How To Prepare Walls For Painting
At first glance many walls look fine before painting, but look closer and you'll see that time leaves its marks and for a supreme finish here are a few pro tips.
Step 1, Clean walls before painting
If the room has been poorly ventilated then look for signs of mildew, especially in corners or close to windows, never paint over mildew, it just grows back through. We recommend a diluted bleach solution with rubber gloves and a sponge (ensure to protect your carpets below). Next, cobwebs, the curse of decorators, remove all cobwebs at they just make a huge unsightly mess in the fresh paint. Sponge all walls, here we recommend a bucket of warm water and a tiny amount of dishwashing detergent, this will remove any dust or tiny traces of grease that might prevent your new paint from adhering property, or worse dark shadows appearing once dried. If you have had Blu Tack it is worth reading our advise on how to paint over Blue Tack Marks by clicking Here.
Step 2, Sanding walls before painting
At this stage we assume you have filled any holes or cracks to the walls. We feel that this stage is supremely important for the best possible finish, whist some decorators and enthusiastic DIY homemakers will sand the obvious filler marks, we fell that for the small amount of extra time taken to sand all walls and ceilings completely is really important. Many paints if not filtered have small amounts of debris contained within them and if you look closely at any painted wall or feel with your fingers you will feel these imperfections, a quick light sand with a 240 grit (grade) sandpaper will remove these. We all know that sanding can be a messy and dusty job and may domestic DIY power sanders do not extract dust very well and the end result is a dusty environment and at worst you could end up looking like a dust covered snowman. We recommend the use of sanders that use HEPA rated Dust Extractors (see the video below), for all of our interior painting and decorating jobs the team use Mirka sanders and dust extractors on all walls and ceilings and our clients always notice the difference.
As you can see in the video all of the minor imperfects are removed, the walls are ready to paint and above all, no dust.
Follow these steps for a flawless smooth paint finish every time like the professionals. For more pro painting tips and advice click here.