The importance of preparation when painting
Preparation is one of the most significant parts of any painting or decorating project. Lack of prep work increases the risk of mistakes and accidents that could negatively impact your project. But what does preparation include? Well, this can vary from project to project but we have a general outline that we use for each project: covering, filling, sanding, cleaning, taping and finally painting.
Stage one: covering, filling and sanding
Stage one is the messy stage- that is why we start it by covering all furniture with decorating sheets and ensure we remove all items from the room that can’t be covered. Next comes filling in of holes or cracks present in the walls, it is a perfect opportunity to restore the walls and ensure that the finished look isn’t ruined by old damage on walls. Filler such as the No Nonsense Interior Ready Mixed Filler is brilliant for this.
After all areas are filled and have dried, use a sander to sand any doors or frames that you may be painting, if there are any areas the sander can’t get to, we suggest you use sandpaper instead. Make sure you ventilate the room and wear the appropriate PPE.
Stage two: cleaning
Cleaning prevents particles, dirt and dust from being trapped under your new coat of paint. This leads to a smoother finish and better overall appearance of your finished result. As well as this, it reduces employee’s exposure to dust and potentially harmful microbes when working.
To clean your area effectively, we suggest starting by using a damp microfibre cloth to clean all top surfaces and walls, windows and frames, then working your way down. Next, vacuum the area thoroughly, including all corners and edges of floors as well as ensuring all cobwebs are removed. Finally, use a sugar soap to wash your walls of any microscopic dirt particles.
Stage three: taping and painting
Apply a durable, sticky frog tape to edges next to areas you will be painting- such as windows in doors- in order to prevent paint from staining areas you don’t want paint to be present on.
Now, you can begin painting! Start by cutting in around edges and corners where areas are not accessible for a roller. You can find out more about painting by reading posts such as ‘A guide on how to use rollers’ in our ‘painting’ category of our blog.