Painting the Interior of Your Home

Whether you hire a professional or do it yourself, painting your home can sometimes be challenging, but is almost always disruptive and chaotic. Here are some things you can do to make the process easier.

First, Get Organized

Plan the workforce

If you intend to do this yourself and not hire professionals, you'll require lots of assistance. There are numerous tasks included in painting the interior of your home. You’ll need to move furniture, prepare the walls, cover the floors, gather materials, various prep activities, cleaning, and don’t forget.. your helpers will need refreshment! It could take a 5 man crew as much as 10 days to completely paint a two-story home of approximately 2000 square feet. Enlist as many helpers as possible, as they may not all be available every day. Coordinate a coverage schedule so you can ensure you have plenty of help for the duration for the project. Plan ahead so your helpers can manage their personal schedules as well.  They’ll appreciate your attention to their details.

Establish Key Task Coverage

The Cutters. The helper who you know will meticulously pay attention to every detail, with a steady hand while painting would be the best individual to manage “cutting in.” This is painting a straight edge, like along where the ceiling and walls meet, without painting the ceiling. Have them demonstrate their skill and ensure you have the right person for the job. A wavy line anywhere will stick out to you every time you enter the room. Also, establish more than one cutter. It’s a stressful job and can actually become painful for hands and arms after a while, so it’s good to switch out occasionally. Masking will make the job a bit easier, but if you find someone who can do it freehand, you’re golden.

The Trimmers. Assign some to do the trim enamel on baseboards, doors and window frames. These also require skillful focus.

The Coordinator. This person may be your MVP. They will ensure the needs of the workers are met. Providing refreshment in the form of beverages and sandwiches, make those store runs for last minute items, arrange for lunch (or even cook) and / or dinner, make phone calls, wash out brushes, etc. When none of that is required, they can grab a roller and pitch in!

The Rollers. You should in fact only need a few of these, as they can cover a large space fairly swiftly. They’ll roll paint on the walls speedy quick.

The Caulkers. Caulking and hole patching (spackling) needs to be done before any painting is begun, allowing for drying and sanding (if required) time. It is an important job, but needs to be timed well..

TIP:  Launder the clothes and shoes (unless you covered them) worn during the job individually from other clothes. Clean your tools as well as the respirator, throwing out the filters, as well as the sanding sponges, followed by a shower to clean off all painting grime.

Paint Toxicity Points

If your residence was constructed prior to 1978, you may have lead-based paint. In 1978, the federal government banned consumer uses of lead paint, yet some states prohibited it even earlier. Lead from paint, including lead-contaminated dust, is one of the most typical root causes of lead poisoning.

Any person who is paid to carry out work that involves lead-based paint in houses, child-care centers and pre-schools developed prior to 1978 must be certified to handle the challenge. This might consist of, yet is not restricted to, general contractors, household rental property owners, painters and special profession specialists (plumbers, carpenters, and electrical experts).

There are generally 3 categories of paint which expectant ladies might be subjected to: latex, oil, as well as enamel. The level of toxicity while pregnant is difficult to predict since there are presently no methods of determining real exposure levels. The probability of paint toxicity depends on the chemicals and solvents discovered in the paint, together with the level of exposure.

Quick Guide

Need to Finish Quickly?  Here's how to get started in a nutshell.  After you've gathered your materials, get ready by taking all the furniture out of the room. Now you have room to easily clean the walls and also fill in any type of holes with spackle.  Make sure to lay ground cloth or old sheets on the floor to protect the flooring from paint. When you start to paint, begin with a layer of primer. As soon as that has dried, you can begin painting with your color. Use little brushes to paint edges and big rollers to cover the rest.

Clean the Walls to Be Painted

A clean, consistent surface area will certainly guarantee you a smooth, professional-looking outcome. Dark smudges can bleed through a layer of paint, and oil or various other materials on the wall surface can alter the consistency of the paint being used. Clean all walls to be painted with a solution of water as well as moderate cleaning agent. For difficult spots, like kitchen grease or soot smudges, specialists rely upon trisodium phosphate. Blended with bleach, trisodium phosphate could additionally get rid of mildew and also mold stains. No matter what you clean with, be sure to rinse the walls thoroughly when you're finished and also leave them plenty of time to dry before you start painting. Painting experts could also utilize fans to speed up the drying process.

Those are the basic steps. A more detailed step-by-step accounting follows to provide more precise direction to achieving  professional-grade success!

Prepare Like a Professional:

Seven Steps to Prepare a Room for Paint

Interior painting is a fantastic do-it-yourself task that could refurbish a room quickly, yet there are potential challenges to working on your own. Amateur painting could be simple to detect because, unlike professional jobs, they leave telltale signs of paint spatter, uneven color or missed areas behind. Here are seven steps you must follow prior to dipping your roller that will make sure you paint like a pro.

1. Get rid of Furnishings. Experts don't trip over tables and stretch to repaint behind the couch, and you shouldn’t either. Remove all furniture from the space prior to painting, making the work easier as well as making sure wood and upholstery isn’t damaged with splashed or spattered paint. To make sure that your home furnishings survive unscathed to be restored into your freshly painted space at the end of the job, avoid simply sticking whatever into the hall where it could be harmed or trigger mishaps. Depending on the size of your job, you might consider renting temporary storage for your furniture. If you have a piece that simply won't fit out the doorway or is too heavy to relocate, put it in the center of the space, away from the wall surfaces to be painted, and also cover it with plastic to secure it.
2. Protect Flooring. If you intend to keep your flooring or carpet, then protect it. A few sheets of newsprint under your roller tray simply isn’t adequate protection. Professionals use drop cloths throughout the room to protect everything. Plastic sheets are more affordable, however it can be easily punctured and can slide underfoot while you work, potentially revealing areas of flooring. A drop cloth made from heavy canvas or an expert quality butyl-backed cloth secures items against spills and will also prevent tracking paint through the house if some gets on the soles of your shoes. Many DIY painters prefer to go barefoot so they immediately know when they step in paint. Butyl-backed cloths have the added incentive of keeping splashed paint from saturating through to the flooring below.
3. Take Down Wall Hangings. Logically, one cannot be expected to paint effectively with paintings on the wall, even if they plan to just paint around them. Take them down so there is no risk of missed areas or damage to your paintings or other artwork. It would actually take longer to cut around these items then it would to just remove them. Besides, what happens if you decide to change a piece and it’s not exactly the same size? Save yourself some grief and just take them down. You may even want to remove nails and picture hangers, fill in the holes with spackle, and paint over them (after the spots are thoroughly dry) in case you want to reconfigure the layout once you’re finished. Take care with your pieces, wrap them in bubble wrap, perhaps place them in storage, to ensure they survive until the completion of your project.
4. Clean the Walls. As detailed earlier, a clean, consistent surface area will certainly guarantee you a smooth, professional-looking outcome. Dark smudges can bleed through a layer of paint, and oil or various other materials on the wall surface can alter the consistency of the paint being used. Clean all walls to be painted with a solution of water as well as moderate cleaning agent. For difficult spots, like kitchen grease or soot smudges, specialists rely upon trisodium phosphate. Blended with bleach, trisodium phosphate could additionally get rid of mildew and also mold stains. No matter what you clean with, be sure to rinse the walls thoroughly when you're finished and also leave them plenty of time to dry before you start painting. Painting experts could also utilize fans to speed up the drying process.
5. Remove Outlet Covers and Switch Plates. The pros don't cut in around tiny little electrical outlet covers, and you shouldn’t either. This will undoubtedly lead to noticeable brush strokes around the outlet or smudged paint on the electrical outlet cover. Eliminate the electrical outlet covers as well as switch plates in the area to be painted, as well as take care not to paint the sockets or switches Once again, that looks much less than professional. Try using childproof plastic outlet covers to protect them while you work. Be careful in a home with children after safety covers are gone, and replace them as soon as possible. If you plan to paint the ceiling of the space, do not forget to eliminate lights and ceiling medallions whenever feasible. Switching off the electricity to the space at the circuit breaker before painting is always an excellent safety measure to take.
6. Masking. Perhaps the most time consuming part of your prep is masking, however it’s critical to a professional result. Painters masking tape is available at any home improvement store, and should be used to mask baseboards and door frames, window frames and along any edge that meets an area you’re painting that you don’t want painted. You can even work patterns into your wall using painters tape if you dare, but just a word of advice, perfect your tape design before ever touching brush (or roller) to wall.
7. Establish a Staging Area. Contrary to what you may believe, you’re not going to save yourself time by lugging a can of paint from wall to wall, room to room. The center of the room is the perfect place to set up your staging area, where you can pour paint, store open cans, and clean brushes and rollers. It’ll cut down on spills and prevent accidents. At the very least, they’ll be contained to a designated area. It’ll help your co-workers to know exactly where everything is and save time they might use searching for supplies. Try using an old folding table or a couple of boards placed between two saw horses to make a useful table space. When you take the time to carefully prep your painting space, you’re assured a professional result for your efforts.

While this all might seem a lot of work, and it is, but you'll find the process very satisfying as you'll end up with a beautifully renovated home with a brand new look in the colors you chose to reflect your unique personality.  Still, if it is too much, hire a reliable professional contractor to do the work!

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