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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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Review of Arroworthy Decorating Products

Posted by Adrian
October 27th, 2017

Arroworthy products

Review of Arroworthy Decorating Products

I was recently sent a box of Arroworthy Decorating Products from Coleman Bros Ltd, I always like receiving surprise boxes in the post! I had been chosen from twitter to try out some of the Arroworthy products. Coleman Bros Ltd are launching these products at this years National Painting and Decorating show in Coventry and they wanted some feedback from professional decorators.

I was more than happy to try these new products, I like trying new products out. So here is my review.

My Review of Arroworthy Decorating Products

Three Arrowworthy roller sleeves
I was sent the following products,

  • ArroWorthy PolyMicro roller Sleeve
  • ArroWorthy Microfiber Roller Sleeve
  • ArroWorthy Glossdel Plus White Lintless Roller Sleeve
  • Arroworthy Barracuda Microfibre Jumbo 4″ Mini Roller & Frame Set
  • Arroworthy Barracuda 4″ Mini Roller Frame
  • Arroworthy Finultra 1.5″ Straight Cut Standard Handle
  • Arroworthy Barracuda 9″ Roller Frame

All the roller Sleeves performed well, with no shedding, they held a good amount of paint whilst leaving a smooth surface. They also cleaned out well. I used the Finultra brush on new wood, to prime and undercoat using a water based paints. It had good paint pick up due to its long filament and was stiff enough thus ideal for cutting in.

The Barracuda 9″ roller frame was a 1.75″ not a 1.5″, so UK standard not US so would fit my existing sleeves, it felt good and strong and has a cageless design, the bit I really liked was the metal spring which holds the roller sleeves on tight, so no slipping as you often get as the sleeves and frames get worn.
The Barracuda 4″ roller frame and sleeve has the exact same design, so a real plus.

Over all I was impressed with all of the products I tried from Arroworthy, so thanks to Coleman Bros Ltd for sending them to try, I shall certainly be using them and if over a long period of use they still hold up well I shall consider buying more Arroworthy products from Coleman Bros.

All images are copyright Adrian Rayfield. Click on images below for larger image.

Arrowworthy Barracuda 9 inch

Arroworthy Barracuda Microfibre Jumbo 4″ Mini Roller & Frame Set

Arroworthy Barracuda 4″ Mini Roller Frame

Arroworthy Finultra 1.5″ Straight Cut

Arroworthy Finultra 1.5″ Straight Cut

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My review of the Paint Soap brush cleaner

Posted by Adrian
June 28th, 2017

Cleaned paint brush

My review of the Paint Soap brush cleaner

I recently followed a company on Twitter (@PaintSoap) and I was asked if I wanted to try some of their product. Me, not being one to turn down the opportunity of trying out products I said yes. Paint Soap is based in the USA but were happy to send me some samples to the UK. They currently do not sell in the UK but they are hoping to start selling in the UK by the end of 2017.

About a week later a package arrived with the samples of Paint Soap for me to try. I was keen to give it a go and used it a couple of times on my next job. I liked the idea of being able to leave the brush to ‘clean itself’ as it soaked in the product, leaving me time to carry on with what I needed too.

After a few minutes of soaking I returned with anticipation to see how well the paint soap did, I removed the brush from the Paint Soap and rinsed it out, it was clean, and used a lot less water than I normally would have.

So what do I think of Paint Soap?

Paint Soap worked well and I like the idea of what is stands for, it saves time, saves money and your brushes, it is also eco friendly and the residue that is left can be disposed of safely as it is non toxic.

This product will only work on water based paints, such as emulsions, so no oil based products, and will not clean out dried paint as it reacts with the wet paint. So you can’t leave your brushes to dry out before cleaning them, but that goes with all paint tools.

So this product can save you, and your client water if you wash brushes out on the job. It can save you time as you can leave brushes to soak whilst carrying on with your work. And it cleans out the paint from your brushes easily and effortlessly.

My video review of me using Paint Soap


To see the rest of my videos, visit my channel on YouTube.

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