HOW MUCH GLOSS PAINT?
The coverage of a litre of gloss paint depends on several factors, including the smoothness of the surface and whether it is interrupted by edges and mouldings. Also, a lot depends on the painter’s technique. However, as a general guide, for a litre of paint:
• runny gloss covers 17m2 (180sq ft)
• non-drip gloss covers 13m2 (140sq ft).
CALCULATING AREAS
It would be very difficult to calculate the area of every bit of wood and metal you wanted to paint. But you need to make a rough estimate so you’ll know how much paint to buy. The following examples are intended as a rough guide and they should give you an idea of how much paint you’ll need, assuming you’re using runny gloss and you give everything two coats of paint. If you’re using non-drip gloss you’ll have to buy about 25% more paint:
• a panelled front door will take 0.3 litre (1/2pint)
• a flush door will take about 0.5 litre (1/3 pint)
• a sash window, about 2×1 m (6ft 6in x 3ft 3in) with an ornate frame will take about 0.5 litre
• a modern picture window of the same size with a plain frame will take only 0.8 litre
• to find the area of a downpipe, simply measure round the pipe and multiply by the height, then add a little for clips and brackets. For two coats of paint, one litre will cover 18m (60ft) of 150mm (6in) diameter pipe and 27m (90ft) of 100mm (4in) pipe.