How to Properly Prep Your Walls for Paint
One of the best things you can do to prepare your home for sale is to give it a fresh coat of paint. A fresh coat of paint on the walls helps to communicate that the home is clean and well taken care of. Some research has shown that fresh paint can help to bring in a higher price tag when selling.
Once you have decided to paint your walls it can be easy to want to skip to the fun part of getting the color onto the wall. But a proper paint job requires a little bit of preparation before getting to that fun part.
Here are five easy paint-prepping steps that everyone should take before painting the walls
Fill the holes and cracks
The first step in prepping a wall for paint is to fill in any dents cracks or holes. In some cases, it may be a good idea to wear protective eyewear to prevent any dust or debris from flying into your eyes. If a hole is small like a nail hole from hanging a piece of art you can simply fill the hole with some spackling paste on a putty knife or with your finger. You of course want to make sure you scrape away any loose debris with a brush or cloth first.
Once the is the spackle has been applied you may want to wipe away any excess spackle with a damp cloth. Then allow the spackle to dry make sure to check your spackle container for an estimate of how long this will take.
Larger holes may need the extra help of drywall tape or an adhesive patch before applying the spackle.
Sanding
After you have the spackle in place you now want to sand the wall smooth with a piece of sandpaper or a sanding block. Sanding helps to ensure that the filled-in areas are even with the rest of the wall. Even if you have not used any spackle to fill in gaps you might still benefit from sanding the wall. You want to make sure that the surface is as flat and seamless as possible before applying paint.
Cleaning
After the sanding process, you want to clean the surface of the walls. You want to make sure you do not skip this process even though is very tempting to do so and many people actually do. After sanding, there will be a large amount of dust and debris on your walls. Often walls carry a large amount of dust and debris as we do not wipe them down on a daily basis. You do not want to paint dust into your wall.
You can clean your walls to prep them for painting with four parts water and one part bleach and apply to the wall with a sponge. Make sure that you are wearing cleaning gloves and working in a well-ventilated area. After a few minutes of the bleach cleaner sitting on the wall, you can scrub the area with a soft brush and rinse with clean water.
Taping
This step may seem tedious and feel time-consuming but it is very important to make sure that your paint job does not look sloppy. A sloppy paint job is not a good presentation when selling your home. Taping helps to create a clean line on the edge of your paint color and helps you not to overlap with areas that you do not want to paint.
Priming
The last step of your paint prep work is using a coat of primer. Primer often comes in white and can also come in other neutral colors with what appears to be a flat finish. Primer helps paint to apply easier to walls and requires less paint coverage. It prevents the color underneath from bleeding through your paint and will also help to hide any stains from mold or water damage. If you are painting a brand new wall it can help to cover drywall joints as well.
If you purchase a paint that has primer included you can skip the priming step. But if your walls are painted a darker color it may be more beneficial to go ahead and prime with a separate coat anyway.
For more information on preparing your home for sale and help in selling your Columbus home please contact us anytime.
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