Epsom Total Decorating

04/08/2025

And today’s job is. 😁

02/08/2025

The cost of some of these paint fan decks are eye watering, with a few of these over £100 each. There’s not many left worth getting now to be honest.

Valspar - B&Q
Dulux
Johnstones - both internal and external colours.
Armstead
Crown
Heritage
Little Green

And a selection of various companies you can pick up for free from a decorating centre.

These are always available to borrow for customers to use in the comfort of their own homes.

Couple of tips regarding sample pots.

Don’t paint from the sample pots straight on to the wall. Paint it on a sheet of paper or a strip of lining paper and then you can move it around the room to see it in different light. Also, always do two coats.

The colour in the sample pots are never going to be exactly the same as the actual tins. So once you choose the colour empty the sample pot into the actual tins, mix it in and then fill up the sample pot again and you have a very handy little pot to use for little touch ups with the exact same paint. Rather than having to get the big tin out.

31/07/2025

Another job where it was just the ceiling being painted. Due to a couple of small water marks. So once again out came the easy cover plastic sheeting.

Little tip here. The tape on the easy cover is fairly strong, to hold up the plastic, but this tends to take off paint when removed, especially if the wall wasn’t prepared correctly. To get around this I put a line of delicate masking tape up first and put the easy cover on top of that. This seems to hold up ok and doesn’t then take paint off with it.

Quick easy job here. Cover the water marks with Zinsser Cover stain before 2 top coats of ceiling paint to finish it off. So as not to run the risk of the new paint not blending in and being just as obvious as the stains I will generally advise just painting the whole ceiling if feasible.

31/07/2025

This job wasn’t without its issues. The main one being that the room couldn’t be emptied as it is a control room for a recording studio and with all the cables and equipment it would take days to empty it, let alone attempt to wire it all back up again.

As you can see a room that had been smoked in for many a year. I used a paint from Johnstones called StainAway. It specifically mentions it covers ni****ne stains so we gave it a try. It does. Not sure I would stop using Zinsser Cover stain for water marks etc but it certainly did the job it was asked to do.

Clearly we had to cover the walls with easy cover plastic sheeting. We then scrubbed down the ceiling with sugar soap, followed by a coat of base paint (just to make sure) and finally 2 top coats of the StainAway to finish.

30/07/2025

Quick external job to finish off an extension.

20/07/2025

We were asked to rip out the built in wardrobes which then highlighted a few unforeseen issues. The main one being the ceiling clearly needed plastering and the old wood chip paper had hidden an old fireplace. Due to the air vent being covered completely this created a damp and mould issue which we had to sort out.

The wall needed lining, which is easy enough and these days we use paste the wall lining paper. This makes it much quicker and with less mess.

Remembering the covered up air vent we fitted the correct cover.

We tend to use Gardz from Zinsser these days to seal new plaster and then a couple of coats of paint on ceiling and wall and room has been transformed. Shame about the electrical cable being as it is but that is being sorted by an electrician at a later date.

Plastering was done by Andy the Plasterer on 07875362603. Yes, that is what he calls his company.

02/07/2025

‘Susie the Stripper’ has come out of retirement to help with a nightmare wood chip wall.

Which then uncovered more issues to sort out.🤦‍♂️

30/06/2025

Customer no longer wanted the varnished doors but the expense of changing 6 fire doors was eye watering.

2 coats of Zinsser BIN, 2 x undercoats and then 2 top coats of Skimming Stone and transformation complete.

26/06/2025

Another wallpapering job completed with the help of our new member of the team ‘Pete the Pole’. 😃

26/06/2025

24/06/2025

Ready for a new arrival 👶

20/06/2025

We couldn’t have picked a better week to get some exterior work done.

Not the most taxing in fairness, being a bungalow, but with it being so hot it was handy not having to lug ladders around.