Need to paint your decking?

18th August 2022

Ok, so we covered how to paint your garden gate. Now let’s talk about getting your decking ready for a bank holiday bbq!

For those who have some lovely decking in your garden, you already know what a great addition it is. Perfect for dining, socialising, sunbathing or BBQs.

However, the trusty British weather probably means you don’t get to use your outdoor space as much as you’d wish. It also means that it will most likely need a bit of TLC after a long winter.

1. Cleaning your decking

So we are going to start by giving your decking a good clean. It’s recommended that you keep it tidy all year round, to save a big clear-up once a year. Just a weekly brush should do!

Get yourself a stiff outdoor brush and brush away any debris.

Now it’s clean, it’s time to apply Decking Cleaner. Unfortunately, Decking Cleaner is hard to come by at Seagulls and when we get it, it’s gone within the hour!

You should apply the cleaner directly onto the wood and use your scrubbing brush. Then jet wash this off, leaving it to dry for at least 24 hours. (Make sure you consider the weather; you don’t want to do this and then it rains!)

2. Sanding your decking

You now have a clean deck, but you need to make sure there is no leftover paint! (If you are painting over/touching up skip over this step)

Firstly, take a wire brush and use light sweeping strokes to remove any old paint.

Then you can go ahead with your scraper for that tougher paint. Scraping rarely removes all the paint from the existing deck, and it’s not meant to. After scraping away loose paint, it’s likely the wood will still have plenty of stuck-on paint. However, if it’s not peeling the new paint will still stick.

You can now begin to sand the decking. This smooths out the edges allowing for a fresh coat to be applied. If you have a power sander handy- brilliant! If not, try using a sanding sponge. Before sanding, use a hammer and nailset to countersink any nails that might be sticking up.

3. Treating & painting the wood

It is up to you what tools you use for this project, whether it be a brush, a paint pad or a roller. Make sure you apply your Frog Tape before cracking that tin of paint open though.

What paint should you use?

Here is where we come in handy.

We have everything you will need to bring your decking back to life, if you know exactly what you want, it will be best for you to ask a member of staff to show you where everything is- we have paint in abundance. Don’t be afraid to ask for help too, that’s what we are here for!

– Decking Preserver

We have several different types of Wood preservers. Cuprinol & Ronseal are the most popular at Seagulls, and the best in our opinion! It comes in various different colours, including Dark Browns, Green & Clear.

– Decking Paint

Our Decking Paint is again mainly Cuprinol & Ronseal. We occasionally get the likes of Wickes, Barrentine & Ever Build, though they are rare. Again, they come in colours such as Green, Clear, Oak, Pine, Timber, Cedar, and Mahogany.

You will need these materials too:

• Painter’s tape

We sell Frog Tape in-store, offering 2 different types. The Green s the most common and better of the 2, it is multi-surface & will cost you £8.50. The Yellow is for delicate surfaces and we charge £9 for a roll of that!

• Dust Sheets

We sell 12-foot by 12-foot dust sheets for just £2.50 each!

• Scraper

We sell scrapers instore for £2.50

• Scrubbing Brush

Unfortunately, we don’t have scrubbing brushes in stock at the minute.

Click here for a list of materials we sell in-store.

Colour Match For Paint Service

26th April 2022

Do you know about our bespoke colour-matching service?

If you are a Seagulls regular, you may know about our bespoke paint mixing service. This service bespoke service means we can match whatever colour your heart desires, just for a few pounds extra than off-the-shelf paint. Off the shelf, paint starts at £5.50 for 2.5L, whilst 2.5L of bespoke colour-matched paint starts from just £11.

Shopping at other businesses, such as Farrow & Ball could set you back £52!

Dulux and Farrow & Ball are two colour charts that we work best off, and there is plenty of them in-store, or you can find them online too. A lot of you request colour matches of specific items, which we love to do.

We thought this would be the perfect place to show you guys some examples of our colour matching skills, and what our paint mixing experts can whip up.

Match It Monday – Bespoke Paint Mixing In Action

If you follow us on social media, you may have seen our weekly ‘Match It Monday’ TikTok videos. Every Monday, we pick something random from Seagulls and put our paint mixing experts to the test. They never fail! Take a look for yourself;

@seagullspaint

We couldn’t decide whether it was pink or pink ???? #colourmatch #painttok #bespokepaint #leeds #fyp #viral #sustainable #matchitmonday

♬ original sound – Michelezan

@seagullspaint

You can’t live in Yorkshire without saying ‘Ey Up’ once in a while.. so we made a mosaic kit of it #yorkshire #eyup #mosaickit #mosaicart #diy #craft #leeds #uk

♬ As It Was – Harry Styles

Remember folks that our colour match for paint service is done by eye, no fancy colour machines around our place.

9/10 we’re bang on, the odd occasion may need a reblend but this is rare. If you have a certain colour in mind it’s always best to pre-order through our website (it gives us time to play with colour).

Bespoke paint mixing by eye also means we can never guarantee the same colour twice. Please make sure you order enough paint for your project to avoid any disappointment.

One last thing, our mixing magic does not extend to specific colour matches for Woodwork Paint. The pigments we use are only suitable for water-based emulsion, meaning we are unable to mix the same colours in gloss that we can in the emulsion.

Let’s look at some price comparisons

29th March 2022

We compared our prices to our competitors, and you won’t believe what we found

If you follow us on social media, you may have seen a few price comparison posts pop up on your feed. They had quite a big reaction, but when you see the findings you will see why.

Here, we have focused on three of our competitors to see how Seagulls’ prices compare side by side with others.

F&B

So let’s take this high-end, rather pricey paint company. They are known for their expensive prices and desirability. However, they are quite unattainable for the average person.

We find that a lot of our customers come into Seagulls wanting specific colours from this company, this is where our Bespoke colour mixing service comes into play… Hague Blue is one of the most popular (the colour seen below)

If you decided to splash out and paint your lounge head to toe with our competitor, it would set you back a grand total of £265! Yes, you read that right.

However, shopping at Seagulls won’t even make a dent in your wallet, coming to a total of £30.55. This means you are saving yourself £234 (It’s a no brainer really).

Come on, think about all of the things you could buy for £234.

If you are worried about not getting the exact colours as a said company, you are not to worry. We offer a bespoke paint mixing service, working mainly from colour charts, or specific items if you wish! This means we can get the exact colour you want, for a fraction of the price.

Collecting leftover and unwanted paint from householders across Leeds is so rewarding, and to see price differences in this capacity puts what we do into perspective.

B&Q

Next, we chose a company less known for its higher-end pricing, but it is one of the go-to DIY stores in the UK. Being a large DIY & home improvement store, everyone knows about it could be a lot of people’s first choice if they don’t know where any other paint companies are, so this price comparison is quite interesting.

After crunching the numbers with this competitor, we noted that all the paint needed for this room would total £77, but just £30.55 from us at Seagulls.

That is a saving of £46.45. Shopping at Seagulls is a massive bonus for your bank account with the added bonus of helping the environment and helping people.

Wickes

Finally, we compared our prices to another big paint company, which sell home improvement products, and is a fairly popular choice.

As you can see, there is a considerable difference in prices with our competitors totalling £84. Shopping with Seagulls would save you £53.45, with our grand total being £30.55. You could book yourself onto on of our decorating courses for what you would save… twice!

Reprocessing paint and selling it at Seagulls for a fraction of the price of other, more traditional paint shops with a wide selection of paint, varnish and timber care alongside Seagulls branded new paint (it’s trade quality at reasonable prices) and a range of decorating equipment, we have everything you need and more! We will continue to create a price comparison to remind our shoppers how much they are saving!

12L for £10

Finally, we were lucky enough to be given over 17 pallets of Leyland White Contract Matt Emulsion! This equates to over 100 tubs.

We decided to sell these 10L tubs for just £10, a special Seagulls offer (that’s about 83p per litre). Our competitors sell this exact paint, one selling for £19.50 and £17.50 for another.

We have been extremely lucky to get out hands on these, and we love the fact we can sell them at a discounted price… plus we still have plenty left for those interested.

The UK’s waste paint crisis

6th January 2022

The UK is in a waste paint crisis, drowning in leftover and unwanted paint. Yorkshire alone has 4.5 million litres of leftover paint, this is enough paint to cover the Tees Transporter in Middlesbrough 229 times. It is even enough paint to cover the footprint of Barnsley twice with some to spare.

So, what’s the solution to the paint crisis?

Seagulls has been part of the solution for nearly 20 years, helping to divert over 3 million litres away from landfill and reprocessed it for sale in our paint store  

What’s happening across the rest of the UK?

Firstly, Seagulls are unique, really making traction in the world of paint. There is no one else like us! Opportunities for recycling paint are patchy across the country. There is a scheme called Community RePaint that may operate in your area. However, you may need to check their site too see what they accept, as it is often limited to newer tins of paint.

However, all is not lost. People in high places have began to talk about what happens to leftover paint, which will work to fight the paint crisis. In spring 2021 the Royal Society of Chemists approached Seagulls, keen to understand what we do. The outcome being that they asked Seagulls to be their case study for a national campaign.

Why is a campaign needed?

According to research by the Royal Society of Chemistry, ‘Lockdown-inspired decorating has led UK households to stockpile enough paint to coat the Forth Rail Bridge 212 times.’ In partnership with celebrity decorator, interiors stylist and DIY queen Linda Barker, the Royal Society of Chemistry is calling for government action as it launches an industry task force to make DIY more sustainable, with Leeds-based reuse and recycling initiative Seagulls Reuse a perfect example of how paint could be recycled across the UK.’

Facts & Figures

To put this amount of paint into context, the Royal Society of Chemistry has crunched some numbers, equating the amount of leftover paint to landmarks throughout the UK. It makes for some interesting reading.

North East

2 million litres of leftover paint, enough to cover the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle 170 times.

North West

5.5 million litres of leftover paint, enough to cover the Silver Jubilee Bridge in Runcorn 194 times.

East Midlands

3.5 million litres of leftover paint, enough to cover the entire footprint of the city of Lincoln.

West Midlands

4.5 million litres of leftover paint, enough to cover Sutton Park, Birmingham over 5 times or paint an area the size of the Bullring shopping centre 469 times.

East of England 

5 million litres of leftover paint, enough to cover the footprint of the city of Cambridge 1 and a half times.

London

5 million litres of leftover paint, enough to cover Tower Bridge over 229 times.

South East

7 million litres of leftover paint, enough to cover the footprint of the city of Brighton.

South West

5 million litres of leftover paint, enough to cover the footprint of the city of Bath nearly twice.

Wales

2.5 million litres of leftover paint, enough to cover the Menai suspension bridge in Anglesey over 508 times.

Scotland

5 million litres of leftover paint, enough to cover Forth Rail Bridge 20 times.

Northern Ireland

1.5 million litres of leftover paint, enough to cover Rathlin Island, off the coast of Ballycastle, with some to spare or paint the Giant’s Causeway over 22 times.

You can read more about the Royal Society of Chemists campaign and if you don’t have a scheme in your area you should write to your local MP and ask them for one! Details can be found here

If you live in Leeds you can donate paint by taking it to your local household waste site. Find out where your nearest site is by clicking here

You can also sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with the campaign, our news and for special offers

Is your old paint killing the environment?

6th January 2022

Is your old paint killing your local environment, even though you took it to your local waste site? 98% of waste paint currently ends up in landfills or is burnt, causing unnecessary harm to the environment. Paint being chucked into landfills can make its way to rivers and the sea, causing massive harm to wildlife.

This valuable resource is causing harm when it could potentially find a new life on somebody else’s walls. Seagulls have been tackling the problem of waste paint head-on, for nearly 20 years.

Pre Covid, Seagulls collected 400 tonnes of paint per year. This number has dipped slightly since the pandemic but we are hopeful it will increase again.

I want to help the environment, where can I donate my paint?

If you live in Leeds, it’s easy to donate, there are Seagulls paint banks on every household waste site in Leeds.

https://www.leeds.gov.uk/residents/bins-and-recycling/recycling-sites

We kindly ask people to drop their unwanted paint at their local waste site and NOT Seagulls. This is for 2 reasons:

1. Avoids fly tipping in our yard
2. The paint collected from waste sites gets weighed and recorded. Most importantly, Leeds City Council pay for the amount of paint collected.

What paint can be reused and how can I tell?

Any tin that has more than a couple of inches left in the pot and has NOT gone off can be reused. You will know if the paint has gone bad because it will either be solid or smell like rotten eggs! We reprocess good and bad paint so don’t worry too much about the quality as we will safely dispose or recycle any paint that we cannot reuse.

Solid paint and empty paint tins can be put in your general household bin.

We accept household emulsion, masonry paint, timber care, gloss, varnish, eggshell and undercoat.

But what if I don’t live in Leeds?

It’s possible your local authority has a community RePaint scheme, you can find out here.

If not, then lobby your local Councillors and MP to ask why there are no paint reuse facilities in your area.

For years there has been a ‘postcode lottery’ for paint recycling, the facilities for which differ between local authorities, with 98% of waste paint currently being burnt or sent to landfill. But the Royal Society of Chemistry is now calling for UK governments to provide better support to local reuse and recycling initiatives.

Whilst the companies behind paint brands Dulux, Farrow and Ball, Johnstone’s Paints and Ronseal are calling for government engagement with the British Coatings Federation’s PaintCare blueprint for a national remanufacturing programme.

The Royal Society of Chemistry is calling for:

Government and local authorities to provide more support to paint recycling and reuse initiatives, such as Seagulls Reuse and the BCF’s PaintCare programme, making it easier for consumers to recycle paints no matter where they live

Government to directly invest in research programmes for sustainable alternatives for PLFs

Consumers to reduce wastage of paints by buying only what they need

Consumers to write to their MP asking for change – further details can be found here.