OK bit of a weird one this one, I want to repaint the walls and ceiling in my living room with a fresh lick of paint but of course i want to give them a decent clean before i do so, however I have issues climbing ladders, so i was wondering what would people suggest i do? I was going to buy a new simple sponge mop, some thing a bit like this
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use it in combination with sugar soap, will this do the job or is there some kind of "tool" that will do a better job for me.
Giving it a lick of paint using roller poles and brushes on sticks is a good idea for those not able to use ladders and I often use this method myself for the 1st coat, but cleaning ceilings is a different ballgame. The chemicals will be running down your arms and also may get into your eyes. It's hard to get rid of smears and drips, leaving ugly brown marks everywhere (I'm assuming it's smoke?) And then there's the electrics - having soapy water running down walls while you are holding a wet, metal pole isn't a good idea.
This might be a job for a painter and decorator, orat least get someone who can go up ladders to clean first, then you can paint it yourself
How high is the ceiling? If you can't go up a ladder to clean it, how are you going to paint the tops of the walls? [You can paint the ceiling with a roller with an extension handle, but you need to be able to reach the tops of the walls with a steady hand to paint *up* to the ceiling].
Assuming the walls and ceiling are a different colour. If they're both white or maggy, it's easy to just run a wide brush on a pole along, lapping a few inches onto both
Sorry guys should have explained myself better, the reason for cleaning is not smoke or anything like that but i have one of those flats that have kitchen and living room all in one (bit of a bachelor pad) and it's just normal grime from over the years and i suspect a fair amount of grease from cooking over the years so i presume it will need some kind of sugar soap mix and that mop idea I can protect my eyes with goggles and to stop the solution running down my hands and arms I was going to use some old rags/t-shirts and wrap it around the mop pole so it would be soaked up, the walls and ceiling will be different colours and I have been able to sort a deal out with some one who can paint edges for me but funds are VERY tight and can't even afford to pay him to do all the washing, when it comes to painting I'll be doing it all except where ceiling joins walls and for my part i'll be using roller on a pole kind of job
If you don't mind me asking; what are the issues? The reason I ask is that in the case of my wife she's too nervous to climb a conventional ladder, or a step ladder, however she's fine with something like this:
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has a very wide base so is rock solid in use, and with the large steps to stand on it feels very secure. The rounded bar at the top also provides some support - both physically and mentally.
I use it all the time now around the house - far easier than using step ladders even though I don't mind 'em.
There's no way youre going to get kitchen grime off using a pole, or sugar soap. Kitchen muck is the worst stuff to shift, and demands the evillest chemicals. Freshly boiling water and cream cleaner will shift a fair bit, ammonia can finish the job, but you've got to be up close to rub it hard.
Roller on pole can paint ok, but there's no way you're going to get an even vaguely neat line where one colour meets another. One simple solution is to make the top of the walls white too, bring the colour change down to where you can do it.
I dont know exactly what issue you have with ladders, but sometimes people are ok with a large platform instead. A 4x8 sheet of 3/4" chip on a couple of 2x3 timber frames, one each end, with high load brackets as bracing can get you up as high as you like, with a lot less issues than ladders have.
If you really need to save pennies, a =A36 bag of builder's lime makes about a quarter ton of cheap white paint. The texture isnt as smooth as emulsion, but for a high up ceiling that's fine. If you're going to use a roller with it I'd thicken it first with something, not sure if wallpaper paste would work well enough.
I, too, have a 'thing' about ladders, although I'm OK if they're not too high. What would for me count as too high is the ceiling in the hall above the stairs. This is about a 6 metre drop at the highest point. Consequently, I have put off any DIY painting plans for the hall and stairwell for five years now!
Your platform suggestion sounds interesting, but aren't towers for this kind of access already available?
When replastering the wall that runs from the ground floor floor up to the first floor ceiling, I bought a couple of scaffold planks, and cut them to straddle the stairwell opening length. By themselves, they were a bit bouncy, so I then bolted the off-cuts along the middle, which stiffened them up (the 'offcuts' were not far off the lengths of the 'cuts').
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