Paint Your Room September 2006

by J. Lucas
Photos by Russell Byrne

If you are an amateur and are intending to paint a room, John will give you some advice that will make your finished job look like one done by a professional.

I’ve been running my own painting business for twenty years. I do residential jobs for homeowners in Discovery Bay and Brentwood. But I send crews on commercial jobs in a wide area that spreads all the way from Santa Cruz to the Oregon border.

In this article I’m providing some tips and tricks for painting an interior room of a house that I’ve learned during almost a quarter of a century of work in the field, including many tips you should know before you open your first can of paint.

Preparation
Plan to spend a third of the total time for the job on preparation tasks. Mask off everything that you can’t remove from the room and then cover everything else in plastic or tarpaulin and double mask all flooring and furniture. Wash walls with TSP if they are smoked out with nicotine, or with bleach if they are water stained, and then prime with a shellac-based primer to get a good seal and a durable painting job.

Patch holes before you begin, using interior lightweight spackle followed by light sanding. Caulk around windows as needed in order to keep the room weather and bug-tight. If you don’t use the same color spackle or caulk, apply a base coat before painting. Don’t bother using special primer paint, in this case. Primer paints tend to be expensive rip-offs unless you are facing a serious problem, such as smoked out or water-stained surfaces.

Remove all light and electric fixtures. Take the faceplate off of each wall switch.
While you have the faceplate off of one of your main switches in a room to be painted, here’s a trick that might save you time and grief in the future. Write the name and number of the paint you are using in that particular room on the inside of the faceplate. You can even tape or glue a paint chip onto the inside of the faceplate. That way, when you have to do some touch-up at a later point, you will be able to retrieve the exact paint that you need. You can take the paint-chip or the number to the store and get a perfect match.

About Paints
Use latex water-based paint. It has been shown that both painters and homeowners can have allergic-type reactions to oil based paints. Another point in favor of water-based paints is that they are easier to clean up after, when the project is finished. You don’t have to store materials in paint thinner overnight. Water-based paints are not as smooth as oil-based, but they are more durable. Oil based paints can fade and the colors can yellow. The water-based paints, on the other hand, will hold their color longer.

It pays to buy quality paints. I always use Kelly-Moore. Many of these have mildew retardants, which is good for people with allergies. Cheaper paints require more coats in order to achieve the true color. They are less durable, as well, because they lack the thickness of premium paints. Plus they tend to grow chalky around windowsills and other sun-lit areas.

Washability goes up with increased gloss of your paint; durability goes down. A low sheen/satin gloss is a good compromise since it will combine durability with slight washability. Use gloss or semi-gloss for doors, jams, windowsills, kitchens, and bathrooms.

If you are putting on two coats of paint, your first coat will dry-to-touch in most cases in the time it takes for you to have a good lunch. In the old days you had to wait 24 hours between coats but now factory representatives recommend applying a second coat before the first is fully dry to promote bonding. This means that the first coat should be dry-to-touch but just not as absolutely dry as it will be after a day or so.

Drying time varies according to factors of moisture and warmth. The time increases in cooler weather and decreases in warmer. If you apply a coat of paint in a 70-degree temperature room, depending upon moisture in the air, you might wait an hour-and-a-half to four hours before applying a second coat. Just be sure it is dry-to-touch. Don’t try to paint in any conditions below 40 degrees because the chemicals in the paint begin to separate and the quality diminishes. Don’t paint surfaces above 100 degrees, either, or the paint will lack sufficient time to bond to the surface before drying.

Roller Screens and Brushes
Here’s the best tip of all, perhaps. Rather than using a roller pan, use a five-gallon paint bucket with a 9-inch roller screen. This tip might reduce your painting time from between 50 to 70 percent because you can use the whole bucket and don’t need to constantly refill your tray. Also, you can place the bucket right where you want it and move it around without the danger of spilling. This trick will surely save you time, probably save you spillage, and might even preserve your sanity – maybe even your marriage.

Ask the paint store for advice on the correct roller sleeve for the texture of your wall. These are available in thicknesses that vary from a quarter-inch nap for a smooth service, to a three-quarter inch nap for a textured surface. A rule of thumb is that if you have to push the roller onto the texture to get coverage, you should increase the nap on your roller. Painting shouldn’t provide a test of your strength; with the correct nap the paint should go on with no physical effort on your part. On the other hand, if the paint goes on too heavily creating uneven results and runs, decrease the roller’s nap.

You can buy these rollers with either nylon nap or lambs’ wool. I recommend lambs’ wool. It’s a little more expensive but will hold the paint much better, reducing dripping and splattering.

When using a roller don’t apply the paint in straight lines either up and down or left and right. Continue applying the paint in an outlining fashion, making large patterns in the shape of the letter W that you then fill in by painting M shapes.

Don’t stretch more than necessary, use an extension pole to save your arms. Get a good quality nylon polyester-blend, 3-inch sash brush for painting into corners and other smaller spaces. Skimping on brush quality will lead to frustrations and lost time. With a good-quality brush you can press down on the handle slightly to make the leading edge of the soft bristles spread out into a flare shape. Avoid using the long edge of the brush to do fine work, but move the flare shape you create at the brush’s front tip to get the lines and edges that you need.

Note that the information I’ve given is appropriate for beginners but covers things that will keep you from making mistakes that some of your handyman type neighbors and friends might have been making for years. Occasionally you can find amateur home-repair people who have been doing things in the wrong way, or with the wrong tools, ever since their daddies taught them wrong decades ago.

The Easy Way Out
Of course you can save yourself the maximum amount of time and trouble by calling a professional to do the job for you.

Most of my clients could do their paint job themselves, but are glad to have me do it. They would rather work a few hours of overtime in their own professions, if necessary, to get enough money to pay me to do the tasks that belongs to my profession and that come so naturally to me after my decades of experience.

Do-it-yourself jobs can be a lot of fun. The sense of seeing a finished job can be rewarding and satisfying. Use the things I talked about in this article to have this experience, if you like. Of course, spending an afternoon on the Santa Cruz Boardwalk while I’m painting your place for you is also nice in a completely different way!

I’m John Lucas. My company is Calcom Painting.
925-584-0577
lucas5500@sbcglobal.net