How To Properly Prepare Walls For Painting

How To Properly Prepare Walls For Painting

Are you planning to add some new energy to your home by putting a fresh dose of paint on the walls? Before you pick up that paintbrush, you need to make sure that the walls are ready for the coat.

To prepare your walls, you must first clean them entirely by washing and then use a sandpaper to scrape off the old paint and flakes. Following a meticulous cleaning process is vital before you start house painting in Australia. Let us help you understand the details of the process.

What Will You Need?

Before you start cleaning, you must first get a few supplies like:

• Soap
• Laundry detergent
• Sponge
• Gloves
• A bucket
• Stripping knife
• Filing knife
• Filler
• Sandpaper
• Protective sheets

Set Up Your Home

After you have got your cleaning caddy ready, you need to set up your home to make sure you can paint the walls properly. You can do this in the following way:

• Remove all the furniture from the room.
• If there is some heavy furniture, shift it to the centre and cover it with newspaper.
• After this, do a thorough investigation of the walls to see if there are any holes that must be filled.

Start The Cleaning Process

Now that you have inspected the walls and seen how dirty they are, you can start cleaning them thoroughly. To do this,

• Wash the walls with warm water and use a sponge covered in soap.
• If you can still find oil and grease spots on the wall, take a mixture of some laundry detergent and water, and dip the sponge in it.
• It would be best to use this sponge to wash these spots thoroughly.
• If you still notice any mould or mildew spots, you must put on your gloves and then mix three parts of water with one part of bleach.
• Then dip a sponge in this and put the solution on the spots.
• After this, scrub the spot vigorously with a sponge or cloth.
• After scrubbing the spots thoroughly, use a damp cloth to clean any residue.
• Once you have finished wiping the walls with a damp cloth, you should leave the walls to dry overnight.

Sand The Walls Properly

After cleaning the walls, it is necessary to sand the walls to remove any flaking or cracked paint. To do this, you should:

• Use sandpaper, sand block or an electric sand to scrape the surfaces and make them even.
• You can also scrape away any wallpaper with a sand block.
• If the wallpaper is not coming off with the sandpaper, mix some warm water and soap and dip a sponge in it.
• Use this sponge to soften the wallpaper and then scrape it slowly with sandpaper.
• After entirely scraping the walls, you must wipe away the dust with a damp cloth and let it dry.

When scraping the walls, you must use fine-grit sandpaper to scrape any water-based paint. But if the wall has oil-based paint, you must use medium-grit sandpaper to scrape the surface.

Fill The Gaps

Once you are done scraping the walls, you must fill any holes or uneven spots. To do this:

• You must take a filing knife and put some fresh plaster on it.
• Apply this plaster with the knife to the holes and gaps and make sure you cover it completely.
• House painters in Australia recommend making the plaster even with a filing knife so that the paint can go over it smoothly.
• You can also use a utility light to check for any spots you might have missed and fill it completely.
• After this, let the plaster dry completely before painting over it.

Prime Those Walls

Once the plaster is dry and the holes are filled, use a primer to coat the walls.

If you hire a house painter in Australia, they will always prime the walls before painting your house. This is because a primer acts as a foundation between the wall and the paint and it makes sure that the paint goes over the wall more smoothly.

If you want your paint to go flawlessly, you should use a stain-based primer so that you don’t have to worry about any uneven spots.

Paint Your Walls

Now that you have primed your walls, you can paint them in the colour you want. If you need any help painting your walls, you can always hire a professional painter in Australia who can help you finish the perfectly.

End note

Use the above tips on how to prep your walls so that you can have a spotless canvas to paint on and which will add new life to your home.