TOP TIPS! What are your top tips that you CAN share?

[royaloakcarpentry]

If you are doing deep fills with easi-fill then you have to do multiple coats of it, you can't even do a tapered joint in just one pass.

Tubbed easi-fill or lafarge is a waste of time on anything but the shallowest fill as it takes 4 years to go off.

I also on occasions mix water to powder for smaller amounts instead of powder to water.

[Adz76]

If you have to fill a VERY deep hole where some of the backing coat has failed I use bonding coat and I put a pinch or more of cement in with it. The cement sucks the moisture out and it dries much quicker. ( Dirty plaster/ cement water in the mix also does this ) A word of caution, don't over do it as the bonding will crack if you put too much in. Another alternative is the rapid set pre mixed bags of cement which all the merchants sell. Goes off in less than an hour and holds rawl plugs much better than bonding which has the strength of a sponge for drilling fixings.
I always keep a set or three of tights handy in the event you have to use an old tin of pre unloved paint that's full of cr*p and needs straining. Two other alternatives are the circular paper filters for coffee machines which you can get a super market or a filtered funnel also works a treat but needs to be cleaned after each use.

[bronz]

When you take the handle off a door, always leave it INSIDE the room it's come from. It's very amusing when you're in a room with a shut door and no way to get out. This has only happened to me once, and luckily I was at home so was spared the embarrassment of wailing until the customer came to release me.

On the subject of handles, when you take one off for the first time be damn sure there's a dustsheet underneath in case a load of that black greasy dust falls out. It's a nightmare to get out of carpets even if it isn't rubbed in at all.

[Tom d'Angler]

This has only happened to me once

Me too. I had to climb out the window and back in through the front door which, luckily, I had left unlocked. I had no phone signal either.

[transitboy]

Tom lucky you was not working in London mate there would be nothing left in the house.

[Have Brush Will Travel]

Did that as an apprentice...locked meself in a room by mistake for three hours...someone let me out just before the foreman came back to the job...and bollocked me for not doing any work!!!

[bronz]

Haha, thank god it's not just me then!

[Puma]

The spindle of the door handle had been shunted through to the wrong side without my realising, so I had the handle but nothing for it to go onto... fortunate to have someone there to let me out.

[Have Brush Will Travel]

Just make sure you keep a spindle a screwdriver or a couple of long nails in your overalls

[transitboy]

to carrying on above post .All i did was get a old handle and stuck a spindell in it so when the handle are off i just leave it in the door for the customer to use to i have finish.(save them getting lock in )

[Have Brush Will Travel]

This stuff is the bogs dollocks...I have used it a few times and highly reccommend it...expensive at 40 quid for 5 litres but has a lot of advantages over dust sheets, masking etc...

http://www.protectapeel.co.uk/peelable- ... ection.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G98XBaKN5-c

[Puma]

Looks impressive. Where have you used it Steve - varnished hallways? Would you rate it over Roll and Stroll (an easy to use eg much thicker than clingfilm protective sticky roll)?

[Puma]

Actually there seem to be many types of roll and stroll - I've only used the yellow one which was dead easy to lay.

[PaintyLee]

This stuff is the bogs dollocks...I have used it a few times and highly reccommend it...expensive at 40 quid for 5 litres but has a lot of advantages over dust sheets, masking etc...

That stuff looks brilliant

[Have Brush Will Travel]

Looks impressive. Where have you used it Steve - varnished hallways? Would you rate it over Roll and Stroll (an easy to use eg much thicker than clingfilm protective sticky roll)?

Its great for splashing over basins and baths...window cills (in or out) you can even paint whole windows with it..glass and all, like people used to do with windowlene as it lets light in...there is a more durable one for floors...great on an outside too, just paint the whole window with it and mask the edges of the reveal...as I said..its pricey, but so is spending ages trying to wash/scrape off masonry pint from a pvc window!

We mostly use it as liquid masking when im teaching stencilling...paint it over a board, cut out the design, paint...and peel off...

I made this one for the house...