How To Save Money For Painting

We already know painting your walls can give you the most bang for your buck in terms of money spent, versus the perceived value of your home. Painting is required in most of the renovation projects. Whenever dry-walling is involved, there are painting to be done. The scope for painting your home can vary quite drastically between painting the entire house inside and out, to patching a rage-induced fist hole on the wall.

Hiring someone to do your labour:

If your scope of work only involves painting, you can hire a painter directly without going through a general contractor. Painting is a relatively easy trade in the sense that minor screw ups are not going to cause life and safety issues. When it comes to hiring a painter, your choices vary from college students to seasoned painters who tend to charge a little more. If you do decide to hire a painter, do understand that you should not hire them for their labor, but their knowledge on how to work with paint. Make sure you talk to them and discuss on what type of paint to use. If a painter cannot be bothered to work with you, they might not be a good candidate.

If you are up for the challenge of painting the home yourself, here are some pointers.

Generally, paint requires time to dry. The drying time will vary depending on many factors. Starting with the base of the paint. Oil based paint take approximately 6 to 8 hours to dry, and latex based paint take faster to dry, approximately 1 to 2 hours. Paint drying time are greatly affected by temperature, humidity, and ventilation. The best condition for drying is hot, dry, and well ventilated condition. Paint cannot cure properly during cold weather. This means the paint cannot form a protective film. Moistures may get in and create bulging or cracking of paint. Remember extreme conditions for hot and dry environments are also not good.

Summer is generally the best season to paint. Spring is the next best option. Do not paint during Autumn where rain bring up the humidity in the air, or during Winter where paint cannot cure properly.

Paint take hours to dry. At this stage, the paint is ready for the next layer. If you touch the paint, it should not be tacky. However, the paint is still soft. They do not offer much protection at this point. The curing process takes up to days for the paint to harden. This process is also affected by temperature and humidity. The paint is still somewhat fragile. Try not to get water onto the surface. After curing, the paint becomes more resistant to minor physical damage.

Briefly on interior and exterior paint.

Very simply put, paint have 3 major components, pigment, binder, and liquid. Interior and exterior paints use different components for more suitable environment. It is very important to not use exterior paint on the interior because they may cause health problems.

Exterior paint are more:

• Crack resistance to temperature variance
• Dirt resistance
• Mold and Mildew resistance
• Better at handling humidity and temperature changes.
• Ultraviolet Damage
• Color retention to prolong repainting
• Increased Moisture control

Interior paints are more:

• Resistant to scratch
• Low VOC (volatile organic compound) for occupant health
• Endure cleaning

Surface preparation

Paint are essentially a layer of film. It follows the contour of materials it is painted on. We need to make sure the surface is flat before putting the paint on. Otherwise you will be seeing bumps and dips on the newly painted wall. For this process, you will need to have drywall filler, putty knife sized larger than the hole, sand paper or sand block at 150 grit. Towels.

The first step is to check for holes or cracks on the wall. Run your finger through the holes you find. Sometimes the drywall paper will create a bump around the hole. Simply push inward to make a dent around the screw hole with the back of your screwdriver.

Before using the drywall filler, it is a good time to protect your floors. Even if you are very careful with handling the filler, you will need to protect the floor when you start sanding the wall after.

If you are dealing with holes larger than the size of your fist, you need to give the hole a bit of backing. Without the backing, the wet drywall filler simply cannot stay in place. They will fall into the wall cavity. There are many products as backing. Some are 6” x 6” steel mesh adhesive patch, others are backing with structural support leaning on the gypsum wall board on the opposite side of the wall cavity. I personally prefer the rolls of adhesive vinyl mesh tape. They are more versatile, and a relatively cheaper option. Make sure you dent the area around the hole to better hide the mesh.

If you are only dealing with holes smaller than your fingernail, simply start patching. Pick up drywall filler with the corner your putty knife. Push them into the hole, and scrape over top of the hole. You can apply different pressure to take away excess drywall filler from the wall. If you are dealing with a hole with mesh tape, be very gentle with your drywall filler. Your drywall filler is going to pass through the mesh during the first few rounds to provide structural support. Make sure you allow enough time to dry during each application. It is best to patch only less than 5mm thickness of drywall filler at a time so it can dry properly. Allow 24hr to dry before applying for 2nd layer. Dry for another 24hr hrs before sanding. You may need to do more than 2 layers if the hole is big. As a small tip for beginners, your putty knife should be wider than your hole so the drywall guide can guide the putty knife’s straight edge to create straight surface.

The drywall filler needs to be dry before it can be sanded. They are very soft, so you can sand it with your hand. It is advised to use a sponge sanding block because your finger will create uneven pressure. If you sand a location too much, you have to re-apply drywall filler and wait for another day. It is good to bring out the level to check your target area before starting. The lighting and subtle bumps may not be as noticeable when you are dealing with different shades of colors on the wall. The grit for the sanding paper should between 120 to 150. If you are a bit of a perfectionist, do a last round with 220. You don’t want to start with 220 because the drywall dust is going to clog up your sandpaper.

After sanding, bring out the dry towel and clean the surface a few times. You can slightly dampen the towel to quicken the cleaning progress, but you don’t want to make the filler wet. We are cleaning the surface from dust because it can affect the consistency of the paint. Make sure you wait until the surface is completely dry before applying paint. Moisture trapped inside the wall can create bubbles and cracking of paint.

You don’t really need to use primers if you don’t want to, but it is the proper way. Most people will paint the same color twice to avoid using primer, and there may be good reasons for it. Primer will help the paint adhere to the old paint better. If you are changing color from dark to light, it is strongly suggested. When your scope is only to patch small holes, you can try feathering the paint.

Most of the painting jobs will have left over paint. An experienced painter will tell the owner to keep them for future use. This is when these paint will come in handy. Paint on walls are exposed to ultraviolet and may have discoloration. Even the original bucket of paint will be slightly off from your wall color. When you open the bucket, the three ingredients are going to be separated. You need to use a stick to stir them vigorously to get it as close to the original condition as possible. If you see some solid in the paint, make sure you strain the paint before using it.

Sometimes the paint may be too old and unusable. You can take the spec on the paint bucket and go to the original supplier to get the same paint. Some places that sells paint have the service of custom matching service. If the color spec is still on the bucket, you can still get the same color paint. When you cannot find the original paint bucket, you can still get them to match your paint color. All you need to do is to bring a nail-size color sample to them. This will generally get you a bucket of similar looking paint. Do know that 90% of the time the custom match paint color will not be the same as the original. It is not suitable to patch nail holes with this paint, but it allows you to paint just 1 side of the wall. The color should be close enough to stop painting at the corner.

When you start painting, you have to keep in mind that paint is a thin film, and it has a thickness. The more layers you paint, the more noticeable it becomes. If you paint it enough times, you will even notice bulging on your wall.

Your two weapons of choice for painting are brush and roller. Both of these comes with styrofoam version. They are garbage. Do not buy them even for one time use. They are cheap and have inconsistency surface. Any imperfections on the styrofoam is going to show up on the wall. Brush is always required for tight areas like the corners. Spend the money and get a proper brush. The brush hair should be fluffy to carry paint, and the tip should not break easily to be left in the paint. Rollers are optional. It saves time and effort at large areas.

Some Tips.

The proper way to paint a wall is to remove all attachments such as nails, door knobs and electrical outlets, then reattach after painting. We use masking tape to create straight paint edge at baseboard and cornices that cannot be easily removed. Sometimes, if you are unable to remove wall attachments, you can also use masking tape to protect them. Use your brush for detailed locations like this because the error margin is smaller.

How much paint to buy

Most paint stores will not accept returns for custom color paint. It is beneficial to estimate how much paint you need to minimize surplus paint. As a general rule of thumb, you need about 1 Litre per 100 square foot of painting surface. Generic paint cost about $15 per litre. So you are looking at about $15 per 100 sf.

When you are dealing with more than 1 bucket of paint. Make sure you always mix some paint from the next bucket after stirring. The reason for doing this is to prevent noticeable color differences between batches of paint.

If you hire a painter, they can cost between $50 to $70 per hour. Do know that they work faster than homeowners who has no experience in painting, so it might still worth your time.

Let it air out.

Among the three major components in paint, “liquid” usually contain something called the Volatile Organic Compound. The VOC exists in paint, paint remover, and cleaning products etc. You can usually find them in new cars and furniture. They are extremely dangerous and harmful for our health because they can evaporate under room temperature. If you plan to paint your house, do let it air out properly. Avoid elderly, children, and pregnant women to be near un-cured paint.

Is the paint in your home poisonous?

If your building was built before 1980s, your original paint may contain lead. It is advised that you hire a hazardous removal contractor to remove the lead. Do not paint over the poisonous lead paint. It only