Four Myths about Painting the Inside of Your Home

As you can imagine, a lot of what people tell us isn’t quite right. Here are our top four myths for painting the inside of your home:

• It’s a one-day job, tops . Unless you’re painting one or two small walls, you probably aren’t going to finish your painting job in one day. It takes time to fill in all the nail holes in the wall with spackling, then sandpaper, get the paint ready, tape off the edges, apply primer, perform the actual painting, and then clean up. All of that takes hours, so you should be prepared to spend the weekend painting. Giving yourself one day could result in sloppy work that creates more problems.
• You have everything you need right in your home . You may have dropcloths in your home, sure. And painters’ tape, too. Maybe you have some paint at home. However, do you have different types of brushes, like wall and angle brushes? How about primer? Do you have enough paint for the entire job? Is your paint mixed properly? Do you have a ladder? What about paint rollers? Do you have spackling and fine grit sandpaper, or a putty knife? You’ll need particular roller covers, too, depending on what the surface is like that you’re painting.
• Cheap paint is fine to use . We’ve had people ask us to paint with poor-quality paint because they were preparing their house for sale, or because they just needed some wall marks covered up. It’s always a mistake to use cheap paint. It’s very thin, and it’s likely to drip, meaning that you’ll be trying to smooth out all of the drips from wall before you can continue. If you miss a drip, it’s going to dry into the wall. Low-quality paints don’t “stick” to the wall very well, and they don’t last as long on any surface. They also don’t cover up scratches, nicks, and dents very well.
• Doing the job yourself will save you lots of money . After you buy all of your supplies (and hope that you have enough paint to finish the entire project), you’ve already invested quite a bit of money. Now, you’re going to have to invest your time. Many projects are multi-weekend projects, and if you’re painting trim, making walls a different color than ceilings, or covering small areas, you should be prepared to spend even more time.