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House Painting Pleasanton – Tips for Successful Interior Painting


House Painting Pleasanton – Tips for Successful Interior Paintingtitle

Painting interior walls seems to be easiest part when house painting in Pleasanton. Still, if you are not careful, your project can turn into a disaster. Here are some tips to help you get the professional-looking interior painting you want.

1. Prep the surface before painting
Properly prepping surface is the key to a successful interior painting job. What is included in prepping?

  • Cleaning the surface
  • Removing peeling or flaking paint
  • Repairing any cracks, holes, dents or any other surface flaws
  • Using primer when necessary

Prepping the surface is not the most fun part of the project, but it is easily the most essential part. No matter how good the quality of your paint or your tools, they will still be inadequate to conceal a pockmarked surface, or otherwise counter paint adhesion problems if the surface is not properly cleaned and prepped.

2. Have quality paints, primers and tools
Good quality paints and primers may seem more expensive, but they require only one coat and are guaranteed to last for many years compared to cheaper and inferior paints.

Apart from buying good quality paints, you might as well purchase good quality tools, too. For instance, good quality brushes or rollers hold more paint than cheaper tools. They are also guaranteed to be durable and last for many years.

3. Tint the primer
Nowadays, more people have come to discover the wonderful benefits that a primer can bring. First and foremost, the primer helps the paint to adhere better to the surface. Second, it prevents the stains or the old paint from bleeding through the surface. Third, it enables just one coating of paint.

Add a little bit of your color to the primer to tint it. Why is tinting the primer a good idea? It’s because it greatly enhances the primer’s ability to hide imperfections of the surface. Professionals usually tint their primers with a bit of the top coat color to achieve that effect. You can try that trick, too!

4. Tape the trim, window frames, and door frames
Cover the trim, window frames, and door frames with ONLY the blue painter’s tape (not masking tape) before painting. You can tape these areas up to a week before beginning the painting job.

After painting, gently remove the tape while the paint is still wet. Removing the tape when the paint has dried will cause it to peel off.

3. Cover the floor with canvas drop cloths instead of plastic
While plastic is a cheaper way to cover the floor while painting, spending money on canvas is really an investment. Canvas stays in place, so there’s no need to tape it. It also presents less chance of tripping, unlike plastic. Canvas absorbs paint while plastic becomes slippery when splattered with paint. Canvas can be folded around corners, and you can’t do that when using a plastic drop cloth. Finally, canvas drop cloths can be used over and over again, unlike plastic drop cloths which are discarded after one use.

4. Use an extension pole
When painting ceilings or very high walls be sure to use a telescoping pole instead of stepping up the ladder. Extension poles are available in different lengths up to 18 feet long. But for painting 8- to 9-feet high ceilings, it’s ideal to use an extension pole that extends from 18 to 36 inches. Look for extension poles that have a rigid metal core because extension poles that have plastic cores are flexible and thus are hard to control.

5. Choose a bucket and roller screen
Accidentally stepping on a paint tray is really annoying, and would create tracks of paint on the floor. Instead of using a paint tray, get yourself a five-gallon bucket and a roller screen.

What’s great about using a five-gallon bucket and a roller screen is that they help minimize the mess, and will make the painting job faster and smoother.

Fill the half the bucket with paint. Dip the roller into the paint and roll it against the screen to drain off excess paint. Then you can start rolling the paint on the surface!

6. Roll paint on with a “W” pattern
For a more efficient painting, begin at the corner of the wall and roll a 3-by-4-foot “W” pattern. Without lifting the roller, fill in the blank areas of the letters. Continue painting the rest of the surface in this manner until you’re done. Do this on one wall at a time.

This trick will ensure an even coverage of the paint on the surface.

7. Painting with the brush
When painting with using a brush, make a long and continuous stroke to apply and spread the wet paint. A lot of DIY painters do not paint in this manner, and this is one of the common mistakes they make.

8. Overnight storage
If you’re done painting for the day but you still have to do more painting the next day, simply brush or roll off excess paint, and wrap the brush or roller with a plastic food wrap. To further seal out any air, double the plastic wrap around the brush or roller, and store them inside the refrigerator so that they won’t become dry and stiff overnight.

The next day, take the plastic wrapped brush or roller out of the fridge 30 minutes before you start painting.

Having good quality paints and tools, doing proper prep work, and applying some smart painting tricks are the keys to a successful interior house painting in Pleasanton.

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