job on the exterior of a property, it is advisable to use the services of a builder in London who will provide scaffolding and ensure the job is done safely.
Before You Start
Measure the length of each wall in the room to be covered and work out how many lengths of coving you will need. You should allow an extra 150mm at each corner of the room for joint cutting, and work out where you can save materials by using off-cuts around chimney breasts and bay windows. It is best to clear the room of furniture or move it all into the centre and cover any floor surfaces you will be working above.
Prepare the surfaces you will be covering with coving. Scrape off any loose paint and scour gloss-painted areas with sandpaper. If the walls or ceiling are papered, use a sharp knife to cut through the paper 1.5mm inside where the coving is going to go, and remove strips of paper inside your cut and any old wallpaper paste. Using a tungsten carbide tipped ceramic tile scriber or very sharp knife, score the wall and ceiling between the edges of where the coving is going to be placed to enable the adhesive you are going to use bind to the surfaces.
Starting Off
Start working on your longest walls first as this will enable you to use cut-offs on shorter walls. Where more than one length of coving is required, work from each end of the wall towards the middle, and it helps when working out what goes where later, to write a “W” on the side of the coving which is going to be fixed to the wall. This also helps when cutting mitres using a mitre box as the “W” side should be the one on the far side of the mitre box.
Cutting Mitres
Cutting mitres accurately is the key to getting a professional finish to your coving. London builders will use a specialised mitre saw, but you could use a regular hacksaw and saw along a pencil line if you take sufficient care. For polystyrene coving a fine-toothed bread knife will do the trick.
Measure and cut square all the lengths of coving you will need – adding 30mm for waste – this ensures a cleaner cut on the sharp corner when you mitre. As you cut each piece, number it and write the corresponding number on the wall where it will eventually go.
Take the first piece of coving and cut the appropriate mitre. Mitres can be internal or external depending on the area of wall you are coving – for example a corner of a room requires an internal mitre cut and the outside corners of a chimney breast would require an external cut. In a perfect world, each of these angles would be 45 degrees, but in older houses and around bay windows, you will have to make allowances for aging and bowing. Take the next piece and mitre the end. You should put the two pieces in position to make sure they meet and mark the wall. Carry on around the wall until all the pieces are cut and annotated.
Fixing the Coving
Most brands of coving come with the manufacturer´s recommendations for which type of adhesive to use. If in any doubt, speak with a London builder who will be able to help you. It is recommended by London builders that you tap masonry pins into the plaster along the walls which you have just marked and then, using a wide filling knife, apply the adhesive to the back edges of the coving – applying it only to the surfaces which will touch the wall and ceiling. NOTE – if the adhesive comes in a tube with a frame gun, use this instead.
Offer up the first piece of coving, resting it on the masonry pins. Ease the mitre into the corner and firmly but gently push the coving inwards and upwards. Remove any excess adhesive from the coving and the edge of the mitre – you do not want too much adhesive on the mitre at this stage as it will stop a good joint being made with the next piece of coving. Continue with the next section of coving – now filling any gap in the joint with adhesive. Carry on around the room, remembering to remove any traces of adhesive with a wet sponge or cloth as you go.
Alternative Corner Solutions
As a room with a lot of corners may take up too much of your time cutting exact angles, you may want to consider using separate pre-formed decorative corner pieces (cornices). These can be purchased from a DIY store or your local builders in Londonwill be able to get them for you. If you fix these in place first and then measure and cut square ended lengths of coving to fit between them, this could save you a lot of effort. You can also use stick-on cornices – in which case you would put your coving up first and fix them over the square ends using adhesive.
Painting and Decorating
Once your coving is in place and the adhesive has been given the chance to dry, you may wish to consider how you are going to decorate your coving. Polystyrene coving can only be painted with water based paint – such as an emulsion – as spirit and oil based paints can seep into the coving, damage it and also present a fire risk. All other types of coving can be painted in any household paint, but where you have put up timber coving, you may prefer to varnish it depending on the rest of the decor in your room.
You may wish to integrate your coving with matching skirting, dado rails or architraves. Your local builder in London will help you acquire the materials you need and, as mentioned before, should be used to help put up covings in rooms with exceptionally high ceilings or when you are attempting this job on the exterior of your property.
To help you find a builder in London, please use our Tradesmen´s Directory. You can also use the “Post-a-Job” facility at the top of the page to alert local builders in London of your requirements.
According to a report recently published by the London School of Economics, the demand for handymen in London is increasing substantially due to middle class fathers trying to balance work and family life more effectively.
Although “domestic” jobs have been traditionally dominated by women working as nannies and cleaners, estimates suggest that the male domestic work force has risen from 17% in the early 1990s, to 27% at the turn of the millennium and now as many as 39% of out-sourced jobs done in and around the home are done by a man.
The vast majority of these jobs are normally straightforward for a London handyman, but for a busy, working father it is much more convenient to use the services of a handyman in London rather than buy materials and tools to perform the job themselves. This is especially true when the mother of the family also works and chores such as cooking, cleaning and washing are shared between husband and wife.
Researchers also found that the increase on demand for handymen in London is reflected in the nationalities working as local handymen in London, with 57% of all London handymen surveyed in the report being born outside of the U.K.
If you are trying to find a handyman in London, use the “Post-a-Job” facility to alert hundreds of handymen in London to your requirements and receive a selection of quotes from handymen located in your area of London.
Local handymen in London are increasingly in demand according to a report carried out by the London School of Economics. Although they cite in their report that this is due to fathers wishing to balance their work and family lives, and employ a handyman in London to deal with jobs such as painting and decorating, further statistics revealed by The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) may reveal another reason why male homeowners are none too enthusiastic when it comes to household chores – injury!
The statistics quote that “Injuries from tools and machinery are estimated to account for 87,000 of the 220,000 DIY enthusiasts turning up at hospital each year. Ladder and stepladder accidents send 41,000 people to hospital annually – often resulting in some of the most serious injuries and even death when people fall from high up. Splinters, grit, dust, dirt and other particles result in another 60,000 people seeking treatment in casualty.”
The most dangerous tools according to RoSPA are: 1, Knives and scalpels (21,300 accidents in the UK each year); 2, Saws (15,100); 3, Grinders (6,400); 4, Hammers (5,800); 5, Chisels (3,900); 6, Screwdrivers (3,400); 7, Power Drills (3,000); 8, Axes (2,200); 9, Planes (2,100); 10, Welding Equipment (2,000).
The Top Ten DIY materials to take care with are: 1, Wood, chipboard etc (29,400 accidents); 2, Paving/Concrete Blocks (21,200); 3, Metal bars, sheets etc (12,800); 4, Nails (15,400); 5, Bricks (8,000); 6, Paint and paint pots (3,900); 7, Glue, paste etc (3,100); 8= Screws and Floor/Wall Tiles (2,500); 10, Wallpaper (1,600).
Common DIY accidents include cuts from knives while cutting cable and carpets, slips with saws when cutting wood, paint dripping into eyes from ceilings and slabs falling onto hands and feet. Many accidents of this nature could be avoided by spending more time on planning and ensuring that safety gear – such as gloves, masks and goggles – is worn when necessary.
If you need to find a handyman in London, there is an excellent selection featured in our Tradesmen´s Directory, or if you have a specific job that needs doing around the home, please use the “Post-a-Job” facility at the top of the page.
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