Home Improvement

Kobayashi said:

Anyone have some good resources for painting interiors? I did a fair amount of my current house, but not really thrilled with how it turned out. On the new house, I'd like to nail down the proper tools/technique. I feel like a lot of the videos I've watched completely gloss over the important details. Also, any thoughts on spraying vs rolling? A coworker of mine is swearing by hplv guns.

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The biggest thing is to do two coats. Most really crappy paint jobs I've seen they just did one coat and quit. You really need a second coat unless you're really good.

Beyond that, the main thing is to keep your roller loaded with paint. If it's making any noise while you're rolling it's way too dry. You should have it fully saturated with paint at all times and when you're done you should be able to scrape a cup or two out of it. Secondly, get your paint on the wall first and then "lay it out". Get the wall good and covered and then go back over it with your roller in straight lines and smooth it out.

Cutting in is another thing that takes practice. You can get decent results with painter's tape, but if you can get the hang of cutting in it's much faster and better IMO, especially if you have texture on the ceiling. You can see a big difference in how well I did it in the rooms I painted first in my house vs the ones I did last so start where it's not going to be as noticeable. The trick is that your brush doesn't go all the way into the corner, you are pushing a little dam of paint in front of your brush and that's what goes all the way to the corner. Here again you want to keep your brush loaded with paint and not let it get too dry. If you are really anal you can always go back once it's dry with a little artist's brush and some ceiling paint and touch it up. Also keep in mind that before the paint dries you can wipe it off no problem with a damp rag so if you notice yourself making a mistake you can just fix it in a couple seconds then and there. Same with drips on flooring/trim/etc. If you are paying attention they're a hell of a lot easier to fix before it dries.

I used an airless sprayer for doing my primer and ceilings. It's crazy fast and if I paint the exterior of the house I will definitely use it. For doing interior walls in a house that already has ceiling/trim/flooring/furniture though I think its just too much work to mask everything off vs. just using a roller. It's also a pretty significant job at the end of each day to clean the sprayer and you don't want to half-ass that if you want your sprayer to keep working so keep that in mind as well.

I found this channel helpful.

Do you cover everything in the room and wrap all fixtures and mask off the windows? I'm seriously curious if that's doable and saves you time.

I can't imagine spraying a 10x10 bedroom and a fine mist of paint dots *not* settling on everything. IANAPainter, thoug, hso YMMV

Road base will work fine I think. It's formulated to pack hard and not move when it's driven on.