Home Painting Tips and Tricks
Here are some great ideas to streamline and smooth out your home painting experienceSo, you want to paint your home quickly and easily?
Getting paint on a wall seems simple enough, open the tin, dip the brush, and start slapping it on! There can be some complexity in getting the exact finish you desire, and getting a professional and perfect couple of coats on the wall however. From some professionals who’ve worked all over the world, here are some interesting tips to think about.
Preparing the wall
There’s a lot to be said for preparation when painting. A clean wall guarantees both better results and a smoother finish and application. Or to put it another way, One professional painter here in Hong Kong recommends:
“Wash the walls, whatever condition you think they’re in, dust is almost always there. And not just the walls! Make sure your brushes or rollers are clean too, no loose hairs or fibres means they can’t get stuck in your paint and leave a small but noticable defect. If your wall has recently been repaired, with some sort of filler etc., then using a base coat to blur the edges of this spot will make the surface textures under the paint match up well. As a result you wont notice where the filling was done.”
Preparing the brush/roller
A brush or roller, if dry before use can take some time to feel like they’re applying consistently, this is because paint is taking time to absorb through the fibers, when this is done if you keep painting the amount of paint applied per stroke will become fairly consistent. Another professional whose worked in the UK and in Hong Kong for almost 10 years has this to say:
“To avoid this ‘warm up’ time, wet your brush or roller beforehand. Simply soaking them for a short while will do, say 2 minutes for example, then before you use them squeeze out the water so they aren’t dripping wet. This will speed up the absorption and you’ll start off with consistent strokes with no warm up time.”
Be wary of the contents of your paint
Its important to know that some chemicals that are still widely used in paints in Asia are actually really dangerous. Even exposure in the short term which is what a DIY situation entails is best avoided.
“Make sure your paint has no lead in it for example, this can be really harmful. High VOCs and that (APEOs etc.) is also something to avoid, and its sometimes harder to know how much is in your paint. Some brands make it very clear they are low or ~0 VOC, I recommend using this type as much as possible, as a painter I have started to refuse jobs where a cheap, smelly and poor quality paint is specified, its not worth my health” says experienced painter working in Hong Kong