Having brought back all of my tools from our apartment I needed somewhere to keep them, Tanya,s parents let me have an old cupboard to put in the garage, i sanded it down, and went off with Tanya to our village hardwear shop, wanting to buy primer, undercoat and topcoat. It took an age trying to explain to Tanya who in turn spoke to Mitko the shop owner what i wanted, but it seems in Bulgaria things are done differently (there,s a surprise) i ended up with a bottle of oily liquid which I was told to paint onto the bare wood first, then a tin of paint which is just painted on over the top the next day (no undercoat and top coat).
has anyone else found this problem or is it just in my village,to be honest for what i wanted to do it was good enough, but I would prefer to do other jobs the way i am used to, using the 3 levels of paint.

mike&tanya wrote:

Having brought back all of my tools from our apartment I needed somewhere to keep them, Tanya,s parents let me have an old cupboard to put in the garage, i sanded it down, and went off with Tanya to our village hardwear shop, wanting to buy primer, undercoat and topcoat. It took an age trying to explain to Tanya who in turn spoke to Mitko the shop owner what i wanted, but it seems in Bulgaria things are done differently (there,s a surprise) i ended up with a bottle of oily liquid which I was told to paint onto the bare wood first, then a tin of paint which is just painted on over the top the next day (no undercoat and top coat).
has anyone else found this problem or is it just in my village,to be honest for what i wanted to do it was good enough, but I would prefer to do other jobs the way i am used to, using the 3 levels of paint.

Sorry to hear of your problem Mike - unforunately you have found what all of us have discovered when trying to get paint. Bulgarian paint is next to useless, but some parts of BG you can get Dulux, I don't know about undercoat or primer. I usually get good emulsion from Praktiker and use that as an undercoat and a friend brings Dulux back from the UK for us because we don't have a supplier near VT.

We got emulsion from a paint shop behind Penny Market in VT. Very good stuff, and they will mix any colour you want.

I find it sort of strange to read about paint supply probelms..over the last 5 or so years, I've had no problems finding well known brands like Dulux, Faust and a few others..even the corner shop sells them! Dulux is my paint of choice and I have at least 25 outlets within a 10 minute drive. I use their undercoat and primer as well..once again, no shortage of suppy.

I bought some terrible looking red paint in Baumax called something like maistro , runny , doesnt cover well, stinks..... I couldnt find undercoat to put on first , I phoned up my brother and got him to post me a gallon of cellulose sanding sealer , after a coat of sanding sealer on the window frames the paint covered brilliantly and looks fine

I just wonder why none of the shops i tried seemed to understand the idea of primer before paint

I think finding the paint your looking for is just a matter of looking in the least expected place like everything here you will find it.

We have insulated the villa from the inside Dougie put plastic on the ceilings, then polyesterne, then plasterboard and we are now painting. We bought a 10lt cream colour paint for an undercoat. The man in the shop said it was very good paint. Wen we opened the tub it did indeed look fab but it is like water when it is applied . I have put 3 coats on the small bathroom but still, it has not covered very well. I will try another coat tomorrow. Hope don't use the whole 10lts on te bathroom ::

I've always found the paint here in Bg to be very watery but once applied and left to dry it always looks very good and covers well.

Where can you get good paint brushes here? All the ones I see are like pastry brushes ! Also , although there is a plentiful supply of various tubed silicones I haven't come across any decorators caulk. Luckily I am having some Purdy brushes brought over from the uk .We get Dulux paint from Baumax . . expensive but you know what you are getting . David.

BGBound wrote:

Where can you get good paint brushes here? All the ones I see are like pastry brushes ! Also , although there is a plentiful supply of various tubed silicones I haven't come across any decorators caulk. Luckily I am having some Purdy brushes brought over from the uk .We get Dulux paint from Baumax . . expensive but you know what you are getting . David.

Mr Brickloge and Pratika have all sorts of paint brushes and rollers etc.

Mr Brickloge and Pratika and any local decent DIY shop

[quote="
oddball"
Mr Brickloge and Pratika have all sorts of paint brushes and rollers etc.[/quote]

I prefer to use paint pads, but can't find them here in BG!