While these days, limewash is primarily used for outdoor painting, it has a long tradition of being
used for finishing both the outside and inside walls of historic buildings. Considering such diverse uses of limewash paint, maybe it’s high time you’ve learned a thing or two about it?
Preparation and protection of rooms and interior before attempting painting and decorating works
Can’t it cause a headache the very thought that all our household items, all equipment, furniture, paintings, RTV equipment, often sentimental items, computers in offices, the entire range of our restaurant, store, our beautiful floor and carpet will take part in confusion associated with painting and decorating works.
Maybe especially when there are a lot of things in the rooms and taking them out can be a problem.
However, remember that for recommended specialists who deal with high-end residential and commercial painting and decorating every day, such situations are commonplace.
So if painting and decorating works are large enough that you can’t do them yourself, the first thing you need is a responsible contractor who knows how to run a project from beginning to end.
Who will be the right contractor who knows how to deal with home furnishings and will do the job properly?
This question could be devoted to a whole long article but this is not what this material is about, so I’ll try to summarise it.
We know from our own experience that the best contractor will be a company that carries out luxury high-end residential and commercial painting and decorating projects.
We have been working in luxury residences for many years and we are well aware that being among expensive things shapes, we have often dealt with very valuable things where a simple glass costs £100 and there are many glasses, wallpapers or wall coverings among which we work are worth a few or several thousand pounds, and antique furniture in addition to considerable monetary value have a sentimental value.
To operate in such places, you also need a sense of aesthetics and delicacy, which is why not everyone is suitable for such work. Our experienced managers are excellent strategists, they know how to behave in such places and they know how to lead a team. The selection of painters and decorators for the team is also very important, it is not a job for everyone.
Training on workplace behavior is also very important.
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PLANNING OF THE PROTECTION OF THE PLACE AND STRATEGY OF MOVING OF THE EQUIPMENT
Ok, we already have a great (Painters and Decorators) team and it’s time to start, now we have to create a precise plan of works. A good plan is something extremely important and affects the entire progress of work. There are several important aspects to consider:
- we take into account the layout of the rooms and what they are intended for
- how much time we have to complete the project.
- how many painters and decorators are expected to work on site.
- whether the house or flat will be occupied by tenants or commercial premises by employees during the works
- will it be done as a whole or only per rooms?
- how many things are there and whether some of these things will be previously protected by the owners.
- will after finishing work every day or night need to restore the room to functional status so that people returning from work can live in their home or vice versa those who come to work will be able to work in it.
All this is related to what materials we will use for protection and what the strategy of work will be.
Let’s assume that we have some painting to do and all the equipment stays at home or office because you don’t have time to remove the equipment and you want everything to be taken care of by one responsible company.
Pictures, all glass things, vases, porcelain decorations etc. should be wrapped in bubble foil or paper and put in cardboard boxes and taken out, or simply taken out to a safe place where there is the least possible movement of people.
When it comes to larger items such as furniture, desks and all large equipment, taking them out can often be a bigger problem than leaving them in place and possibly delicate handling and good protection.
It all depends on what the room looks like, what things are to be taken out and what is to be done. Generally, the whole plan is based on an extremely important assumption which is SAFETY OF ALL THINGS EXPOSED TO DAMAGE.
SURFACE PROTECTION
All things that remain in the rooms must be very well covered with foil, you can additionally protect things with dust sheets, or in exceptional situations with bubble wrap. If one of the rooms is being painted and the other rooms are not we can cut them off with a special plastic anti-dust door.
In this way, we protect the remaining rooms from possible dust.
If, for example, your kitchen furniture from the outside, or the doors from wardrobes are to be painted, then the interior should be emptied, or the polythene dust sheet should be wrapped very tightly inside, so that there is no possibility of getting dust and paint, this option can save our time and all things will be left on in its place. Remember, however, that painting can be a good time to do permanent cleaning in cabinets.
If wallpaper, wall coverings, stucco or paintings are installed in the room on the walls that you would like to leave intact, and the rest of the rooms should be painted, these walls should, of course, be protected. First we do a thorough examination of the material to be covered and here we must be very careful, if the material is wallpaper, insecure-looking stucco, or manual painting, then we should not stick masking tapes to such material, even those tapes with very delicate adhesion because the material can be damaged. In this case, stick the tape around the surface in such a way that the tape adheres to the bordering surfaces, e.g. cowing, skirting, etc. The tape must have low adhesion and be the best quality. In the meantime, we cut the polythene plastic dust sheets that will protect the area we are supposed to protect and fix it tightly with a stronger tape to the low tack tape we installed firstly.
FLOOR PROTECTION
And here it depends on what floor we are dealing with, what works are to be carried out and how long they are to last.
When renovations and painting are to be carried out in the room we suggest thoroughly protecting the floor with thin paper on which 3 mm hardwood sheets will be laid.
Hardwood sheets are also the best solution if there is underfloor heating under the wooden floor that will work during the works. Paper and hardwood allow the floor to breathe.
When it comes to protecting the wooden floor for the painting and decorating works a good solution is to put the heavy duty protection sheets (correx). In this case we stick a low tack best quality masking tape to the floor, and then we lay down the correx sheets cut to size then we stick sheets with a strong adhesive tape to previously fixed low tack tape. A floor protected with correx is a good solution when several(zamienić na -wiielu dekoratorów)wielu decorators work in the room and there is a higher risk of damage.
A more delicate form of securing a wooden floor is placing a thick polythene plastic dust sheets that will be precisely stretched in the room and stick to the floor with low tack masking tape at the edges of the room.
In the case of quick projects which will not work a lot of painters and decorators, we can use polythene backed fabric dust sheets. However, remember to joint them well with tapes and stick them to the edge of the floor. Thanks to this, the floor will be cut off from the access of paints and dust sheets will not roll when walking.
It is also possible to protect the carpets in several different ways. We suggest to protect them tightly with polythene backed fabric dust sheets. There are also sticky carpet protectors but if you use them please make sure they are the best quality as they can leave residue of glue on the carpets which will catch the dirt afterwards. We suggest to not leave them on for longer time
PROTECTIVE MATERIALS
Here the range is very large and therefore you need to know exactly what will be useful because using the wrong materials can cause considerable damage. You have to be very careful which masking tapes to use, they have different stickiness and the use of some of them, especially cheap masking tapes may leave adhesive or peel the cover from protected surfaces. The same applies to sticky protectors which in many cases we replace with less invasive plastic dust sheets. We must remember to use tested and checked materials. Often, a better and safer way to protect the surface is to use the best quality material which are sometimes quite expensive but we know from experience that it is not worth to save money on protections as you can damage much more valuable things.
ESSENCE
A brief summary of what we put the most emphasis on securing the place and what is most important to us.
- Respect for the workplace
- Taking care of home belongings
- Professional managers – people with extensive experience of working in luxury places.
- Precisely selected experienced painters and decorators.
- Regular training of people about hazards.
- A well thought-out work plan.
- Project control at every stage.
- Appropriate and tested protective materials.
Authors:
Krzysztof Zwierzyński
&
Mariusz Zwierzyński
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