Painting is the easiest and most effective way to transform the look of your walls and add a little more protection against wear and tear. It could be that the walls of your home are starting to look a little worse or you simply don’t like the current color. Whatever the reason, painting could just be your solution.
When it comes to residential painting in Eugene, Oregon, you have two options; hiring a pro or doing it yourself. Depending on the scale and complexity of the project, hiring a professional painter is almost always the best option. However, if you want to give it a try, here are some quick tips on how to paint over a painted wall.
1) Prep Your Work Space
Whether you’re only painting your kitchen or your entire exterior, preparing the area around your paint job is critical to efficient and stress-free painting. If you’re painting your interior, prep might include removing décor from the wall, taking down window treatments, moving furniture away from the wall and covering everything else in the room that you don’t want the paint to get on. For exterior painting, you might have to trim shrubbery and tree branches near your siding, and cover nearby plants and other immovable items, and so on.
2) Cleaning
For any paint job, always start with a clean surface to ensure better paint adhesion and longer durability. Interior walls might only need light wiping using either soapy water with a sponge or mineral spirits in the event of stains such as ink or greasy fingerprints. Exterior walls require a bit more extensive cleaning, and pressure washing usually does the trick. However, if you’ve never used a pressure washer for this purpose before, you should probably leave this part to the professionals.
3) Paint Scrapping and Sanding
If your previous paint job is still relatively ‘new,’ you might not spend so much time on this part. However, any peeling, cracking and bubbling paint needs to be scraped off so that it doesn’t ruin your new paint job. After scrapping, sand the surface and smooth out rough and sharp edges of any remaining paint in order to achieve a smooth finish. This will prevent the new paint coat from flaking and peeling prematurely.
4) Surface Repairs
Covering up damaged or failing surfaces with paint is never a good home maintenance practice. Many times, this reduces the lifespan of your paint job and creates opportunities for things like bugs and moisture invasion. Be sure to fill in any holes and missing caulk, and make any necessary repairs such as replacing missing wood planks and addressing water and drywall damages.
5) Prime Walls
Once the surface repairs have been addressed and the surface properly cleaned, it’s time to apply a primer. The primer prepares the surface for better paint adhesion and also evens out the surface for a smooth finish. If you’re making a sharp color transition, especially from the dark to light paint colors, the primer will help to block off the old paint from bleeding through your new coat of paint.
You will also experience better paint coverage and efficient painting with primed surfaces. Once the prep work is done and the primer has been applied, you can proceed with painting as you would on any other surface once the primer has dried.
The Bottom Line
Small residential repainting projects can be an interesting challenge to try if you have the skill, experience, tools and time. If you don’t, we strongly advise that you hire a professional painting contractor in Eugene such as Sir Paints A Lot.
We specialize in residential painting, and if you have hard-to-reach places or a multi-level home on a slope that you want to paint, but most painters are shying away, we will be more than happy to take up the challenge!
Simply give us a call us 541-600-2025 to get started.