Be Excellent To Each Other

Well, as good as. We're due to move out in a month, so I've been busily going round the flat touching up bits of chipped paint and generally trying to make the place look presentable. There'd been a few spot of black mould forming directly above the bath on the white ceiling, and like an idiot, I thought I'd try to wipe them away. What followed wasn't dissimilar to an episode of Chucklevision - wiping the mould had the undesired effect of spreading it out and making it look considerably worse. Oh dear oh dear. So I panicked and tried to paint over the mess with what turns out to be a completely different shade of white, and it sticks out like a sore thumb. Now I can either hope that the estate agents don't notice when they check the place over and risk losing the deposit, or come clean and stump up the cash to have the ceiling repainted. I've never had to pay for any redecoration so I have no idea how much it'll cost. It's not a big bathroom, I'd say about 12' x 5' - could anyone give me some idea how much that might cost? Obviously it depends on the company that does it, but I'm sitting here at work pulling my hair out with worry, so any vague idea would be appreciated.

Oh dear.

I'd get some professional to do it.

Paint: £4, Roller: £4, paint tray, £2. You can repaint the ceiling yourself for no more than a tenner.

How Cheap Can I Redecorate? should be your next project.

You can buy mould retardant paint too.

This is not a big problem dude, I thought you'd flooded your house or something.

I've been painting the bastard house for a year, I'm sick of it

Yeah, even if you get moisture and mold resistant paint, it'll only cost you ten quid for a pot. Otherwise, get standard white emulsion for a couple of quid and do the whole ceiling over again.

I'd love to paint it myself, but after the mess I've made already my confidence has been knocked somewhat. Maybe I should swallow my pride and give Dad a call, he's always did all the decorating at home. I take it a professional job would be at least £150?

£150 to paint a ceiling? I'm quitting my job and becoming a painter.

If this goes wrong, then at least I can tell the estate agents that some people on the internet told me to do it.

Get the mould retardant paint though TMUK or else the dark patches could show through.

Painting a ceiling isn't even remotely a challenge. Just use a roller with a thin coating of paint (I can't stress this enough. You don't want to splatter everything else in vicinity) and a brush for the very edges.

Also, make sure you do paint the whole ceiling. You don't really want it to dry and find you've missed a spot.

I would agree.. painting it would cover the mould long enough for someone not to notice it... if that makes sense?!?!

Painting a ceiling is dead easy too! Just use a roller on an extension and take your time so not to drip/splash everywhere.

Edit - Yeah, what Nynfortoo said.

You can get that paint that goes on pink, and only turns white when it dries. That way you can tell that you've covered everything. Dunno if you can get mold resistant stuff though.

Check that is what you've actually bought though, rather than just randomly painting the ceiling pink.

My mother says she'll paint it for £300.

Grudgingly.

Well hopefully the landlord isn't going to find out. There's a clause in the contract that says we're not allowed to redecorate. But yeah, they'd have needed to repaint it anyway because of the mould, so no harm done really.

If the ceiling is going mouldy, the job was done wrong to begin with.

A roll of cheap masking tape around the tops of the walls is worth doing.

Our bathroom ceiling went mouldy and saggy when upstairs had a leaking hot pipe for about 6 months. It was dripping out around a light fitting into our sink. It soaked through the stud wall and showed in the living room and started leaking out around a mains socket! At one point, we had maggots fall off onto the toilet, sink and floor. Very, very nasty - but also not our flat, so we were fucked if we were paying for it. The repairmen, after making sure the leak was fixed and dry, painted over with PVA, hung a new plasterboard, plastered and painted it. Been fine since. So maybe see how much a small tin of PVA is.

You probably aught to leave without paying the last month's rent anyway, if you want to see your deposit again.

Regardless of how excellent your decorating is, I mean. They'll find some excuse.

Christ, I can now :?

:E

They've been pretty good over the last year, so I'm not expecting any trouble. We'd be royally fucked if they decided not to give us our deposit as we wouldn't be able to afford to move into the next place and would essentially be left on the street with a flatsworth of stuff and nowhere to put it. I can feel a headache coming on just thinking about it. I might sort everything out and then ask that they do an inspection a month before we move out so we can iron out any potential problems.

I smell (ha!) something more worrying there - maggots won't infest damp rotting wood without something else for them to feed on.

Upstairs neighbour is a serial killer, typically.

These weird pink fungal-looking puffy bags grew in the edge between wall and ceiling. One day they fell off and exploded into maggoty volumes (we have close-up video!), which died pretty quickly.

The water was running down into the flat below as well, a huge piece of his living room ceiling fell off, and he had to leave buckets in the middle of the floor to catch the drips. That only got fixed a month or two back (ours was fixed about 9 months ago) because they moved out.

Three different landlords, all incompetent.

You can wash mold off with detergent/bleach, but it shouldn't have gone moldy in the first place.
Don't use PVA on your ceiling in your bathroom as it isn't a sealant being water based. Mold resistant paint is likely to be quite expensive and unnecessary really, but if the ceiling is itself stained with mold then simple emulsion will not cover it for more than 24hrs - you need to gloss it first. Then emulsion over that.

Having said all that, it is piss easy to do this yourself, just take your time. But what does spring to mind is surely this is just wear and tear and they can't hold your deposit because of this. I haven't lived in rented accommodation for years, but always always moved out without paying the last months rent to avoid any stupid nitpicking.

No, well they probably wouldn't have done but I've made a mess now. Should have just left it alone
So gloss it first, then stick emulsion over the top? The other thing which worries me is that the walls are painted white (it's that sort of textured wallpaper) so I'm going to have to hope it all matches.

I'd say it was like it when you got there

Yeah, I've done that before. Don't go crazy with the gloss though, and let it dry for a good while. It'll match up OK I would have thought, the inspection will be looking for trashed stuff and obvious damage - even if it's a little bit off they probably won't notice.

Nuke the whole site from orbit.

Well, if you're going to lose your damage deposit anyway...

We had this in the bathroom of a flat we used to rent, due to inadequate ventilation.

We went to B&Q* and bought some mould cleaning stuff for about £5 and a tin of paint that covers mould and stops regrowth, which was about £12-15. We washed the ceiling and painted it the next day, worked a treat. The paint is thick and the fumes are quite strong but no more so than gloss.

This is what I would recommend, it's easy. So much so that even ramsea managed to do it.

*Other hardware/DIY stores are available

Just picked up a pot of that Dulux stuff that goes on pink and dries white and I'll be having a go tonight I think. I did swallow my pride and phone the folks and they recommended I stick with a wide brush rather than a roller, but I'm not sure so I think I'll give both a go. Anyway, thanks for the advice (unless I make a pigs ear of it of course!).

I've found paint pads to be a bit better than rollers for ceilings, a little less splashy/flicky. I think they were a bit more expensive (my mum bought all the paint and stuff, I did the work).

Mini rollers are quick yet controlable - the choice of champs.

Also: £1.99 10 pack of replacement heads means no fucking about rinsing out roller. I hate rinsing out rollers.