Did you know that professionals paint the trim first, and then the ceilings and walls? Or that they take twice as much to prepare than to actually paint? And these are just two of the house painting tips we got from a highly-trained expert working with Home & Business Services.
HBSOnTime.com is a family-owned local company operating since 2013 in the Greater Fredericksburg Area, VA. They offer professional cleaning services (residential, commercial, air ducts, windows, carpets), as well as handyman services, turnkey services, and home maintenance. The latter includes house painting, the main topic of this article.
The Home & Business Services employee specialized in house painting shared a few tips & tricks with us, which will help you if you want to DIY this not very complicated task:
1. Paint the trim first, then the ceiling and the walls. “It’s much easier and faster to tape off the trim than to tape off the walls. Furthermore, when painting the trim, you don’t even have to be neat, you just want to finish as quickly as possible. If you put paint on the wall or the ceiling, don’t worry, you will cover it up later, when painting those. Once the trim is finished and dry, you can tape it off, then head for the ceiling and walls”, the house painting professional says;
2. Two-thirds prep, one-third paint. “You know the saying that goes ‘Measure seven times, cut once’? It’s the same with house painting! You should spend at least two-thirds of the allocated time preparing. Wash, patch, sand, and vacuum the walls, ceiling, trim, and doors before picking up the brush or roller. If you don’t consider the small imperfection, you should know that fresh paint will highlight them instead of hiding them”, the highly-trained expert added;
3. Maintain a wet edge to avoid lap marks. “Lap marks are the biggest problem in house painting. I’m talking about those visually unpleasant vertical stripes that occur when uneven layers of paint overlap. This happens because you roll over paint that’s already partly dry. They can be avoided by maintaining a wet edge so that each stroke of the roller overlaps the previous one before the paint begins to dry. Of course, to do this, you have to paint an entire wall at once, moving up and down and slightly changing your position with each stroke”, the Home & Business Services employee explained;
4. Use cardboard instead of drop cloths for protecting the floor. “Surprisingly or not, drop cloths aren’t the best choice when you look to protect the floor from paint stains. They can be too big, slippery, or just messy, especially when you have to move them around while they are still covered in wet paint. Some of us prefer cardboard: I set it tight to the wall and slide it with my foot as I work my way around the room”, the highly-trained expert in house painting says.
Of course, if you live in the Greater Fredericksburg Area, VA, and don’t have the necessary time or motivation to DIY, you can always call him or his colleagues from Home & Business Services to offer you their house painting services.
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