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5 things you should not do when repainting your house

25th Jul '22 • By Service.com.au

To help you avoid the most common house painting mistakes, we've made a list of five things you should never do while repainting your house.

House painting may appear to be exciting and fun, but this is not always the case in practice. House painting requires a significant amount of time, commitment, and expertise. Regular exposure to the heat, moisture, mould, and mildew makes the house paint susceptible to damage, and you may notice peeling paint, blisters, and flaky paint before you know it. Homeowners who want the house painting to be a do-it-yourself project instead of hiring a professional painter, take the leap out of pure enthusiasm and end up making expensive mistakes to their house. To help you avoid these mistakes, we have a list of five things you should never do while repainting your house.

hands-holding-tape-with-paint

1. Not Planning Your Project

Take time to consider a few logical factors that would affect the overall house painting expense and the success of your project before you start getting quotes for your painting job, whether you want to know how much it takes to paint a house or just need a minor touch up. Ask questions like, do you need help choosing the right colour? What type of colour would you like to use? After you have realised what you are looking for, the next step is to make sure you have everything ready to start the painting job. Inexperienced painters who are unfamiliar with the right process forget the importance of surface prepping and add fresh coats of paint to walls after first repairing previous problems such as scratches, dents, or flaws.

2. Not Sampling Your Colour

One of the most common painting failures occurs before you ever pick up a brush: selecting a paint colour. You choose a good colour from the store's colour chart and place your order for paint. However, when you apply the paint to the walls at home, it does not look like the one you choose.

To stop making this mistake and to get a true picture of how the colour will look on the wall, always request the paint store to mix a little sample of paint that you will take home and check out on the wall. Then examine it under both artificial light and natural light, as well as during the day and night. Dark paint is often more likely to fade than lighter ones. When it comes to heat retention, dark exteriors can still retain more sunlight than whites, pastels, and other light colours.

paint-swatches

3. DIYing When You Should Hire a Painter

People believe that attempting to DIY their painting project would save them a significant amount of money. That is not always the case. If you intend to do it yourself, you will need to purchase tools such as brushes, rollers, masking tape, a ladder, high-quality paint, primer, and stirrer etc. Not to mention the time it takes to prepare the room, paint several coats, touch up, and clean up. That equates to more than 6 hours per room. So, if you have a two-bedroom house with laundry, you'll need more than 25 hours to finish the job.

Hiring an expert, on the other hand, means you won't have to do it. After their work is completed, you can simply enjoy the room. Find out how much a professional painter costs

4. Compromising on Quality

High-quality paint is more resistant to drying and peeling, and it holds the colour better, enabling you to enjoy it for much longer than low-quality paint. Superior quality paint lasts for longer and is also more resistant to moisture and UV light radiation. It can be more expensive at first, but it will last for longer than low-quality paint. It is also easy to clean over, while a low-quality product needs more scrubbing, resulting in permanent scratches on the wall. Higher quality paints also provide better coverage. A litre of high-quality paint will cover approximately 16 square metres. Lower quality paints are also more resistant to defects like splattering, which happens as the roller leaves tiny paint droplets behind the wall. High-quality colours, on the other hand, are designed to avoid splattering and other painting defects.

man-holding-paintbrush-on-ladder

5. Getting Only One Quote

There are many factors that have an effect on a painting estimate such as the state of the current paint, prep work, type of surfaces etc. Get at least three painter quotes before you decide who you want to hire. Make sure the painters are licensed and insured to work in your home. Find out how long it will take and see if that matches your schedule. Make sure they have relevant experiences and feel free to ask for the contact information of their past clients. You can check that on their website or social media for examples of their past work.

If you use these tips as a guide, you’ll put yourself in a much better position for a successful paint job and a space that you’re proud of!

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