Painting and Wallpapering Around Chaos: Tips for Parents and Others

Handy Tips for DIY Residential Painting

23 October 2015 by Francis Ortiz

Painting may seem like a daunting task for homeowners who may not know the best way to go about it. The thing to note about residential painting is that it requires the appropriate prepping to ensure that your walls have a sleek and uniform look. Here are some handy tips that residential painters use to achieve this.

Cclean your walls before painting

Simply wiping down your walls will not ensure you get a smooth finish. For the paint to bond on the walls, they need to be immaculate. A common mistake DIY home painters make is not eliminating oils and grease stains. These tend to inhibit the paints ability to adhere on the walls, thus you find that the paint starts peeling before its time. When cleaning your walls, do not opt for regular detergent. For a professional finish, you should invest in a de-glosser or some heavy duty cleaning detergent. These solutions work best to eliminating grime and oil to ensure your walls are adequately prepped. Pay close attention to the walls in your kitchen and bathroom, as these are more likely to have accumulated oil. Another thing to note when cleaning your walls is that you should do so with an abrasive pad in circular motions. Side to side motions have a higher chance of spreading the grease rather than eliminating it.

Don't skimp on priming and texturing your walls

Another common mistake homeowners make during DIY painting is skimping on priming and texturing their walls. As such, you may end up with uniformly painted walls but find some areas appear blotchy due to an inconsistent sheen. After cleaning your walls, ensure the texture is uniform by sanding any areas that you have patched up or caulked. This should then be followed up with a primer to ensure that the absorbency is uniform across the board. Failure to do so leads to the porous fillers absorbing your new coat of paint. When the sun hits these areas, they will look much duller than the rest of your paint job.

Start painting your walls from the trim

Residential painters will typically have a set order of how they will accomplish the task. They will tend to start with the trim of the room, then move on to the ceilings and finish the paint job with the walls. This is because it is much more effective to tape the trim rather than taping off the walls. By starting with the trim, you do not have to worry about the paint getting on your walls, as you will cover these up when finishing the project. Additionally, you should wait for the paint on the trim to dry before embarking on the walls.

For more extensive paint jobs, contact a professional paint service like Dyson Painters.

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