House Painting Basics
20 Sep
(Post 46 in a series for DIY beginners)
There are just a few basic things that the average home owner needs to know about painting. You can go to your paint supplier and learn all about oil and latex bases for paints, Satin and Eggshell finishes, what paint to use where, and the appropriate cleaners and thinners, but it ain’t gonna do you an ounce of good if you don’t remember these three main rules:
1. Always use a proper primer, or one of the new paints that include a priming agent, for any new surfaces, and that includes new drywall and drywall patches – even the smallest ones.
2. Properly prepare the surface. If it’s a fairly clean painted wall, a good scrub with a degreaser like TSP will do the trick. (Tri – Sodium Phosphate – Sounds like something out of a mad scientist’s lab, but you can get it at the hardware store.) The very best thing to do though, is to give the whole area a light sanding with a medium grit sandpaper, (200 – ish), in a proper flat holder, or in the form of a foam sanding block, and then dust it off.
3. Use lots of paint on your brush or roller. Didja hear me? Use lots of paint! Not so much that it runs down the handle and up your sleeve, or runs down the wall, but you really need to make sure you are using enough paint so that it flows on smoothly. If you are trying to stretch the paint out, and the brush seems to be dragging and not gliding along nicely, you are just making life hard for yourself. The painting is no fun, and the paint isn’t flowing into all the tiny little crevasses and bumps in the material. It might look good to you now, but when it dries you will clearly see the error of your ways.
Anyone doing a renovation is going to spend time consulting with the paint store and will learn many details, but if you always apply these three very basic principles, you will have a far better chance of success. Expensive paint and rollers can never make up for poor preparation and bad technique.
(Note for new visitors: This post is part of a series designed to give DIY newbies a confidence boost. My goal is to provide the basic basics of home and auto repair and maintenance, give you a heads up about some of the pitfalls that you might come across, and generally demystify the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems in our lives. For best results, please take in the whole “mini course” that started with this post)
But why???? do you have to use the degreaser or sand the surface first? What will happen if you don’t?
Thanks for the plenty-of-paint tip, totally saved me having to do another coat. Did two coats on every other part of the place, until… I put more paint on the brush in the first place! wowza
Hey Serena! Well, I’m a little red faced! One of my main goals is SUPPOSED to be to explain details like that. Sorry I missed it, and thanks for asking! In my experience, there are three things that paint will not stick to: 1 – surfaces that have any oily contaminants on them, 2 – surfaces that are so smooth that there are no microscopic ridges and crevasses for paint to hang on to, and 3 – surfaces that have dust on them, effectively putting an extra layer between the paint and the surface that you want painted. That’s why anything that you want to paint should be clean, dry and dust free. One exception is when you are applying a second coat – the manufacturer’s instructions sometimes say that you can apply a second coat within a 12 or 24 hours. A paint that is not fully cured will still accept, and bond with the new coat. If you wait too long, though, you will have to do a light sand, not to clean the surface, but to take any sheen off of it and provide that rough grippy surface that will ensure the paint sticks.
Bottom line: if you want a smooth coat, with no patches and spots that are bubbling up or making little “fish-eye” or “orange peel” areas, you gotta prep!
I’m very happy that some of these tips are helping!
John
thanks! That will help Serena-the-shortcutter to do it right the first time.