We’ve written many blogs about the things to do when painting your home, but this one is exactly the opposite – we want to help you avoid fatal mistakes when giving your home a fresh coat so we’ve pulled together this top three list of painting DON’TS!
#1 Painting Over Cracked or Chipped Old Paint
If this is the route you choose to go, you have just wasted a lot of time and at least one gallon of good paint. When you try to paint a new layer of paint over one that is already cracked or chipped, your new top coat is not going to apply smoothly and you will be able to see the cracks and chips through it. If you manage to get a decent top coat of fresh paint on, it won’t last for long and will soon be chipping or cracking like the old layer of paint. To avoid this problem, make sure you first sand down the old layers of paint so you have a smooth surface to start with.
#2 Not Priming
The only time it is ok not to prime, is if you already have a nice clean, smooth surface to work with and you only changing colors slightly – even then you will still need at least two coats of paint. If you try to paint over stains before priming they are most likely going to bleed through to your new coat of paint. When changing colors on a surface, priming means using less paint of the top coat and eliminating bleed through. Moral of this story? When in doubt – PRIME.
#3 Water Base Over Oil Base Right? WRONG!
Never, ever, use water based paint over oil based. The water base will not adhere properly to the oil based paint layer underneath and your beautiful new paint job will soon be scratching and peeling off like a lottery scratch off ticket. This may be tedious, and certainly can be smelly, but we promise, you will never have a good outcome if you try to use water based paint over an oil base painted surface.
Three Brothers Painting in Roswell, GA wants to help you make painting the interior of your home as painless as possible, so instead of having to worry about all the do’s and don’ts to painting, just give us a call and we will take care of the rest for you. We can even help you pick out just the right colors for the rooms or exterior paint for your home.