I hate decorating......

roundthebend

I'm off work this week to decorate my sitting room (or whatever you call it) ready for a new sofa to arrive on Monday.
It's an almost new house so apart from some rough joins and paintwork, it's not too bad.

But my god it's a filthy job. I've just sanded down the walls because the builders slap the magnolia on a bit unevenly, and now the entire place is covered in a few millimetres of powder. My lungs are full of it too. And I didn't think until too late but loads of my tools are in the room. Worst bit is that I've had to fill a channel where I ran a new electric cable and that isn't dry yet so that'll be another few tons of dust to scatter tomorrow.

Fortunately we got rid of our old sofa and some other bits of furniture. But there are still things obstructing the hall and stairs, so the house is a shambles. And I'm feeling claustrophobic because I'm stuck in the same room all day trying to get it done.

How on Earth does anybody ever do this without such a nightmare situation? How do the professional decorators manage?

Aaargh, I just walked into the kitchen which is at the other end of the hall, and my wife says "why are there dust footprints on the kitchen floor?" Turns out the dust has reached here too, it's not dust from my feet.....my feet are leaving impressions in the dust covered floor.

Oh, and I've got a pins 'n' needles feeling in my hand from the orbital sander.

I don't care how much it costs, next time I want to change things around, I'm just going to buy a new house.

TonyR

I have a Fein multi-tool that has an attachment that enables me to connect a vacuum cleaner to it. I used it last week to do pretty much what you're doing and was amazed at how little dust was created.

Try living in your house while it's being rewired and the builders are in at the same time - then you really will know what dust is!

vasselmeyer

I sympathise. I'm currently having my bathroom renovated. Everything has gone and we went back to brick before it was replastered, rewired and replumbed. We didn't want the whole house covered in dust so I paid for a skip, got them to pop the window out and all the old tiles, the rubble, the floorboards, the old porcelain and piping all went out whilst we kept the door taped shut. There was still dust in the house but nowhere near as much as there would have been if I'd let them bag it up and carry it out of the front door.

Grunfeld

roundthebend said:

How on Earth does anybody ever do this without such a nightmare situation? How do the professional decorators manage?

Professional tools and the experience of doing it all the time I reckon.
I have just had to re-decorate my flat... a "simple" 30 minute job took me a weekend and left me looking like my hands had been crucified -- but I was using crappy tools and I was doing it arse upwards.  Once I'd stopped bleeding I phoned someone who knew what they were doing.
Worth every penny.  Done to a much higher standard than I could achieve; much quicker than I could do it; and for me, no stress, no pain.