It can't be repeated enough! If you want to finish your painting project well, you need to prepare well. Take a moment and read the label on the paint can, all surfaces should be clean and free from debris prior to adding your finish coat.
Kitchen ceilings are usually the worst! Grease build up or food splatter wreaks havoc on kitchen walls and ceilings, preparation in this area is critical. Paint is a coating designed to adhere to a well prepared surface. If you skip a step it simply doesn't work.
Illustratation:
In my early years, I was pressed into a painting project by a friend who desparately needed my help. When I first saw the project, the walls seemed grimy and greasy, so I asked that the
walls be properly cleaned prior to painting. A few days later, I arrived to paint - I started putting the paint on said clean walls and it proceeded to sag/slide off the wall. I immediately
turned to her and asked,"Did you wash these walls like I asked?" She said, "I did!" Now pointing at the wall, I said, "I don't think so!"There are no shortcuts to preparing the wall surface for
paint. Preparation is everything. Needless to say, it didn't go as planned.
Tip:
Eco-TSP is an environmentally safe product that requires no rinsing after use. When dealing with grease, hard to clean walls or after wallpaper removal - this product works very well.
Preparation:
I like to use SheetRock 90 or Durabond (20.45.90) to fill holes and repair wall imperfections and nail pops. I prefer Sherwin Williams 1100A caulking to run the baseboard trim, door and
window frames. I usually knock down the Durabond after the first coat is dry then reapply another coat with a wider knife. Once cured - hand sand with a handheld sanding block. The
last step is to buff the walls with a poll sander and 150 Grit paper. This opens the paint up while removing any lint, debris or minor imperfections on the wall. Now you can clean up
and prepare your workspace for paint.
If you simply adopt a 'get 'er done' attitude without properly preparing your surface, you won't be happy with the result.
In my next posting, we'll talk about priming.
Thanks for reading, stay tuned for the next posting.
RT
