Is the paint on your walls peeling, cracking, or showing wear? This is not a big problem; to get perfectly painted walls follow these basic steps.

 

Clean the Walls

Before anything else, make sure that your walls are clean. No grease, dirt, or dust must be sticking on the wall. Do note that skipping this step will ruin your paint’s finish.

 

To clean your wall, just get a sponge, water, and mild detergent. Lather the detergent on the water, dab the sponge, and rub the sponge on the wall. After that, rinse the walls with water, and let it dry.  You can also use a product called TSP which is specifically designed for cleaning walls prior to painting.

 

Patching

When preparing your walls use drywall compound or a product called Drydex to cover any holes or blemishes.  Drydex goes on pink and dries white.  Sometimes these marks can be very difficult to see, it largely depends on the light in the room.  If you are very keen on details you can take a flashlight and slowly go over the walls from end to end.  You should be able to see all marks and blemishes using this process.

Once the patching material you use is dry, be sure to sand it with a flat surfaced sponge sander.  If you use a piece of sandpaper and your hand when you sand it is difficult to get a smooth wall.  Once you have completed sanding, clean all of the dust and debris by wiping down the walls with a damp cloth.

Once all of the dust is cleaned, it is time to caulk the gaps, cracks that may be showing between the trims and the walls.  When applying caulking use a damp cloth to wipe away the excess.  Using your finger doesn’t work as well and can leave an uneven finish.

Do Not Skip on the Prime

Depending on the colour you are painting, the walls may need to be primed.  You can have the primer tinted to reduce the number of coats of paint you may need to get an even finish.  There are also products that have the paint and the primer in one can – a great innovation for the painting industry!  Prior to coating the whole wall with primer, go over each of your patched areas with primer and a brush.  New compound needs the extra primer or the spots may show once you have completed painting.

Taping

Once all of the caulking and patching is dry.  To prevent a painting mess, make sure that you use painter’s tape (the blue or green tape you see in hardware stores). Tape the places you do not want to get painted (e.g., door frames, window, trim, etc.). It is very important to remove the tape before the paint dries.  If you wait, the new paint and the tape will stick together and when you remove the tape the paint may peel off with the tape.

Cleaning, Patching, Priming Complete – Time to Put on the Colour

Once you have the trims and ceiling taped off, complete all of the edging with a 2 – 2 1/2 inch brush.  For those tight to reach areas have a small brush handy.  If you can, work quickly so that you can roll the walls before the edging paint is completely dry.  This will help to reduce any potential lines.  Prior to rolling the paint on the walls remove all painters tape.

When rolling on the paint be careful not to put on too much paint at once.  If you do put on too much paint it may “run” or show drips.  A key to having a professional painting finish is to back roll all of the walls.  This means that once you have completed the wall or area you are painting, go back to the beginning and re-roll the wall without any new paint on your roller.  Be sure to have the part that connects the roller to your handle leading.  When you apply pressure with your roller, there will be more pressure on the side that is connected to the handle.  If the high pressure portion of the roller is trailing you may leave streaks.

Do Not Forget the Trim

Once you are done painting the walls and removing the tape it is time to paint the trims, and doors. This is the job that really counts – a quality paint job shows up the most on how well (or straight) you can paint the lines between the trims and the walls.

All done!  Time to step back and enjoy your handy work!