How to Paint Skirting Boards
Every room has them, but skirting boards are an often-neglected part of a room refurbishment. This guide will show you how to paint your skirting boards with minimum effort so you can finish that room off in style!
Step 1. Protect the room.
Prepare the room ready for painting. We have a whole guide dedicated to this process, which you can read here, just to make sure nothing is missed out.
A great way to protect your floor or carpet from paint is to lay the dust sheet and tape it into place by putting the tape down with a slight lip curling up towards the skirting boards you will be painting. Now pull the carpet back slightly and push the tape lip down into the carpet. When you let go of the carpet it will spring back and the tape will reach under the skirting board you are painting. Now we can start to prepare the surfaces.
Step 2. Prepare the surface.
In most cases you will only need to lightly sand the skirting board using some Ultimate Fine Sandpaper. Keep sanding and checking with your hand until the skirting board is smooth. You just need to take the top layer of paint off, there is no need to take the board back to wood unless you have a very thick build-up of paint or some damage or rot which needs to be fixed.
If you have very thick paint you will need to remove it with paint stripper. Put on a Seriously Good Dust Mask, Nitrile Gloves and Protective Glasses. Then use an Essentials Brush and dab on some paint stripper. Follow the instructions which come with the paint stripper and wait for it to loosen the paint then use a Taskmaster Wood Scraper and Premier Combination Shavehook to quickly remove the paint and bring the skirting boards back to their original wood.
Skirting boards take a lot of knocks so finding damaged bits is not uncommon. When you have finished sanding and scraping the paint back wipe the area down with a Seriously Good Microfibre Cloth to remove any dust and fill any holes or cracking in the skirting board with wood filler using the Premier Filling Knife. If you have a small gap between the skirting and the wall use a Caulking Gun and fill the hole. When the filler is set sand one final time and clean with the cloth.
Step 3. Prime.
For the best finish use a primer on the wood first. This will prevent any stains from sap or other contaminants in the wood coming through. Use an Taskmaster Short Gloss Brush and apply the primer painting in strokes which follow the grain of the wood.
Put some white spirit in a container and work into the brush. Use some Seriously Good Paper Roll to wipe the paint away and repeat until all the paint has left the brush. Cleaning will only take about a minute if the paint is wet. With the brush clean, leave the paint to dry, watch some TV, go to the park, relax, there’s only 1 more step!
Step 4. Getting a glass like finish.
With the primer dry, lightly sand the skirting using some Ultimate Fine Sandpaper and wipe down with the cloth. Now using the same Taskmaster Short Brush apply the topcoat of gloss, eggshell or satin paint. As before paint in the direction of the grain. The Shrot Brush head will help you cut in at the top of the skirting board and provide you with the finest finish at the same time. If you’re a little bit more experienced, you can use a larger brush like the Taskmaster Gloss Flat Brush and gain speed but at the expense of accuracy.
As you are finishing a section use the brush with very little paint on and lightly brush the skirting boards. This process is called laying off and when done correctly with give you a glass like finish with gloss paints.
Step 7. Bonus step.
The tools we have recommended from our painting tools are built to last. To get the most out of them, job after job, we recommend you clean them as soon as you finish. Oil based paints like gloss, eggshell and satin will need white spirit to remove the paint. The paint cannot be poured down the sink so use an old jam jar to keep the waste until you can take it to the local tip or recycling centre. This will keep your brushes in great condition and the environment too!
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