If you want a paint job to be done right, a lot of the times it’s best to get a painting contractor. You can count on the pros to know exactly which painting supplies are best, and painting supplies for contractors can sometimes be quite different than painting supplies for the average Joe. If you want to do it yourself, though, here are a few tips from painting contractor pros to help you do it right.
Start Right
One of the biggest mistakes that amateurs make is failing to properly prepare the workspace in advance. It can take an awful lot of effort to completely move everything to the middle of the room and take off doors, light fixtures, and hardware bits. It’s also absolutely essential to put tape over everything. The entire floor has to be covered, too, and not just with some old random sheet. Paint will soak through a bedsheet and won’t soak into plastic sheeting at all. It’s important to get paint cloths like painting contractor supplies offer. Lots of painting contractors will have a horror story or two about a time they knew someone who didn’t carefully follow all of these steps, and if any contractor you hire doesn’t plan on doing all this get rid of them right away.
Preparing to Paint
Preparing the walls for painting is almost as important as the painting itself, and any painting contractor can tell you that among your painting supplies you need to have sandpaper, cleaning solution, buckets with rags and sponges, caulk, and painter’s putty. Painters putty can be used to fix cracks in the wall, and sanding will get rid of old paint while preparing the wall to receive new. Always make sure the walls have been thoroughly cleaned so that the new paint doesn’t mix with a bunch of dust as you lay it down over the new surface. For significant cracks, use some serious caulking and possibly a caulk gun.
Choose Your Tape Wisely
Painting supplies at your local hardware store almost always include several types of tape, but painting contractors are actually divided as to whether tape is a good idea or not. There can be some problems with using tape, however, unless you are a professional painter you probably have not mastered the art of painting one corner without touching the opposite side, especially in tight corners. This means that while painting contractors may be able to count out tape amongst their painting supplies, most amateurs are going to need it.
Choose Good Paint
No one knows more about paint and painting contractors, and most of them recommend a gloss paint over a flat paint for everything except ceilings. This is especially the case when you’re talking about a house or an area where children will be frequently running back and forth. Gloss shows a whole lot fewer marks and fingerprints. Also, be aware that paint is very much a “get what you pay for” kind of a deal. The best paints will look the best and last the longest, and it may be a false economy to buy cheaper paint only to have to do it again a year or two down the line.
Get the Right Supplies
There are a lot of painting supplies to choose from at the hardware store, so how do you know what’s best? The pros prefer to use a bucket rather than a roller pan because it’s harder to tip it over. They would also never go into the project without a painter’s rod so there’s no need to climb up and down ladders. In general, a more expensive roller is going to leave less lint, and the best brushes should have nylon and polyester bristles that are tapered. It’s always smart to have several widths of brush available, as well, because smaller brushes give more control while wider brushes make it possible to paint more space in one stroke.
In the end, painting is serious work and requires serious effort. To do it right, be prepared to take the time and effort that it demands and to get the right painting supplies. And don’t be afraid to call the pros when a job is too big.
