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House Painting Pleasant Hill: Proper Painting Techniques


House Painting Pleasant Hill: Proper Painting Techniques

In order to achieve a professional finish from your house painting in Pleasant Hill, there are proper painting techniques that should be followed if you’re doing all of the work yourself. If a professional-looking finish is what you want, hire a professional painting contractor like Custom Painting, Inc.

You know proper preparation of the surface is the key to a successful painting job. Cleaning is essential for good preparation. No matter the quality of paint you use, if the surface is dirty the paint won’t properly stick to the surface.

Before painting a room, it must be free of dirt and clutter. First, remove everything in the room as much as possible. Take away the curtains, draperies, pictures, mirrors, wall decor and removable fixtures such as some hardware installation, switch and receptacle cover plates, if possible. For non-removable fixtures and installations, cover them with plastic. Having a “clean slate” makes all the difference.

Cover the areas (such as crown molding and baseboards) that you don’t want painted with painter’s tape.

Move all furniture outside of the room or towards the center of the room, if possible. If the furniture cannot be moved, cover them with drop cloths or plastic.

Clean the surface thoroughly using simple cleaning tools such as sponge or a damp clean rag or towel. Remove anything that can hinder your painting job, such as cobwebs.

Inspect the surface for holes, cracks, and other kinds of surface imperfection. Fill these surface flaws with spackle, using a putty knife. Before you fill a crack, widen the gap a little bit before filling it with spackle. Wait for the spackle to dry completely. Once dried, remove any excessive amount by sanding it off to make the surface smooth. Apply paintable caulk and wood putty on gaps between crown moldings, baseboards, ceilings etc. Allow the caulk to dry and sand off the excess amount to make it smooth.

Priming a surface is not always necessary but if you’re in doubt, it is better to use primer. It will help the paint to adhere more firmly to the surface and help cover flaws by sealing and filling in cracks, tiny holes, etc.

After preparation and priming the surface now it’s time to paint! Painting is not as difficult as it looks. Hold the brush near the base of the handle, then dip half of the bristles with paint. It is important not to overfill the bristles so wipe off any excess paint on the rim of the can. To minimize dripping, stretch a strong and large rubber band vertically around the can, until the rubber hovers across the middle of the can. Then you can wipe off the excess paint on the stretched rubber band.

Apply the brush to slightly bend the brush onto the surface — use it with the right amount of pressure, not too light but not too hard either.

Most people like to paint the trim first before the walls, because it’s easier to remove to tape off the trims than to tape off the walls.

When painting with a roller, slowly roll it on the paint tray. Continue rolling until the roller is evenly coated with paint. Drain off excess paint by rolling it against the tray’s ridges. For painting smoother surfaces, make an “N”, “M” or “W” pattern then cross the pattern with horizontal strokes. Then finish it off with downward strokes (from top to bottom) to even out the section.

Another trick in painting with rollers is rolling the full height of the wall and maintaining a wet edge. This will prevent unsightly lap marks from showing on the surface.

A 1/4″ nap is good for rolling smooth surfaces such as new walls and ceilings as well as doors and trim. For painting textured walls, choose the size of the roller naps depending on how rough the surface you will paint. For example, a 3/8″ nap is good for painting light-textured walls, and a 3/4″ nap is ideal for painting very rough surfaces.

For painting along the edges and corners (such as door and window trims), use a 3″ roller with a nap that has also the same thickness. Roll as close to the trim as you can without actually touching the trim as to create dripping paint.

As long as you have the correct tools and follow the proper techniques, achieving a professional-looking finish when house painting in Pleasant Hill is not as difficult as it looks.

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