I'm going to show you have to sand down a
wall in preparation for painting it.
Now, first, the most important thing we need
is a sandpaper.
Now, the lower the number, the more more coarse
the grit.
Unless the surface is really rough, you probably
want to go up a stage from there.
Either a 60 or an 80.
This is less coarse, so its less severe on
the wall.
Of course, if you go too hard with the coarse
one you'll leave big scratches that you've
then got to sand out.
So, ideally, very light run with an 80, and
then probably a 120 to finish it off.
And just get a nice smooth job, ready for
our paint.
If we have any deep gouges or scratches in
the wall, we really need to sand the surface
and then go over and fill those, and sand
those areas again to get it nice and smooth,
before we start to paint.
And that's very, very important.
Otherwise, it will show through.
Now when we come to sand the wall, there's
a number of different ways.
We can do it like grandfather used to do,
which is just a plain board.
We have our roll of paper, we just cut the
appropriate length to fit on here, and we're
ready to start sanding.
Nowadays, we would tend to use the electric
sander.
It makes a lot easier, and a lot less hard
work.
Another type of sander which is more aggressive
is the round orbital sander.
This is very good on something like a plaster
wall, but on woodwork you've got to be very
careful, because the action will tend to leave
marks on your wood.
You buy something like that, and you get a
pack of five with a Velcro backing on it,
which just simply peels and sticks to the
sander.
And of course, for the difficult areas, like
in the corners, or around the cornice, the
old sanding block is a handy standby.
Again, cutting a piece off the roll, wrap
it around the block, and then you can just
simply go to the wall and start to work your
sanding.
Probably when sanding, the best motion is
generally a circular motion.
Unless you're doing wood.
If you're doing bare wood, you should always
run with the grain, so you don't get other
scratches into it.
But certainly on a surface like a wall like
that, using a circular motion, just a gentle
circular motion.
And another thing that is very important is
never use force on the instrument.
You just basically let the weight of the machine
drive.
You just guide it there.
Because if you put force on it, you're only
going to slow it down, and damage the motor.
And the other thing is, of course, you need
to check your paper.
You can see this is just starting to show
signs of wear.
As the grit becomes clogged with dust and
paint, you're going to find it just doesn't
work.
It's not efficient any more, it's just sliding
across the top.
So you need to look at it after every fifteen
minutes or so, see how it's going, and then
change it as necessary.
Very simple process and easy to do.
And will give you a very, very nice job, as
long as you take your time in preparing it.
