Painters in Concord know that preparation is the key to any successful home improvement project. Even if you have the best paints and tools, they will mean nothing if you skip preparing your surfaces before painting.
Some people are too excited to start painting because they don’t bother to prepare the surface, never realizing that the topcoat will have adhesion problems on walls that are dirty and damaged.
Most of us would admit that prepping is the most boring job that we want to do quickly. However, prepping is the most crucial part of a paint project. If you want to avoid this step, hire a professional who comes with their supplies and proper training.
But if you are going to do the job by yourself, make sure you don’t skip the prepping part. Consider the following steps:
1. Clean the walls
To ensure sufficient coverage, you have to clean the walls first. A simple bucket of water and a clean rag would do just fine. But for high-traffic areas such as the kitchen and the bathroom, cleaning the walls would be a lot more different. If you intend to paint your kitchen walls, wash them with detergent to remove grease, splattered sauces, and other food residues. After cleaning the walls, rinse them thoroughly and allow them to dry completely.
If you intend to paint your bathroom walls, it can be a lot trickier, as there is often moisture and high humidity. The walls may be even stained by mold and mildew. If that’s the case, wash off the walls with a bleach solution of one part bleach and three parts water.
2. Remove loose paint
If there is cracked or peeling old paint, remove it by using a paint scraper, medium-grit sandpaper, sanding block, or electric sander. Make sure that you have placed drop cloths along the floor to catch scraped old paint and dust.
3. Repair damaged areas
Check the walls for any holes, cracks, or fissures. Fill them with an epoxy filler or a spackling compound using a spackling knife. Be sure to allow the epoxy filler or the spackling compound to dry completely. Once dry, lightly sand the excess using medium-grit sandpaper or sanding block to make the surface smooth.
4. Seal the gaps
If there are cracks around windows, doors, or any corners of the walls, fill them with a multi-purpose gap sealer and a caulking gun. After application, use a damp cloth to wipe off the excess; it also allows you to push the filler into the corners further. Allow the sealer to dry completely.
5. Protect areas that you don’t want to be painted
Cover trim, molding, or any other areas you don’t want to paint. For items that are not easy to remove, cover them with drop cloths to prevent paint from getting onto them
6. Clear out the area for painting
Clear out the area you’re painting by moving pieces of furniture and taking down any décor, doorknobs, outlet covers, and lighting fixtures. Doing this also ensures that your possessions will remain safe.
7. Prime your walls
Whether or not you use the primer depends on different factors. There are also different types of primers for specific applications. For instance, if the walls are covered with glossy, oil-based paint, and you intend to cover them with the new latex paint, coat the walls with a bonding primer. Use a stain-blocking primer if you want to get rid of that annoying water stain on the walls. Or if you intend to paint your dark walls with a light-colored paint, use a white primer to ensure that the old dark paint won’t bleed through the new light-colored paint.
New drywalls can soak up more than its share of paint since they are faced with paper. Because paper is porous, it absorbs paint quite quickly. Priming the new drywalls prevents that from happening so that you can apply fewer coats of paint.
The amount of prep work involved often determines paint results. If you have indeed hired a professional painter, ask them whether there are steps you can do to ensure that all the necessary work is involved. If your painters in Concord work by the hour, you can save some money from labor charges by doing the prep work by yourself.