3 Common Mistakes to Avoid While Painting Your House

While taking on the project of painting your house sounds like it’s all fun and games, there’s a lot of preparation and planning that goes into this task in order to make sure your results turn out just the way you want them to. If you’ve never painted your home before, read on to learn three common mistakes that you’ll want to be sure to avoid.

Improperly Preparing Your Walls

Even though it may be tempting to put your brush to the wall immediately after you buy your paint, there are several different steps you’ll need to take before that to ensure that you get results that last. If you don’t prepare your walls correctly, it could result in peeling paint or painted-over dust, dirt, lint, or hair on the wall. That’s why, before starting, you should thoroughly clean your walls.

You can do this by first covering your floors to make sure no water drips onto them. Then, dust them using a dry mop head or a clean rag. Now that any dust and lint are no longer on the wall, you can mix clear hand soap with a gallon bucket of warm water. It’s important to always test the solution beforehand in an unnoticeable area to make sure that it won’t damage your walls. Once everything checks out, you can gently wash your walls in circular motions, being sure to apply as little moisture as possible.

If you come across any particularly stubborn stains, like red wine, take a cleaning rag with the dish soap solution on it and place a small dab of hydrogen peroxide on it. Gently press the cloth into the stain for five minutes to lift it.

Rushing Through the Job

Planning is one of the most crucial steps to make sure that your results are just the way you imagined them. If you don’t plan carefully, you’ll likely end up rushing through the job, leaving you with splatters of paint where they don’t belong, dripping, dried paint, and a variety of other issues that will let everyone know that this was a DIY paint job. Be sure to plan thoroughly and know how many coats you’ll need to put on. Make a detailed schedule and take your time painting.

Using Cheaper Materials

The truth is, painting materials aren’t that expensive, and you won’t be able to save that much money by choosing cheaper paint brands, rollers, and other supplies. By purchasing cheaper quality items to attempt to save anywhere from $5-$30, you likely won’t be able to achieve the amazing results you were hoping to. Low-quality paints are known for being more prone to scuffs and stains, less resilient to washing, and the overall results simply aren’t as impressive.

By avoiding these three common mistakes that homeowners make when painting your house, you’ll be able to save money, time, and labor. If you don’t feel confident in your ability to do all of this properly, and you don’t want to take a gamble with your money and time, don’t hesitate to reach out to a local professional painter!

About Platinum Painting

At Platinum Painting, our team can truly say that they’re experts in our field, because we only paint residential buildings. We offer a variety of home improvement services to spruce up and modernize homes, including interior and exterior painting, popcorn ceiling removal, and cabinet painting. We also offer a satisfaction guarantee on every project that we complete to take the stress out of finding a local painting contractor to hire that you can trust. For questions or to schedule a free estimate, visit our website or call 817-380-4404.