When painting your home, your main focus is often on choosing the right colors and executing the job properly to get a perfect finish. That’s because, most times, we only think of paint as a feature that is solely meant to improve the appearance of a building.
But that is not all that paint is. Although it serves a decorative function, the DeSantis Property Management team explains, the paint on your house also has a practical purpose. The very process of painting a building home is vital for preventing damage to its various surfaces. When done right, painting your home will do the following:
● Address wall damage
It gives you a chance to uncover and correct hidden issues with the home’s interior and exterior surfaces. For instance, in the process of painting your walls, you could discover soft spots in the drywall or evidence of water damage.
● Protect your home
Good paint acts as a buffer against the effects of the elements. Paint on the surfaces of a building serves as a barrier between the surface and things that could damage it. It cushions the impact of sunshine and rain on your home’s surfaces. It also shields the surface from dust, debris, and destructive chemical or biological agents.
● Boost your home’s value
The paint on the exterior surfaces combines with your landscaping to create the first impression people get of your property. Repainting your home is the lowest-cost method to transform it and impose your personality on the structure.
But all of this depends on one thing: proper paint preparation.
What is paint preparation and why is it important?
Painting your home is a process that does not begin with coating its surfaces in your favorite colors. What homeowners typically imagine when they think of painting their home is a roller applying a layer of beautiful color on the walls of the house.
But the act of coating the surface is the final part of a long process that started earlier. This part of the painting process is only about 40% of what it takes to paint a building properly. The other 60% is known as paint preparation.
Paint preparation is the various steps professional painters take to make a surface ready to receive paint. It involves procedures that help to ensure the paint adheres properly, the final outcome is pleasing to the eye and the paint does not fail prematurely.
Paint preparation involves the following:
- Protecting the area surrounding the surface to be painted. This could mean covering flooring, furniture, appliances, or plants with a tarp or drop cloths.
- Removing old paint from the surface. Getting rid of old paint that is chipping and flaking provides a smooth surface for the new coating to adhere to.
- Repair surface imperfections. These could be nail holes, gouges, or watermarks. This part of the process helps to restore the wall to its original condition.
- The surface is sanded to make it even and smooth. This will ensure the wall looks nice after the coating is applied.
- The surface is cleaned to get rid of dirt and dust generated by the sanding process. This involves using a mild detergent solution or power washing the surface.
- Lastly, the wall is primed in preparation for the final step of painting the surface. Priming the surface hides darker areas and ensures the paint job is uniform when completed. But this is not all it does; how you prime a surface plays a big role in whether mold grows on the paint or not.
Paint preparation and mold prevention
In locations like Florida where the weather is hot and humid, mold is a massive problem for homeowners. It is not uncommon to have black mold growing on paint one year after it has been repainted. A big part of the problem is how the surface was primed before being painted.
Typically, this issue is common when you use oil-based primer on a surface. Oil-based primers are used to seal stains and tannins on walls before applying paint. Because it is oil and seals to a harder texture than a water-based primer, oil-based primer is better at keeping moisture out.
But while using this kind of primer is excellent for hiding stains – especially tannins stains – a major issue with it is it encourages black mold to grow on your newly-painted surface. Mold not only damages the appearance of your home, but also endangers your health.
Given the absolute necessity of priming a surface before you paint it, how do you deal with this problem? The following solutions have been proven to work.
- As much as possible, avoid using oil-based primers when painting a surface inside the home
- The only exception is when trying to kill tannin stains. But to keep mold from growing on the surface, prime the oil-based primer with a quality latex primer. This will not only kill the stains but keep mold from growing.
- If there is mold growing on the surface already, use Zinnser Mold Killing Primer; it is a great product that is guaranteed to solve the problem.
