Professional House Painters
How to Prep a Room for Paint: Step-by-Step
- Remove hardware. Take off window locks and lifts, doorknobs and strikes, electrical cover plates, and light fixtures. Tape the screws to each piece of hardware and label its location; store the items together in a bucket—this makes reinstalling them easier later on.
- Clear out obstacles. Whenever possible, relocate furniture to another room so that you can easily navigate the space where you’ll paint. Cover whatever can’t be removed with plastic sheeting, and clear a pathway that’s at least 3 feet wide.
- Protect floors. Pros generally avoid using painter’s tape—it’s time-consuming to apply. One place Mauro always tapes: along the bottom of baseboards. Then he tapes a wide border of rosin paper to this strip of tape, and covers the rest of the floor with plastic-lined canvas drop cloths—these prevent any spilled paint from seeping through. “Protecting the floor will save you time, and headaches, in the long run.”
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- ill holes, gaps, and cracks. Closely inspect walls and trim for imperfections; patch holes, dents, and dings by using ready-mix spackle on walls or wood filler on trim. On plaster walls, Mauro uses joint compound and mesh tape on wide cracks and flexible patching compound on smaller ones. Fill gaps around the trim by cutting a caulk tube close to the tip and running a small bead, pressing down and pulling the caulk gun toward you as you work; then run a wet finger on it to smooth it out.
- Sand and remove dust. To create a smooth, even surface for painting, scuff-sand moldings, doors, and windows with 220-grit paper. Use a pole sander with 120-grit paper to smooth walls. (If you’re working on paint that could be more than 45 years old, be sure to test for lead first.) Thoroughly remove sanding dust with a vacuum equipped with a HEPA filter, followed by a damp rag or tack cloth.
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