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Painting, decorating and home improvement tips blog

Painting And Decorating in Southend For 30 Years

Posted by Adrian
March 26th, 2023

Painting And Decorating in and around Southend For 30 Years

March 2023 sees the 30th 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.

Celebrating 30 years painting and decorating - 1993-2023

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 calculatora ceiling paper calculatora 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.

A selection of photos including a van, rollers and brushes and completed work

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.

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How to cut wallpaper

Posted by Adrian
February 28th, 2017

scissors

How to cut wallpaper

If you are hanging any type of wallpaper, making a good clean cut can make or break a job. The last thing you want to see are torn ragged edges, so the key to cutting wallpaper is to use sharp tools.

Scissors

Scissors can be used to trim paper, cut paper and remove excess paper as you hang, so a good paper hanging pair of scissors are always good to have to hand when wallpapering. To use scissors to trim the top and bottom of the paper, use a pencil to mark a line where you need to cut making sure the paper is well pushed in. Mark and then lift the paper slightly and trim carefully along the line with the scissors or papering shears.

Knife

Knife

A knife is the most popular choice, and the best type to use are a craft knife or one that has snap off blades. This way you can simply snap an end off and you have a sharp cutting edge again, this should be done regularly to avoid the knife dragging and tearing the paper. The amount of cuts between each ‘snap’ of blade will depend on the surface you are cutting on to. Wood and plaster will blunt the blade quickly.

To trim the paper make sure the paper is pushed well into where the cut will be, then use something like a wide scraper to hold the paper and then cut along the edge with a sharp knife. Having a sharp knife will make life easier and you can trim on one cut.

Rotary Cutter

Other tools

There are a number of other tools on the market such as rotary cutters, battery powered cutters, triangle shaped and wedge shaped cutter. All these tools work on the same basic principle, they use a sharp cutting blade to trim the paper. Some I have to say are more successful than others, and some last better than others but at the end of the day it is personal preference to which tool you prefer to use.

Triangle Cutter
wide scraper

Wallpaper Calculator

If you need to work out how many rolls of wallpaper to buy, why not use our Wallpaper Calculator to do it, it even has a feet to metre convertor.

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Why does wallpaper have different batch numbers

Posted by Adrian
October 30th, 2014

Why does wallpaper have different batch numbers

A question I get asked from time to time or see a search on our property decorating website is why do wallpaper rolls have different batch numbers, and why are they important?

All wallpapers, not lining papers, should carry a batch number and colour number code on their label. If not on the label then maybe on a sticker on the end of the roll. It is important to look out for these batch numbers and colour numbers when purchasing your rolls of wallpaper.

It is important to ensure all batch numbers are the same when purchasing wallpaper to ensure good colour and pattern match between each roll.

Why are there different batch numbers for the same design of wallpaper

You will notice that some rolls of wallpaper have different batch numbers on the rolls even though the design and pattern are the same, this is because wallpaper manufacturers make a large amount of rolls of wallpaper in one go, or batch. When one batch is completed each roll made from this batch run will carry the same batch number.

When a new batch is run off a new batch number will be used, a slight difference between batches may occur in colour. So to avoid disappointment of your finished job ensure all batch numbers are the same before starting the job, if they aren’t change the rolls so all the batch numbers match.

You may also wonder what the other symbols on the wallpaper roll mean.

What do wallpaper symbols mean

If you look at the label of a roll of wallpaper you will notice some odd looking symbols on it, such as this one. Wallpaper symbol - Extra washable

This symbol actually means the wallpaper is ‘Extra Washable’ so can be used where it may get splashes or dirty and wiped with a sponge for example, but it isn’t a scrubbable paper as that would be this symbol. Wallpaper symbol - scrubbable

For more symbols and their meaning, see our Wallpaper Symbols page.

Measuring for wallpaper

Before going out and purchasing rolls of wallpaper you will need to know how many rolls to buy, we have a handy wallpaper calculator on our website to help you work out how many rolls of wallpaper you will need. All you need to do is follow the instructions on the page and the calculator will work out how many rolls you will need to purchase. It is a very straight forward wallpaper calculator unlike some others that can be very time consuming and complicated, and we even have included and feet to meters converter and should only take a couple of minutes from start to finish to get your result.

batch number on wallpaper

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