Interior Painting Tips - Basic Room Preparation for Professional Painting Results

Interior Painting Tips - Basic Room Preparation for Professional Painting Results

Fishers Interior home (19 gallons used)

We painted the exterior of the house two years ago and the customer called and wanted an estimate on painting the entire inside of the house because he was putting it up for sale.  He wanted all the walls, trim, and doors done in every room including closets. After my initial walk-through, I told the customer this would be a very large request because it would take a lot of preparation before we even started painting.  It did - we spent three days just prepping that including spackling, caulking, and electric sanding and cleaning every inch of the walls. I thought it would take us ten days to complete and we completed in eight days - although a few of those days were very long. 

The project included two coats of Sherwin Williams ProMar in an eg-shell sheen on the walls and Sherwin Williams ProMar extra white in a semi-gloss on all the trim and doors (19 doors).  We used six different colors on the walls throughout the house. The colors were Sedate Gray, Retreat, Jogging Path, Anonymous, Escape Gray, and Urbane Bronze. We used 16 gallons on the walls and three gallons on the trim and doors. We removed the doors and sprayed the out.

This was definitely the largest interior painting project that Ryan and I have tackled. It was a challenge but we did not have too many obstacles. Probably the biggest obstacle was the condition of the walls and trying to make them look as well as we could.  Also, we had to work around a lot of furniture, which always slows you down. 

I added a few pictures, but they are a little fuzzy. I am going to switch from my iPhone camera to a regular digital camera in the future. 

Another large Fishers exterior painting project

Ryan and I finished another large painting project in Fishers. It was all the soffits, overhang, shutters (16) gutters, steel doors (3), front porch, and large car garage door. It took us five days and included some difficult areas to reach on steep roof lines and peaks. We used Sherwin Williams Duration for most of the project.

Challenges:
1 - matching current color of shutters and front door;
2 - painting some of the high areas on roof lines; and
3 - prepping the front porch railing and spindles.

Steps:
1 - pressure washed all the trim, shutters, gutters, and some of the siding;
2 - prepped a lot of the trim that included using our paint eater and electric sander;
3 - primed all areas that had bare wood;
4 - painted (with brush and mini-roller) soffits, overhangs, and fascia boards with SW Duration;
5 - sprayed car garage door and 2 steel doors with our Graco large sprayer;
6 - sprayed all vertical gutters; 
7 - sprayed front steel door with custom made color; and
8 - painted shutters with custom made color.

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Noblesville exterior trim

Ryan and I finished the exterior trim on a ranch house in Noblesville. It included the soffits, overhang, large wooden garage door, chimney, front porch, and gutters. We again used Sherwin Williams exterior Duration in a satin finish. There was quite a bit of failing caulk so we used 6 tubes. We sprayed both the garage door and gutters, and they both looked very good when we were finished. The customer kept saying "pretty" to the satin finish as we progressed on the job. It really does bring out the wood grain and shines in the sunlight.

Details of the project:

• We pressure washed all the wood trim, garage door, gutters, chimney, and also the siding that was dirty;
• We applied 6 tubes of both white and clear caulk. They had a lot of brick on the front so we removed all the failing caulk and replaced with clear caulk around the brick;
• We scraped any failing paint that the pressure washing did not remove. There wasn't much;
• We applied a metal primer to the chimney metal top that was rusting;
• Applied three gallons of Sherwin Williams Exterior Duration paint in custom gray with a satin finish on the soffits, overhang, fascia boards, large wooden garage door, chimney corner boards and metal band, and gutters; and
• We sprayed both the garage door and gutters with our large Graco sprayer, and we used a mini-roller (1/2 nap) and a brush for the rest.

Challenges:

• Our Graco ProLTS sprayer did not work initially because the spray tip guard was missing the gasket and metal seat so the sprayer tip just dripped paint when sprayed. Ryan drove to Sherwin Williams and got a replacement. The lesson learned is we need to take better care of the Graco sprayer and its parts. It is a very reliable sprayer but it needs to be cleaned regularly and once you understand how it works, it does a fabulous job.

Fishers exterior trim

Ryan and I finished another large exterior trim job in Fishers. The house had not been painted for 11 years. It included all the wood trim, shutters, gutters, front steel door, and 3-car garage doors. It took us five days, which included pressure washing, prepping, and applying the finish coat.  We worked until 7:30 p.m. the last day to finish up.

Details of the project:

• We pressure washed all the wood trim and also the siding that was dirty. It wasn't part of the estimate but it doesn't take much longer to hit the siding;
• We applied 11 or 12 tubes of both white and clear caulk. They had a lot of brick on the front so we removed all the failing caulk and replaced with clear caulk around the brick;
• We scraped any failing paint that the pressure washing did not remove;
• Applied four gallons of Sherwin Williams Exterior Duration paint in a satin finish (Summer White) on the soffits, overhang, fascia boards, 3-car garage doors, man-door, and gutters;
• Applied Sherwin Williams Exterior SuperPaint in a satin finish (Tricorn Black) to the shutters, planters, and front steel door; and
• We sprayed both the 3-car garage doors and the front steel door and used a mini-roller (1/2 nap) and a brush for the rest.

Challenges:

• We had to use our steel deck boots on one of the high peaks that was very steep in order to reach the overhang. You can see the high peaks on the first photo. We had to use our 32 foot extension ladder to reach the highest peak and also to step onto the lower peak to get to the overhang. As mentioned, we used a deck boot (http://www.provisiontools.com/roofboot.asp) and Pivit ladder tool (http://www.provisiontools.com/pivit.asp) to stand on the steep roof line;
• We had to apply two coats of the Tricorn Black to the shutters because they were not covering the green color in one coat;
• Our small sprayer would not work with the Tricorn Black because it was too thick even after thinning.  We eventually broke out the large sprayer again to spray the front door;
• A lot of the corner boards on the wood trim were cracked or had large gaps. We had to re-nail and apply caulk before painting; and
• We had rain on two of the days so had to work around the rain. Also, it was very cool and cloudy the last day so the front door did not dry as fast as we liked.

Photos: