Painting your walls is a quick and easy way to give your home some colour. The range of different paint products has grown in recent years so that preparing and painting walls is no longer the time consuming and messy chore it once was. As with most DIY projects, the time you spend to prepare your walls will pay off once you begin to apply the paint. Get it right, and you will have a stunning new look to your room in no time at all. If your walls are in good condition and free from flaking paint or paper, then a quick wash down with a sugar soap solution will remove the grime and create a clean surface to apply the paint to. Even in the cleanest of homes, walls pick up dirt and grease over time. If you try to paint directly over the dirt and grease, the paint will not stick properly to the surface of the wall. It may also not dry properly, and the coverage will be poor. Try not to make the walls too wet when washing them down. Use a large sponge and wring it out each time so that it is just damp and not dripping. In bathrooms and kitchens there may be a build up of mold. This should be tackled with a specific fungicide preparation, before the walls are washed with sugar soap. Bleach is not enough to remove the underlying causes of mold, it simply masks them, allowing the mold to reappear on your freshly painted walls after a few weeks. If the problem is a serious one, consider removing and replacing the plaster from the effected area. Mold and damp patches are often cause when the original plaster has not sufficiently dried out before being sealed painted for the first time. If the surface of the walls is uneven, rough or flaking, or has existing wallpaper, these problems need to be tackled before you attempt to paint the walls. Removing wallpaper can be achieved either by applying water with a sponge and scraping the paper off as it looses its adhesiveness, or by using steam from a commercial paper stripping machine. These can often be hired by the day: a better idea than buying an expensive piece of equipment that you may only use once or twice. Once all the excess paper and paint has been scraped from the walls, use a filler to patch any dips or uneven sections, applying several thin layers of filler in preference to one thick layer. Allow the filler to dry completely between each layer. The walls can be sanded to a smooth finish, and should then be wiped down with a sugar soap solution and allowed to completely dry for a final time before any paint is applied. For walls that are very uneven, or that have a particularly porous surface, it may be appropriate to hang lining paper before you apply the paint. Lining paper is a thin wallpaper with no surface pattern. You hang it just the same as conventional wallpaper. Once dry, it provides a smooth and clean surface to paint with your choice of colour. Preparing the walls before you apply any paint is a sure way to a successfully completed DIY project. Category:Home › Other • Pomegranates: A newly discovered superfood • Where did the joke why did the chicken cross the road come from and why is it funny? • Can mothers diagnosed with bipolar disorder make good parents? • Spiritual evolution of human consciousness • Tips for getting a college basketball scholarship • Living with Pseudotumor cerebri (PTC) • Caring for the caregiver • Technologys impact on society
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