3 Tips for DIY Home Painters from a Professional Painter

So you've decided that it's finally time to repaint your house, either the interior, exterior, or both. The current layer is flaking off leaving small paint chips all over the carpet, or your wallpaper is peeling at the corners, or maybe it's just looking dull, yellowed, and lifeless. You thought about hiring a professional painter but then figured you could save some money, and get some satisfaction from doing it yourself.

As someone who paints properties for a living, I hear this often from potential customers (especially after they've watched a few episodes of their local home improvement tv program). My first instinct is to suggest they hire someone to do it and I have my unbiased reasons for this but some people have their heads set on doing it themselves, so this article is for them and will hopefully help them get the job done to a satisfactory standard.

1) Always Prepare Your House Before Painting

This is pretty self-explanatory but some people are not very bright so they end up doing stupid things such as painting using drop sheets to protect their floors and furniture, if there's something you don't want getting covered in paint always cover it up, you might think you can just be careful but these are usually famous last words.

Also, it is super important to prepare the surface properly before you apply your first coat of paint, or else you risk having a poor finish that looks awful. If you have wallpaper you should remove this before painting, otherwise, you should gently wash the surface of the wall down with sugar soap to ensure it is nice and clean. If there is a previous paint layer it can be painted over as long as it's unbroken and dull. If there are any chips or dints in the wall repair these before you paint, and any water damage should be repaired, and water leaks solved before applying any paint.

2) Don't Become Cheap When It Comes To Paint

Some DIY'ers will try and cut corners and go with cheaper types of paint to save money but in the end, it just costs you more time and money for an inferior result. Cheaper paints generally use cheaper ingredients and the layers will be much thinner, meaning you may need to apply multiple coats to get the same effect, and it ends up taking you much longer. Cheaper paints will also fade sooner and need to be repainted much earlier than premium paints and they also hold up less well in households with young kids and pets constantly touching walls.

3) Cleanup Properly

This last one might seem a bit easy to skip but it's important that you clean up and dispose of leftover paint in a proper way. Pouring excess paint down the drain is something you should never do as the pollution effects on the local waterways is huge, paint is essentially poison to most life forms and should be treated as such. It is also illegal in some areas too. When cleaning up roller trays you can use old newspapers to absorb the paint, wait for it to dry, and then throw them in the trash. Also, use newspapers to wipe paintbrushes until it's paint free. Used paint tins with paint in them can be disposed of at local government recycling centers as they're equipped to handle these sorts of things.

Painting your own home or business can be a great idea but it can also go wrong in a lot of different ways, take the above precautions, don't cut corners and you should do alright.