Painting interior trim, skirting and doors

[dammit]

Hi All

Since recently painting the interior walls of our entire house, we have gotten a little paint on the wooden skirting (just plain wood never been stained, sealed or lacquered etc) so we thought it would be a good time to paint the skirting, architraves, etc white, as well as the interior doors (currently an off white gloss but quite dirty/damaged paint)

I have repainted one door with British Paints Incolour white full gloss enamel which seemed to go on ok with a 100mm foam roller, however it has left some roller marks despite being very careful and pedantic. I have taken the door off the hinge and have it flat in the garage to paint. Is there any way to ensure a smoother surface and to avoid roller marks etc? Should I be using a 230-270mm roller? Is foam less likely to put marks than the fluffy type? I used a fluffy type for another door which put fluff all over the door so hence why I went with a foam one this time round.

Ideally I guess I should probably have a spray gun to do this but I only have 5 doors to do so can't justify the expense.

With the trim/skirtings, I did one coat of undercoat with Taubmans Easycoat Prep interior which is a water based undercoat first given the skirting etc have never been sealed or painted before and are just plain wood (MDF i think?), then using the British Paints Incolour enamel started to paint all the trim/skirting. It seems very time consuming, the skirting really drinks the enamel.

I am wondering if I am doing something wrong or if there is an easier way to save time, should I be using a full gloss enamel for skirting trim etc or should I be using like a white latex paint (never used latex paint before but I heard it is glossy and water based?) How does the cost of latex compare to enamel? Is it easier to clean up? Given that the house is 3 bedroom and quite a lot of trim, and that 1 door frame took a few hours to do, I'm thinking theres gotta be a better way - otherwise it will take me forever ! Also not sure if I should be using a different type of undercoat? The undercoat Im using is left over from undercoating walls & it is water based.

Any tips/info appreciated

[dammit]

Also have been googling, and came across Dulux Wash & Wear 101 Advanced Gloss Acrylic - is this more of what I need? it says ideal for doors, architraves and skirting trim, I wonder if because its acrylic it would be easier to apply and clean up and faster compared to enamel gloss...? I guess I could do the doors with a 270mm fluffy type roller if Im using acrylic and it probably wouldnt cause the roller marks etc as bad.

Any ideas?

[keepontruckin]

Lay the gloss enamel off with a brush and you will get a more smoother finish.

[totoblue]

Also have been googling, and came across Dulux Wash & Wear 101 Advanced Gloss Acrylic - is this more of what I need? it says ideal for doors, architraves and skirting trim, I wonder if because its acrylic it would be easier to apply and clean up and faster compared to enamel gloss...? I guess I could do the doors with a 270mm fluffy type roller if Im using acrylic and it probably wouldnt cause the roller marks etc as bad.

I have had best results on doors with Dulux Aquanamel semigloss and a large paint pad (approx 20cm wide). It goes on very evenly with a pad.

Vacuum the pad before use to remove stray fibres. Aquanamel is better for doors that Dulux 101 Gloss in my experience.

If you remove the door and put a screw in each end and hang it between a couple of saw horses, you can paint all sides in one go.

I have always avoided oil based paint because clean up is hard. Now I have discovered the wonders of brush cleaner (we use Ezyclean $40 for 4 litres but I am sure it is not the only one) which makes it very easy to clean up brushes used for oil or water based paints. I am currently doing steel windows with Wattyl Killrust (oil based). A quick rinse in turps (two jars - keep using the same stuff until it is unusable) then a rinse in brush cleaner (keep using the same stuff iin a jar until unusable) then rinse under the tap and use a nail brush, then back in the brush cleaner a then a rinse with a bit of soap and water and the brush is clean in five minutes and you haven't used much water. The brush cleaner also gets paint off your hands and smells much better than turps.

I haven't tried oil based enamel on doors recently so can't compare it to Aquanamel. I suspect the finish might be a bit better (but then you have the yellowing problem for white paint).