Painting And Decorating in and around Southend For 30 Years

March 2023 sees the 30^th year of my decorating career. It was thirty years ago this month that I first picked up my paint brushes and rollers and started painting and decorating. I have worked in a few places around the UK during this time, but I prefer to stay close to home, here in Southend on Sea and the surrounding areas.

Over the past 30 years of painting and decorating I have seen a lot of changes, not only in the painting industry but the economy also, as we all worry about the current living costs here in the UK, and further afield the war in Ukraine. And of course how the pandemic, Covid-19, changed many things for us, including work practises and day to day living. We have all had uncertain and hard times, but I’m still here and ready to decorate your property. So if you would like some work done, contact me for an estimate.

I have undertaken commercial work as well as residential work in my career and painted properties from warehouses to high street shops, to mansion houses, but most commonly I decorate residential properties, just like yours.

Styles and fashions continually change, and over the past 30 years there has been styles come and go, and come around again. Colours change as fashion does, and if you want to know the colours for 2023 have a look at my colour trends for 2023 post .

Painting And Decorating Website And Blog

Over the past eighteen years or so my website has had many designs, and my blog has grown and grown with many posts explaining how to decorate, how things are done and product reviews, with now in excess of 120 posts.

I also created and written the code for four materials calculators, a wallpaper calculator, a ceiling paper calculator, a tile calculator and a paint calculator, these have proved to be very popular with lots of hits per day with people working out their materials. These are used not only by DIYer’s but tradesmen also.

I enjoy writing blog post’s, although I don’t blog as much as I did for several reasons, but I like helping people who want to do painting and decorating or DIY jobs around the house but are not sure how to go about it. I find this very rewarding.

New Media

I continue to use social media, you can find me on Facebook, I also have a LinkedIn page, also a YouTube channel.

I can’t believe it has been 30 years, I would like to thank my past, present and future clients for their custom and continued support.

Review of Purdy products

I was recently contacted by a PR company representing Purdy Professional Painting Tools, they asked if I would like to try some of Purdy’s products and give a review. I thought this would be a good opportunity for both myself and Purdy. For me, I get to try some of Purdy’s world famous products and for Purdy, they have a professional decorator giving an honest real life review. All of the products I reviewed were tried and tested on real life jobs.

Here is my review on the products tested.

Purdy Sprig Elite Paint Brush 2 Inch

I have used this brush for Masonry paint, emulsion and primer/undercoat, all water based products. I found this brush to be a good size and the bristles are just the right stiffness. I haven’t tried this brush on a oil based paint but think it would give a good finish and ideal for laying off.
I also like the fact that all Purdy’s brushes are hand finished and have the person’s signature on a label on each brush.

Purdy Marathon Roller Sleeve

I used this roller sleeve on a recent exterior job. The sleeve performed well and held a large amount of paint which was really good when doing a gable end wall, which meant less times up and down the ladder.

I also used the sleeve on a ceiling and was again pleased with the result it gave me, it left a good even finish.

The only thing I noticed was it seemed slightly longer to wash this roller out than other sleeves I had used, but maybe I hadn’t scrapped enough paint out before washing?

The marathon can be used for both water and oil based paints.

Purdy 9″ Revolution Frame

This cageless frame is great to use, it is lightweight and it rolls very smoothly. The roller sleeve has a good snug fit to the frame so doesn’t move whilst in use. This frame had a slightly longer handle / arm than I normally use which was good I was able to emulsion a standard height ceiling with ease without a ladder.

This frame also features a quick connect feature for connecting with the Purdy Power Lock extension poles, but can also be screwed onto other makes of pole.

Purdy Power lock extension pole 2′- 4′

This extension pole is well built and sturdy and is an ideal length at 2 – 4 feet just to get to those hard to reach places or a ceiling without using a ladder. It is made from Aluminium and fibreglass with quick adjustment locking system. It also has a quick connect system for there new Revolution frames, but it will also take their old frames and other make of roller frames too.

This extension pole makes is easy to change length with it’s locking system and is ideal to keep in your van to call upon when needed.

Purdy Jumbo Mini Roller Frame

The jumbo mini roller frame is ideal for getting into tight places, such as behind radiators. Used in conjunction with the Jumbo marathon roller sleeve it hold lots of paint and performs like the bigger 9″ roller.

The frame is cageless and glides well giving a smooth action.

Purdy Jumbo Marathon Roller Sleeve

This sleeve holds lots of paint so you can go a long way with this roller system, ideal for tricky to reach areas. This sleeve can also be used for water and oil based paints.

In Conclusion

After trying all the above products I was pleased with how they all preformed, I especially liked the new Revolution Frame as it was light and had a good smooth glide, I will be using it a lot in the future.

As a result of this review I shall be considering incorporating Purdy products into my tool box, so they could well be appearing in my van very soon!

Save money on paint

In these hard times we have to save money where we can, this tip is simple but so easy to do but you will be amazed at the amount of paint you save! And another benefit to this tip is it also help the environment so your carbon footprint will be reduced too.

When you have finished painting with a roller or brush by scraping out as much paint as possible will save your money as your tin of paint will go that little bit further. Take your roller and with a scraper scrape the paint out of the roller back into the tin or paint tray, you will be amazed how much comes out, especially a thick piled roller sleave. Do this also with your paint brushes. Also, take time in removing as much paint from paint trays when your finished for the day.

Wrap it up

If you are using a roller for a job but don’t finish in a day, don’t wash your brushes or roller out, wrap them up in a bag they will stay usable overnight and you can come back to them and start work straight away and you save time as you didn’t spend ages washing out the brush or roller the night before.

Going green

The added benefit to this tip is to the environment, less paint is washed down the drain, less water is used and the paint lasts longer so you don’t have to use your car to buy more.

Saving money

If you use this tip you will be saving money, which in today’s economic climate we all need to do.

Removing paint video

Here is a quick video of paint being removed from a roller, the thicker the roller pile the more paint you should be able to recover for next time.

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