Many homeowners would sometimes want to have renovations done on their house, especially if they have owned their home for many years and want to change its appearance and atmosphere to make it look fresh and new. One of the steps in renovations that these homeowners take is painting the interior and exterior walls of the house. While painting walls may look simple at first glance, there are multiple steps or processes that people need to take for the paint to look better and be more long-lasting. Follow these tips for residential painting in Alamo, or other Bay Area cities, if you plan to paint the house’s walls for the first time.
Always Paint During Dry Weather
For the paint to dry faster without dripping or staining areas of the home that you don’t intend to paint, like the ceiling or the floor, you will need to paint during dry weather. Humidity can often affect the drying time and the dripping tendencies of paint, and humidity can often worsen during the wet season or when it rains for a good part of the day.
If you are painting the interior walls, humidity wouldn’t be a problem if you have a dehumidifier inside the room or area you will be painting. However, suppose you plan to paint the exterior walls. In that case, you may need to monitor your area’s weather and humidity to check which specific days or weeks are safe or convenient for exterior wall painting.
Prepare the Materials and Tools Needed
Once you have created a schedule and planned when to start painting, you can prepare the materials and tools needed to accomplish the task. This list of materials and tools for painting the walls of a house can help you do a good job.
Tools
- Paintbrush
- Paint Sprayer
- Painter’s Tape
- Pressure Washer
- Ladder
- Paint Scraper
- Caulk Gun
- Drop Cloths
- Sander
- Medium-Grit Sanding Block
Materials
- Exterior Eggshell or Flat Paint
- Exterior Semi-Gloss Paint
- Interior Wall Paint
- Stain-Blocking Primer
- Exterior Caulk
- Epoxy Filler
On the list, you notice two specific paints for exterior walls and one for interior walls. Paint used for exterior walls is formulated to prevent or reduce mildew buildup while reducing color fading that may happen when the paint is exposed to a lot of sunlight. On the other hand, paint for interior walls is formulated to resist staining and is much easier to clean without leaving marks.
Mix Paint to Get Your Preferred Color
If the color you like isn’t available in stores, you will have to mix different shades or colors of paint to get your preferred color. If you are going to mix paint for the first time, you should consult a professional so they can guide you on how to paint various colors to get the correct shade. In addition to mixing paint, you should also remember that paint can have a different tone or shade once it is dry, so you may need to look at dry samples of wet paint so that you will know that you chose the proper set of paints.
Hire a Painting Contractor
If you don’t have sufficient knowledge, skills, and capabilities to paint your house’s interior and exterior walls, it would be best to hire a painting contractor with a group of workers who can paint the walls with speed and precision. Plenty of painting contractors are available for hire in Alamo, but only some are considered best when their painters provide customer service and high-quality work.
To hire the best painting contractors, you should check online for reviews or feedback from numerous paint contracting businesses near you. Through these reviews, you can get a glimpse of how these contractors work and how well they do their job based on the feedback of those that availed their services.
Inspect the Walls for Damages
Next, take time to inspect the walls for damage like holes and cracks; if there is damage to the walls, it would be best to consult a painting contractor, who will most likely suggest repairs for the walls before the workers can start painting. Applying a patch to the damaged areas of the walls is one of the best ways to repair walls, as the patches can easily be hidden once they are painted over.
Clean the Surrounding Areas of the Walls
Before the workers paint on the walls of your home, you should already clean the surrounding areas by sweeping off the dirt on the floor and using a mop to get rid of stubborn grime on the floor’s surface. Once you clean the surrounding areas, you can place plastic sheeting on the floor so that paint won’t drip and stick to its surface. If you have pieces of furniture next to the walls, you should also move them to the middle of the room so they won’t get splashed with paint.
Apply the Primer
If you have already hired a painting contractor, then the company will already be able to handle this step, which is to apply the primer on the surface of the walls. Before applying the primer, they would have to scrape the peeling paint away, although you can already do this by using a paint scraper. The workers may also sand the surface of the walls using sanding paper or a sander to smooth out the surface and remove bumps that can often affect the texture of the paint that will be applied.
Once the peeling paint is gone, the workers would start applying the primer using paintbrushes. The primer enables the paint to stick better to the wall’s surface. So, the primer is essential if you want the paint to last longer. Different kinds of primers can be applied to interior and exterior walls, but one of the best is the stain-blocking primer, which ensures that rust from nails and screws won’t bleed through the paint.
Paint the Walls
After the primer has dried, the paint can already be applied to the surface of the walls. It is essential to apply the paint equally for all sections of the walls, so a paint sprayer may be the best tool of choice since it can spray the paint equally while also being able to pain more areas of a wall, thus enabling the workers to save more time for the process. More than one layer of paint may be needed for your preferred color to appear, so another coat of paint is usually applied to all areas of the walls.
These are all the steps and tips we can provide when it comes to residential painting in Alamo or painting houses in other areas. If you feel like painting the walls of your home is intimidating, it is always right to hire a painting contractor with more experience and knowledge to paint the walls of your home correctly.
