If you’re preparing for some painting and decorating jobs in the near future - as many people are at this time of year, homeowners and professionals alike - then your very first step will be to make sure that you’re properly prepared. There are few things worse than being midway through a painting job and suddenly realising you’re missing a vital piece of equipment, so to help you avoid that scenario, we’ve summed up all the absolutely essential painting and decorating tools and clothing you’ll need.
Personal Protective Equipment
Tools and equipment:
- Decorator’s overalls
- Painter’s goggles
- Dust masks
- Gloves
- Shoe covers
Detail:
PPE is a vital element of any job, and it’s no different when it comes to painting. You can never be too safe, and where your health or the health of those surrounding you is concerned, you should never take any risks. Equipment like goggles and dust masks protect the most sensitive areas of your face - dust masks especially can help prevent respiratory issues with inhalation. They may not be strictly necessary for every job, but we’d say it’s always better to be safe than sorry; if in doubt, we’d recommend wearing more PPE rather than less! Shoe covers might not always be quite as essential, but are they’re still useful if you need to protect furniture and carpets.
Preparing the room
Tools and equipment:
- Dust sheet, canvas sheet or similar type of sheet
- Painter’s tape or masking tape
- Decorating cloths
Detail:
Before you can properly begin any sort of painting job, you’ll need to make sure you’ve got the right tools at hand to be able to protect the room and the furniture. Obviously, your first course of action will be to remove as much as you can out of there anyway, but dust sheets or canvas sheets are essential to protect whatever’s left. From there, you’ll want to shield any door jambs and light fittings with painter’s tape or masking tape, so that they don’t get caught by any stray paint. Decorating cloths, meanwhile, are suitable for wiping and polishing any surfaces that you’re going to paint ahead of time, so that your finish isn’t ruined from any dust or debris clinging to the surfaces underneath.
Painting the room
Tools and equipment:
- Interior paint primer (one that’s suitable for the paint you’re using)
- Interior paint - either oil or emulsion
- Paint kettle and paint can opener (or flat head screwdriver)
- Paint roller set: paint roller, sleeve and tray
- Paint brushes
- Radiator brush
- Paint roller extension pole
- Plastic bucket and sponge
- Stepladder
Detail:
Most of this will obviously be fairly straightforward and self-explanatory - after all, you can’t do much painting without brushes or rollers! But for smaller rooms, paint roller extension poles can be particularly helpful, and ensures that you can do most of your painting from the ground rather than up a ladder, so you can avoid any unnecessary risks of falling from height. Radiator brushes, too, use an angled head which helps you to move around in obstacles and into corners but while still letting you have complete control, so that you’re not painting any areas of the radiators that you don’t want to. A plastic bucket and sponge, meanwhile, can help you wipe any paint splashes off woodwork, as some colours can stain lightly-coloured gloss paint. A sponge can also be used to get a cleaning product off the walls so that they’re ready for painting.
A stepladder may or may not be ‘essential’ equipment - it really depends on the size of the room. You can sometimes get the job done quite easily without it, but it’s generally a worthwhile investment regardless, as it can often help you get to any unexpectedly difficult-to-reach places.
Optional equipment
Tools and equipment:
- Ready-mixed filler and filling knife
- Flat scraper tool
- Fine sandpaper
Details:
These pieces are less unquestionably necessary, but you may still find them exceptionally useful and anything that has the potential to make your life a lot easier is worth having a think about in advance! You may wish to use these at the outset of the project, filling in any cracks in the walls or ceiling at the preparation stage to ensure an effortlessly smooth finish.
You can find everything you’ll need for your next painting job right here at R&J Builders Equipment. We are your one stop shop for everything you need to get the job done - here, you’ll find a wide range of painting and decorating equipment, as well as other useful products such as our range of plastering supplies. You can shop them right here on our site, or give us a call on 01254 52525 and we’ll see what we can do to help.
