just painted my room with dulux pentalite
still smell today (3rd day)

harmful to sleep in the room?

and wife's worried, it is harmful to pregnant ladies?

better not i think..

i bought 15L of majestic true beauty (the black colour tong 1) 20L of primer, 15L of matex paint, 5L of colour (green / grey) to paint my own house.

Almost 2 months since I started, about 60% completion now..

I don't think the jotun paint is as smooth as my previous house owner painting, not as smooth as i thought it should.. If I run out of the 15L majestic paint, i will try on ICI paint next to compare the completion.

Painting my own house is fun, you get to know every single detail about your house, cracks, water leakages etc.
Since I am working fulltime, progress has been slower than I have anticipated

Guy, would like to check beside Ace Hardware or Mr. DIY. Any other shop/store selling painting equipment or accessories in PJ area??

Any pro or sifu can explain why my wall end up like this after few months? Painted with Nippon paint matte. Thanks.

Ideal sequencing

- strip old paint
- wash
- apply sealer / under coat
- paint twice

Did you follow above ?

hi sifus... im moving into a new house soon... since its existing paint is still new, i dont plan to use any undercoat...

but my wiring man will be doing some hacking of walls to add/move wiring... so after they seal it, i assume wouldnt be smooth, how should i smoothen out those part?

i saw like before applying paint need to apply undercoat, what is the process to apply paint? and normally paint use outside house is different right?
what is normal type of brand people use?

Please dont use ICI Dulux Easy Clean. I bought 7 different colors of Dulux Easy Clean at a paint shop in Puchong, with total spending RM 1300. The next day my painter called me and telling me that the result was so bad. First layer result was bad, even after 3rd layer the color was not even. I got to know from my contractor that his other customer also had the same problem, and I checked with my interior designer and he also indicated that recently some of his painters also complained that Dulux is difficult to use and he now uses Nippon and Jotun.

What was also disappointing was the after sales service. I contacted the shop and they asked me to contact the ICI sales lady . What happened next was that this sales lady came to my place to see the paint; and the thing is that she always tried to find reasons such as my painter put too many water, the roller was not in good condition, the wall condition was not good, but when I asked her whether she would like to meet my painter she did not dare. She also did paint test by painting it very slowly over a very small piece of wall ( as small as the width of a small paint roller!). She also made a comment that some paint need 5-7 layers to get good result! I stopped all the bullshit and asked her whether the paint had a problem, she did not say yes or no. I asked her to refund my money for the fact that ICI has to be responsible for defective products, she said she would do the best to help out. The next hour after she left my place the shop called me updating me that according to the ICI sales lady the paint did not have any problem ( strange - in front of me she did not dare to say it) and the shop offered me to send their so called "professional painter" to show my painter how to use the paint! The next day the shop owner and his painter came; in the beginning the owner talked a lot telling me how good ICI Dulux was and indicated that he has used it for many many years with excellent results. Two hours later after testing 2 different colors of paints on 2 different walls with 2 layers each, he was very quiet and did not say anything after seeing the very bad results of the paint. At the end the shop was willing to exchange the unopened cans with Nippon, but I still had to pay the 3 cans that were opened (1 was first opened by my painter, and the other 2 were opened by the sales lady and the shop painter for testing). Because I was rushing for my renovation, I accepted the offer but I was unhappy with the fact that ICI did not want to take responsibility for their defective products and I had to pay for their defective products. I have submitted my complaints to Dulux, in the beginning they were really fast in following up making a phone call to me, but after that I did not hear anything from them, and as expected they keep claiming there was nothing wrong with the paint, and when I asked what they did with the paint that I returned to the shop, apparently ICI helped the shop to sell it to other customers - poor next victim!!

It looks like ICI claims that their products were not defective and it just needed many more layers to get good result - to me that is not acceptable. In general with 2 layers we should be able to get good result. So think twice if you want to use this product!

At least the shop owner come and test himself and exchange for you.
Just avoid ICI Dulux and any bro out there can be careful.

Your painter will skim coat to repair and smooth those hacking.
Put undercoat and repaint with colour that you need.

i just paint my room 2 weeks ago, usually hardware shop with paint dealership should provide you great deals. The only different is what colour that you want?
Usually darker colour would cost higher because of the chemical that use to mix with the base is greater. If you prefer to save cost then go to any online shop like lazada/11street and use the code/voucher to buy it.
Normal paint can be mix with water (10-15%)
wood/steel paint can be mix with turpentine (10-15%)

Regarding the paint work, masking tape is the best to use to cover, buy average size of masking tape is enough.
buy decent quality of brushes and rollers, you can get it from MR.DIY to save cost.
buy thinner for clean up purpose
buy turpentine if you need to paint wood/steel
get plenty of old newspaper to cover your floor
other than that, its only painting

Enjoy the process

Good advice. I usually buy from CSM or Atkc online. Whichever is convenient...

i plan to paint it myself... so if they did not skim coat the hacking part since not hiring painter, any ways i can smoothen the sealed areas before applying undercoat? i dont think im able to skim coat myself nicely...

How do you mean the electricians didn't skim coat? Did they leave the hacks and holes just exposed? Or did they cover it up at least with some putty?
If it's deeper hacks and they just leave the hole there, they're terrible electricians. It's more complicated and takes more time, but you need to fill it up with putty yourself. I suggest the putty powder for self mixing that you can find in hardware shops. In my experience they shrink less and absorb less than the ready made putty that comes in plastic containers.
To mix the putty is easy really. You have your painting tray, and a scraping tool I assume since you need those for painting. Just put a good amount of powder in and mix water, up to the consistency that you're happy with. Most people stop when it becomes something like a thick icing. Use your scraping tool and push the putty in. You don't have to fill it up first time, just a thin layer will do. The reason being it'll take very long to dry if it's thick and won't be as strong as many thin layers. Electrical holes, I think 2-3 layers will do it. That's around 1+1+1 days drying time to be sure. If you're OCD like me, just leave them for a week after the 3 days to make sure they're completely dry.
Now the skim coat layer. Preparing it is the same, you'll use the same powder mix. No. 1 thing to remember is inspect the surrounding walls texture first. You want it to match the walls, not absolute flatness. Usually the walls will be done with a rough trowel, the texture is quite unique and very hard to replicate unless you're experienced. The best you can do is prepare a damp sponge. Use your scraping tool and spread it like butter, making a few passes. Check the texture when it's flat. Now use your sponge making light passes to try to replicate the roughness as much as you can. Don't overthink it, it'll still be visible no matter what so just do your best. It'll look less obvious after your wall is painted. Also, there's a practical use to leaving it slightly showing. Electricians will know where the wire is next time you do any renovations or replacing wires.
When that is done, let it dry for a day or so. Then you can start painting. If the area that has been puttied is subjected to high traffic like wall shelves or something, use sugar soap to wipe it down. This is an OCD step truth be told, sometimes there can be grease ingrained that will show through the paintwork. Next is the undercoat. I assume you're using water based, so planning and timing is crucial. Try to paint when no rain is forecast or later in the morning, humidity can absolutely destroy paintwork. Undercoat down, let it dry for 2-4 hours. Then on your discretion, maybe another layer of undercoat. Check when the first layer is dry, try to gauge if the putty has absorbed enough and will stop absorbing more. If not too sure, just put another layer of undercoat. Then 1-2 layers of paint on your discretion. Just remember to stop and observe after each drying period, if the color more or less has matched the existing wall in depth.

A bit long to read, sorry. Here's the important points:
1. Putty texture should match surrounding wall, not achieve perfect flatness.
2. Putty absorbs paint, so match layers of undercoat with how thick the putty is. Can't really tell, this is on your own observation.

Have fun.

Patch back the chases with cement and sand. Then make good the surface with putty.
Then follow by under 1 layer under coat and 3 layer finishing paint.
After the putty dry, paint 1 layer undercoat, wait it dry, then paint 1 layer finishing coat, wait it dry again. Then paint the whole wall with 2 finishing coat.

thanks for the detailed steps...

they did patch up with cement and putty... but the patched job is not so smooth... can see visible difference apart of the wall from 2-3m distance, maybe i OCD... its like not smooth and slight bulging because of its thickness maybe... something like you said different texture from the original wall...

so should i remove the excess thickness? or how do i smoothen it now that it is dry? sand it?


oh... 3 layer finishing coat in total... will try it then... thanks

thanks for the detailed steps...

they did patch up with cement and putty... but the patched job is not so smooth... can see visible difference apart of the wall from 2-3m distance, maybe i OCD... its like not smooth and slight bulging because of its thickness maybe... something like you said different texture from the original wall...

so should i remove the excess thickness? or how do i smoothen it now that it is dry? sand it?


oh... 3 layer finishing coat in total... will try it then... thanks

Need some advice here, how many of paints are generally needed for wall and ceiling? What type of paint do we need?

Bulges are a bit of work, I don't think you prefer to redo it so just sandpaper by hand. If you're extremely ocd, you can sand below the wall surface slightly, clean then redo the putty. Because with sandpaper, the effect you get is very smooth. Too smooth perhaps, not good for the texture matching or paint.

If bare wall, undercoat + 2-3 layers of paint.
If existing painted, wash with sugar soap first then 2 layers preferably depends on how clashing the new color is with existing color.