Preparing Walls For Painting – Tips for the best results
Preparing your walls for painting is the first step in getting a smooth, attractive, and durable finish. Whether you’re painting an old and worn wall or a newly plastered wall, you should always prep it before applying the first coat of paint. If you don’t have a painting background or haven’t painted before it is something you might not know. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to prepare different walls for painting that you’ll find useful for your home painting project.
Preparing a wall before painting
There are different wall surfaces that you may need to prepare before you start painting. The technique you use on an old chipped, and a rough wall will not be the same as the one you use on a newly finished and generally smooth wall with a plastered finish. Depending on the surface you’re dealing with, follow the steps outlined below when preparing walls for painting:
Preparing a plastered wall
A plastered wall is the easiest to paint, as the surface will be relatively smooth with little blemishes.
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- A freshly plastered wall will only need a primer and undercoat to get your wall ready for the first coat of paint
- Use a roller to apply a primer, followed by an undercoat to create the best painting surface
- Priming the surface will seal it and keep the plaster from soaking up the paint when you apply it. If you don’t do this it can lead to a lot of waste, resulting in more coats of paint being needed than necessary
- Also, remember to let the new plaster fully dry before you start prepping to paint. This will be evident when the wall turns a uniform grey/pink colour with no dark patches and can take anything from 24 hours up to a week depending on the temperature of a room
