What Is the Best Way to Clean Walls Before Painting?
Posted on May 22, 2020
Painting your rooms can be a pricey task. Pitching in on some of the preparation work can save you money on the bottom line. By reducing man hours with the project, you will save your wallet. The easiest part of preparing to paint is washing the walls. So what is the best way to clean walls before painting? Here is what our professional painters recommend.
Even the cleanest homes have a small amount of dust and grime on the walls. To begin a painting project, the walls must be cleaned. This is a critical part of painting so you want to follow the best protocols, but it can easily be handled by a homeowner.
Tackling this project changes depending on the room you are having painted. Kitchens and high traffic areas like hallways often have a fine layer of grease or fingerprints. Bathrooms are notorious for soap scum and beauty product residue. All of this must be removed before painting can begin. Failure to remove all of it will result in streaking, cracking and curling in the paint finish.
Washing the walls should be the first step in painting. Do this before any repairs and preparations like priming begin. This is why so many homeowners jump in on this step. It’s the natural beginning of the work, while also being fairly easy to accomplish.
How to Wash the Wall
Remove any hardware on the walls. Take off faceplates, move furniture and remove any adhesive or tape with a razor blade. Be careful not to cut into the current paint. Fill a 2-gallon bucket halfway with warm water. Add a squirt of dish soap or other non abrasive soap.
Use a soft sponge to gather soapy water. Ring most of it out and scrub the wall down. The idea is to gently clean it without soaking it through. The walls should not be wet! Think about this process as using a sponge to wipe fingerprints from the fridge rather than using a sponge to wash the car. Rinse and wring out the sponge frequently.
When you are done, empty the dirty water, rinse the bucket out and refill it halfway with warm water without soap. Rinse the wall lightly to remove soap residue.
Be sure to allow time for the walls to dry before the painting crew arrives. Set fans up and open windows to keep air moving through the room to help the drying process along. Failure to dry the walls fully could result in the paint trapping moisture in the wall. This means the paint won’t set and there is a good chance that mold could grow.
Final Thoughts
Washing the walls is a good way to reduce the amount of time the painting crew is in your home. This in turn means that your bill will be slightly lower. Be sure to talk to the crew about doing this step yourself. Some painting companies will not honor warranties if any bit of the work is completed by anyone other than their crew. Secondly, you need to make sure that you intend to do the washing thoroughly. If you haphazardly take on the challenge, you could jeopardize the final product.
To start your project, contact our team today. Schedule a free, no-obligation estimate appointment to discuss your project with us. We’re here to help!
