After painting hundreds of homes in northern Virginia, All American Painting Plus’ professional painters have learned that a new paint job is more than just a paint job. What do we mean by this? We’re glad you asked. We mean that a new paint job entails way more than the actual painting of the interior or exterior of your home. Prepping your home or business for painting is just as important – if not more important – than the painting itself. For this reason, a paint job actually includes two different jobs: prepping and painting. Whether you’ve never thought about the prepping process before or you just need some brushing up (ha), we’ve got all the preparation tips you need to know before your painting project. Our professional painters are skilled in all of these techniques and AAPP offers these preparation services along with painting services.
Move Stuff
Whether we’re painting a home or a business, we only want to paint what our customer wants painted! This means prepping the room we’re working in to make sure that our customers’ space and belongings are protected from any accidental paint splatter. The first step: move stuff. Before we arrive on site, we almost always ask our customers to move the small items off of the surface they want painted either into the center of the room or out of the room entirely. This is an easy way for our customers to knock an hour or two off of their bill, so while it saves them money, it also makes our job easier! Our painters can take care of moving larger furnishings.
Space Prep
Once our customers’ belongings have been moved out of the way, we prepare the space for painting. To protect the floors or carpet, our painters will put down either cloth, plastic, or tarp. If you’re painting on your own, this is a step you won’t want to skip. Nothing is more frustrating and difficult than trying to remove paint from a clean carpet! Our painters will also cover the belongings left in the room to protect them further.
Surface Prep
Preparing the painting surface is the most important part of the whole preparation process. There are a few different parts to this step depending on the surface being painted, but the first thing to do is cover any parts of the painting surface that can’t be removed. Most often this will mean taping trim or crown molding for interior painting, or covering windows for exterior painting. Next you’ll want to inspect the painting surface for any imperfections that could cause the new paint job to become flawed prematurely. Inside, this means looking for cracking or peeling paint and cracks or damage in your sheetrock/drywall. Our painters are trained to find and repair these imperfections. Outdoors, you’ll want to remove any dirt or grime build-up off of the surface of your home or deck. Power washing is the best way to do this, and guess what – we power wash! Once the painting surface is prepped, there’s one more step in the preparation process.
Primer
A primer coat isn’t always necessary, depending on your painting project, so you might want to check with a professional to find out if you need one. However, primer coats are a great way to ensure that you get the best value out of your paint job. Primers serve as a base for the paint and help it not only adhere to but stay on the wall. Primer coats can also help hide imperfections that can’t be repaired or covered. Finally, a good primer coat can save you money. If you have a solid primer, you won’t need to pay top dollar for a top coat or finish.
So as you can see, there’s more to a new paint job than a paint job. Preparation is key, and there’s a lot that goes into it. Regardless of if you just need help preparing for your painting project or if you want us to complete your whole project, you can give us a call! Our professional painters are excited to serve you with excellent communication and precise and accurate work, all in a timely fashion.
