D. Barrett Decorating - The Blog

StartFragmentAs I've had a day off today due to the snow, thought I'd update the blog. Being self employed days like this are not profitable to me. Basically I don't work I don't get paid. No sick pay for me. I did actually make it to work, however where I have to park was too slippy and as I almost crashed three times on route decided to cut my losses and stay at home.It seems like this winter has been going on for ages, normally we can do some exterior work at this time of year but not this...

Sometimes in work, things will happen that you just have no control over. Like jobs getting put back because of adverse weather conditions, part of a building collapsing, the work programme falling behind or just not enough money to continue. In recent years I've seen that happen a few too many times. Also you get times when a client will pull out of a job just before starting. This happened to us this week. Four hours before in fact. When this happens it can have a severe knock on effect. Yo...

Over the years you come across and use various brushes and rollers some you love some you hate but you get a feel for them all. The difference in the cheaper tools is obvious to see from the minute you use them, bristles flying out at crazy angles, rollers holding little to no paint and breaking up after a couple of walls. This why all painters will say if you buy good tools and look after them they will look after you.My brushes of choice currently are Purdy brushes. Was introduced to them a...

StartFragmentAfter working in the trade for 17 years you get used to the various changes in health and safety. In the main it is a wonderful thing, nobody wants to be injured at work and the guidelines we have in place do help prevent accidents. Myself I have only had one accident, about 6 years ago when hanging contract vinyl wallpaper the stanley knife slipped from the straight edge I was splicing along, bounced up and cut through the tip of my middle finger on my left hand. Not a nice expe...

StartFragmentFinding your own work, I've found, is quite hard. At the moment I'm subcontracting to a company earning decent money and happy with the work. However the plan is to find my own work, not to work for somebody else. So far to drum up work, I've started my own website, a twitter account, got pages on google+ and Facebook and of course this blog. Also got my own cards printed, some magnetic signs for my car (was a van until a little accident on the M54 before Christmas wrote it off. ...

This week started work on a new site. Painting retirement flats, new build and the spec for the woodwork is water based undercoat and gloss. I've used water based gloss before, on a site like this as it's by the same company just different builders, however the spec and designs are identical. The difference was I was putting colours on front doors not using white like now. I had no problems with the colours coverage and spreading wise. The white today was a different matter. Whilst applying t...