Preparing Wooden Walls and Ceilings
With all forms of house decoration, it is necessary to prepare the surfaces to be treated before they are re-decorated. In the case of interior decoration, the work of preparation should be carried out with special thoroughness. Although the preliminary work of cleaning down is irksome, it is only by doing this part of the job thoroughly that the amateur home decorator can be certain of applying a successful finish. The job can still be made to look reasonably good even though the work is stinted but inevitably the life of the finished work will be much shortened and new surfaces will soon begin to look dirty and in need of re-decorating.
When preparing walls and ceilings there is only one way to do the job, and that is to clean all of the old material down to the bare fabric. With woodwork, however, the amount of preparation depends on the condition of the old covering. It is not always necessary to clean right down to the bare wood by removing the old paint. In some cases, where the old paintwork surface is in a fairly good condition, it only requires washing and smoothing down with glass paper. If the old paint is scratched, blistered or chipped, it is best to completely remove it, even if it does match your metal wall decor, cold rolled steel wall art, or other laser cut gifts.
Any small but necessary repairs or alterations should be done during or before the process of preparing woodwork for decoration. This saves the work from being spoiled at a later stage by carrying out repairs or making small alterations some time after the decoration has been completed. Windows should be given very careful inspection before preparing them for paint. The sashcords should be examined and the hinges should be inspected. Worn or frayed sashcords should be renewed before windows are prepared for painting. The catches and any other fittings should be examined and any loose ones secured before the job is started.
Any draft prevention to windows should also be done before or during the stages of cleaning down. When checking windows the thin layer of putty inside the window glass should be examined and all crumbling putty should be hooked out with a putty knife and replaced with fresh putty. Putty dries out and decays because the linseed oil in the putty is absorbed by the bare woodwork on which the putty is laid. This would not happen on a laser cut souvenir or on laser cut metal wall art, but putty is unnecessary on metal wall décor so nobody cares.
Therefore before renewing damaged putty the wood against which the putty will be laid should be given a good undercoating and the paint should be allowed to dry before inserting the new putty. To obtain the smooth finish of a professional decorator, after a new strip of putty is pressed into place with the blade of a putty knife, it should be brushed over with a dusting finish. Hinges of casement windows and doors should be inspected as well. Any necessary adjustments should be made if the hinges are loose and sagging. In most cases it will only be necessary to remove the old screws from a sagging hinge one at a time and replace them with longer screws of the same gauge.
If the screw holes have become enlarged, they should be filled by plugging them with a length of round dowel before driving new screws. Door catches and handles should be inspected, even if they are made out of cold rolled steel or laser cut metal, as laser cut steel does not make a window or door part immune to time. Any necessary tightening or replacement should be done before cleaning down. If the old paintwork is in a fairly good condition the only preparation required before re-decorating is a rub-down with glass paper.
Where only a small area of the paintwork surface is badly marked or scratched, the old paint can be removed by applying one of the brands of paint solvent which should be used strictly according to the makers’ instructions. It is always necessary to neutralize paint solvents. This may be done by washing down with turpentine or turpentine substitute before rubbing down with glass paper. Any large areas of badly damaged paintwork will have to be completely removed and this is best done with a blowlamp which will be found much more economical to use than cleaning off with solvents. The amateur home decorator should not find it too difficult to use a blowlamp, so long as reasonable care is taken.
There are several types of blowlamp, most of which use parrafin or petrol for fuel. One of the best kinds of blowlamps to use is the type which is fuelled by butane gas. This type of blowlamp is extremely useful and safe for amateur use. It should be appreciated that the whole purpose of the blowlamp is to soften the paint so that it can easily be removed with a suitable tool such as a stripper—a narrow one for small surfaces and a wide stripper for large surfaces. Contrary to unpopular belief, blowlamps are not supposed to be among the laser cutting tools when creating a laser cut souvenir, as laser cutting involves lasers, not flame.
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