Apr
1
Progress is a Very Nice Thing (and Some Random Painting Tips)
April 1, 2007 |
Yesterday was pretty encouraging, as I got about half of the backsplash tiling done and two coats of paint (minus cutting in and the trim) on the living room and dining room of the Main St. house. The wife also pitched in and started weeding in the back, and helping me try to come to some sort of conclusion for the tile for the floor in the kitchen and bathroom.
Not that I really had doubts, but it’s nice to make some headway, and to be reminded that “Hey, this thing is going to look a million times better when I’m done with it.” It’s kind of easy to lose sight of that amidst mounds of trash and bare plywood floors. Yesterday was the first day I was actually excited to be over there doing work, and slightly sad when it was time to close up shop for the day.
Today is designated spend-time-with-the-wife-and-do-no-work day, so, umm, I won’t get much done today, other than mowing the yard. Hopefully tomorrow I can sneak over and get some work done during the day, as I’d like to knock out the trim and cutting in of the living room and dining room, just to knock that off the list and move on.
Here are some random painting tips, in no particular order:
1) If you’re going to be rolling on the same paint in the near future, just wrap up the roller cover and roller in a plastic bag and stick it in the fridge. It’s much easier than trying to clean your roller cover, saves money as opposed to throwing it out, and it’ll stay moist and perfectly usable for a very long time. Your wife or husband may not love you for it, though, so be forewarned.
2) Get a medium length extension pole, like four or five feet tall (the cheapo wooden ones work fine) that screws into your paint roller. Screw it in and don’t unscrew it. Just get used to using the extension pole throughout the room, as it not only saves you time screwing and unscrewing it, but it allows you to get more leverage and apply the paint better even in spots you can reach by hand, without the pole. It takes a little getting used to at first but saves time in the long run and produces better results.
3) Paint out your paint cans. That’s just using a brush to get out all of the paint in an “empty” can. You’d be surprised at how much paint you can get out from the sides and bottoms, even when you think you’ve poured everything out. Multiply that times every can of paint you use and it adds up, especially for jobs where you come up just short and have to buy an extra quart. You paid good money for the paint so use it all.
4) Don’t waste money and time with the really cheap flimsy clear plastic drop “cloths”. I like to use blue truck tarps, even more so than canvas dropcloths, especially when painting empty rooms with no furniture. The blue truck tarps are substantial enough to hold whatever shape you fold them into or flop them over, and easy to move around and position.
5) When I’m painting over hardwood floors, I usually do it barefoot or in socks. No, I don’t have a weird foot fetish. I’m not a sloppy painter but when I do get paint on the floor, it’s almost always from accidentally stepping on paint on the drop cloth, then stepping on the floor and not realizing it immediately, tracking paint around in the interim. If I’m wearing shoes, I have no idea I stepped in paint; in bare feet, I know immediately. If you’re wearing socks you can also quickly wipe away any very small drips or spots of paint on the floor, by quickly rubbing back and forth with your socked foot.
6) Less paint on the roller is better. Fight the temptation to load it up with paint. 90% of paint slopped on the floor comes from loading too much paint on your roller. If you don’t immediately here the snickering, slithering sound of the roller on the wall, you’ve got too much paint on your roller, especially if it makes a wet, sloppy sound.
7) Don’t hurry when rolling on paint. 90% of overspray comes from rolling on paint too quickly. Just get a little paint on your roller and roll it on smoothly and slowly. In the long run you save much time by working slowly, as opposed to spending hours cleaning up your assorted messes.
8) If there’s going to be much painting in your future, bite the bullet and paint the trim without taping. This will likely get rocks chunked at me, but that magic blue masking tape really isn’t your friend. Doing good trim work just takes practice, and the finished product will look better if you don’t use tape. Not using tape will slow you down (and frustrate the crap out of you initially), but it’ll save you time and money in the long run. If you’re just knocking out some painting as a one time thing, tape the hell out of everything.
Comments
3 Comments so far
Painting without tape has admittedly eluded me. I hate the cost and the time it takes, but that blue tape has been my best friend on every paint job so far. I just can’t imagine being that precise with a paint brush, so I can’t say that I’ve tried much.
OTOH, I admittedly possess that same stubborness that you spoke of a few entries back; and so your insistence here has given me the nudge I needed to throw down the blue tape and give it a go. The nursery-to-be needs painting sooner than later. And so the gauntlet has been thrown… and the challenge accepted.
I beleve the key to “no tape” painting is buying a good quality trim brush. Clean it good, keep it away from the wife and it will last a long time!
I used to do windows without tape - but then I was an employee and getting paid by the hour. Now that I am trying to flip houses I work at a furious pace and blue tape saves me time. My wife tries to paint carefully like you suggest, but I can paint 3x the same area in the time it takes her.
Good blog - I’m doing the same thing - working full time and rehabbing houses