The professional paint contractors at Zenith Painting have a few handy tips and tricks for you to try next time you’re painting or just touching up your home. You can find many other tips throughout our blog!
1. Is Your Paint Oil or Latex/Water-Based?
There are a lot of treatments for your walls that will depend on whether you are already using oil-based paint or latex, water-based paint. So how can you find out which one you’ve got?
Soak a cotton ball in alcohol and rub it on the wall. If paint comes off, you’re working with latex. If it stays firm, it’s oil-based.
2. Easily Paint Plastic Light Switch and Outlet Covers
You want your covers to match the wall, but that shiny plastic isn’t great at holding paint. No problem: Just sand the plastic to get a rougher surface, then give it a coat of primer. When the primer is dry, your covers will easily accept paint and you can make them perfectly match your wall—or whatever other effect you want to aim for.
3. Defuzz Your Roller
A fresh new paint roller is a beautiful thing, but it’s not quite ready to use right from the store. Wrap the roller cover in painter’s tape and then strip the tape off to get rid of all the fuzzy bits that would’ve ended up stuck in the paint and on your wall.
4. Check for Lead
If you’ve got an older home, it’s still a good idea to check for hazardous lead paint before you do any work. A simple lead testing kit will help you find out if you’re dealing with toxic material. If so, this government guide will help you get started on cleaning and disposal.
5. Wrap and Refrigerate
We’ve covered some clever ways to clean paint trays and brushes, but if you plan on using those same tools for several days, you don’t need to get them sparkling clean every evening. You just need to make sure they don’t get all dry and crusty.
Try this: Wrap your paint-spattered brushes and trays in plastic and put them in the refrigerator. They’ll be fresh when you pick them up the next day—or even a week later.
We hope that helps! And if you find that DIY isn’t your cup of tea, give Zenith Painting a call at 800-381-4601. We’ll take care of all the work for you, and we’ll even get you started with a free estimate.
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