Painting

Tips for painting:

• Spend the money on high quality brushes and rollers, or risk finding brush hairs all over your finished job. Same with paint, it is far better to apply a good paint once than a cheap, thin paint two or three times.
• Spend the time prepping. Usually, most work in painting involves prep work. Wash or scrape as needed. Cobwebs and dust will end up as gunk painted onto the wall. There is no point applying expensive paint over a flaking or dirty wall. Be aware of scraping old paint as it may contain lead.
• If painting over a dark material with a lighter color, or you expect to need more than one coat, consider using a primer. Primers typically stick and cover better as this is what they are meant to do. Also, tinted primers cover darks better.
• Not including extensions available for handles, paint rollers consist of a handle, a frame, and a cage. A roller cover is the fuzzy tube inserted over the cage. Remove the lint from the cover before using.
• The cover will sometimes begin working itself off a roller cage. If this happens, take it off and put it back on, only reverse the direction. This will tend to make the cover seat itself, rather than come off the cage.
• Fully load the brush or roller. Inexperienced painters will try to ‘squeeze’ too much paint out of their brush or roller by continuuing to roll or brush when they should have already gone back to the bucket or pan. When painting large surfaces such as walls, it is best to fully load your brush or roller, apply what comes off with east, then go back for more. In other words, load the wall first, then spread evenly with broad, even strokes and plenty of paint to work with.
• Flat paint is great for ceilings, because ceilings are rarelly smudged. Not so much for walls because any contact may leave a smudge, which is difficult to remove from flat paint. Gloss paint is much easier to clean, and therefore great for smaller, high traffic areas. However, be careful when applying a higher gloss paint to walls. More gloss paint means more sheen, and this can be very noticeable if the amount of paint applied is not even. This is especially true if the wall reflects light such as from a door.
• A problem that often arises, expecially when painting interior walls over several days, is that little specs of gunk will start appearing in the wet paint. Most of these are pieces of dried paint. This can be mostly avoided by using a paint tray (if rolling), or smaller can (if using a brush). Transfer what you intend to use in the near future to these, and then wipe off the top of the bucket clean before applying the lid. Paint left to dry in the gap between the lid and the container is what usually falls into the bucket when opened. Of course, paint can be strained, but this seems to waste a lot of paint and is difficult with thicker paints.
• Especially with exterior or other areas where perfection matters less, there may be no need to fully clean brushes or rollers when the day’s work is over. Wrap them in soaking wet paper towels, then put each tool in its own plastic bag, twisted tightly shut. The water in the paper towels combined with the relatively airtight space in the bag will keep the paint useable, at least for a day or two. This can eventually contribute to dried gunk in the paint, but it saves time cleaning at the end of the day.
• Paint will not stick to pure silicone caulking.