The Many Skills Required Of A Painter And Decorator

By Author: Roy Weston Jones
Total Articles: 2
Comment this article

When people think of painters and decorators in Cardiff, they generally have a picture of a man in white overalls with a paint brush in one hand and a tin of paint in the other. And that is certainly one view.

However, there is much more to painting and decorating than using a paint brush or a roller. Among other things it includes wallpaper hanging, and that is a very skilled job. Many types of wallpaper have patterns which have to be matched exactly and that means that the wallpaper has to be cut to exactly the right length and at exactly the right point in the design. Then it has to be pasted and hung on the wall which means climbing up a ladder in order to ensure that the top is an exact fit with a picture rail or with the ceiling.

In all types of painting and decorating, the actual painting and decorating is the easy part. It is all the preparation that is needed in order to make certain that the finished job is perfect that (a) takes time and (b) is pretty boring work. All old wallpaper has to be stripped off as does loose paint which will need to be removed and the remaining areas sanded and then wiped down ...
... before applying an undercoat. Any cracks or gaps have to be filled with a filler which has to be allowed to dry and then must also be sanded in order to ensure a flat surface.

Then there is the question of measuring all the surface areas in order to work out how much wallpaper or paint is required. If you are the customer, you don’t want to finish up paying for more paint or wallpaper than is needed.

There is also the problem of working at height. If you are having your house painted on the outside, a painter and decorator in Cardiff will need to work from a ladder to get to the upper storey. OK, if it is a big property it might make sense to use a scaffold but for a three-bedroom semi the expense would not make sense.

Then there is the actual application of the undercoat and top-coat, plus hanging any wallpaper. There are also specialist finishing techniques such as rag rolling, graining, and marbling.

What about tiling? That is an art form on its’ own. There are very many reasons to use tiles in a property, both on the walls and on the floors. The surface of ceramic tiles, whether glazed or unglazed, is very dense and so microbes and bacteria cannot get into them. Thus, they are extremely useful in food preparation areas and medical situations.

Tiles don’t burn. You can drop cigarette ash on them, and nothing will happen, whereas if you drop it on carpet you have a problem. Equally, glazed ceramic tiles don’t absorb spills. If you spill red wine on them, or vinegar, lemon juice, or anything else, you can just wipe it off with a damp cloth.

Tiles are extremely robust and ideal for flooring. You can walk on them in high heels and they won’t take a bit of notice. You would also have to drop something very heavy on floor tiles in order to crack them. However, when you have tiles laid you should always keep a few as spares so if there is an accident you can simply replace the damaged tile.

Tiles on the floor do need to be laid correctly using the appropriate glues on a surface that is as level as possible. The substrate should be covered by a floor screed in order to obtain maximum levelling. Tiling floors and walls is yet another part of the painter and decorator’s job.

And all that is just when you have your home or office painted and decorated. What about painting a bridge, for example? Or the outside of a 30-storey office block? Yes, those are also jobs for painters and decorators who often have to work at extreme height while wearing safety harnesses.

So if you thought that painting and decorating was easy, maybe this will make you think again. This is why you are always better off employing professional painters and decorators who will provide a first-class job.