DIY Painting (2)

Now that we’ve got all the tools, we need to do some preparation. You can’t just dive in and start painting right away; a little groundwork will go a long way to ensure a better results.

First off, you need to clean all the walls. Don’t have to hose your walls and ceilings down with water, just simple brushing with a nice big brush or a broom will do. We just need to remove dusts, cobwebs, lizard droppings and whatever else that may be sticking on the walls. If you don’t do this, you risk having the paint not properly bonded to the wall or if you using very light coloured paint, the dirt may actually be visible.

Secondly, look for any holes and chipped walls that you want to patch up. Just apply the hole with wall cement putty with a scraper. I recommend that you patch the hole with more putty, meaning to say you don’t have to flatten it. Somehow I realize if you flatten the putty nicely when it dries the cement will kinda contract a bit and sinks into the hole. So just apply more, make a small lump and then later when it dries, we’ll just have to sand it down with the sandpaper. It takes about 30-60 mins before the putty will dry depending on the humidity of the room.

Thirdly, we find uneven surfaces such as the putty patched holes or remnants of old double sided tapes on walls and sand them even. Don’t have to sand very hard.. just nice soft strokes will do. You don’t wanna sand it until your walls are all uneven.

Fourthly, we take masking tape and tape it around areas you don’t to be painted like skirtings, window frames, sockets and switches. Don’t be stingy with the masking take, just go all out and tape. It will make your life much easier.

Fifthly, lay newspapers or canvas on your floors so paint won’t splatter directly on your nice floors. I only had newspapers so really have to lay it all about. It would be nice if I invested in some canvas sheet, the paint shops will usually sell it as well. Would be more convenient compared to newspapers.

Lastly, fold newspaper hats to protect your hair. Okay I admit, I didn’t know how to fold that darn hat. So I didn’t bother to do it.

Next installment, we finally PAINT!.

P/S: Sorry for the lack of pictures. I realize that I’m quite the lousy blogger. I forgot to take pictures of the preparation process. I shall put up some pictures the next time I go over and take. Hehe