The Biggest Messes That Occur During Do-It-Yourself Interior Painting

In our previous blog we touched on many reasons why you should consider a professional painter instead of taking the do-it-yourself route. After all, the job will get done faster, cleanup will be taken care of, and the final work will look so much better when you use someone who deals in paint every day.

Many people paint their own rooms, only to create tiny problems that bother them every time the notice them. Here are some of the most common painting mistakes people make when they take care of their own paint project.

Rushing the Preparation

Everyone always wants to crack open the paint immediately and get to work. After all, it’s called “painting a room,” not “prepping a room for painting.” But preparing a room is incredibly important, because rushing through that part can cause problems in the future. When you rush the prep, you’re going to run into a lot of problems that lead to those little paint problems that will bother you for years.

Splatter On Ceiling

Like we said, people like to get to work. Taping took them forever, and hand-painting the corners doesn’t cover enough space to give a sense of accomplishment. So now it’s roller time, so they start off nice and slow. Then they gain a bit more confidence, and they start rolling quickly. Look how fast that wall is getting covered!

Then they reload the roller, and on the next roll they feel a spatter on their face. Too much paint, rolled too fast. They look up and realize that the roller flung paint on the ceiling, the ceiling that they intended to leave white. Emergency! Get the rag! It’s too high to reach, so grab the step stool! And you know what happens next…

The Paint Can Tips Over

Murphy’s Law usually holds true with paint cans: the more full a paint can is, the more likely it will tip over. Having a paint can tip over causes three main problems. First, it’s going to cause a big mess on your tarp, and while dots of paint might be easy to clean up, cups of it are not. Second, you’ve suddenly lost a lot of paint, and if you can’t recover it then it’s back to the home improvement store for you; good luck getting the paint to match! Finally, there’s a really a good chance that the paint will find a tear in the tarp or splash to the edge of it. Then you’ve got to deal with…

Paint on the Carpet

If you’ve ever gotten paint on the carpet, you know how hard it can be to get out. Even the water-based paint used for interior painting will soak in and alter the look of any carpet. Look up “how to get fresh paint out of carpet” on the internet and you’ll find some advice that will lessen the problem. Unfortunately, treating it right away only makes the paint stain less noticeable and seldom gets it all out.

Masking Tape Bleeding

Remember earlier when we talked about how people can rush the prep? Sometimes it means that the tarp isn’t properly protecting the carpet. Other times it means that they don’t have the right tools ready for the job. But most of the time the biggest failure to prep is when they rush the masking tape and the paint bleeds under it.

Properly taping a room is an art and a science. The smooth, straight surface of window trim is relatively easy to trim, but when it comes to the bumpy nature of drywall and the sometimes-uneven nature of wall/ceiling corners, it requires a great deal of experience to get it just right. Far too often, people painting their own rooms simply don’t have the training to properly mask a room. That leads to the paint bleeding under the tape and creating ugly, uneven, blotchy lines that can take hours to fix.

The fact is, a great paint job isn’t nearly as easy as most people think. If you’ve ever painted a room, you surely know the frustration of noticing those small blemishes you wish you could avoid. The best way to avoid them is to call professional painting contractors. Contact DJ’s Painting today!