Painting Your Home
Enhance and refresh your home with paint! Paint is one of the easiest and cost-efficient ways to enhance your home.
Before you begin any project, visit a paint store and discuss the kind of material you plan to paint, its condition and the result you want to see. There are so many paints on the market, you want to make sure you get just the right one. A paint that’s good for interior woodwork, for instance, is not necessarily good for wood floors or outside wood trim. A paint intended for concrete walls won’t necessarily hold up on a concrete floor.
Before you start!
While a fresh coat of paint can easily transform any dull room, cupboard or furniture item, you can’t expect all flaws to be magically concealed. Painting requires good surface preparation and some elbow grease before you can splash on new colours.
Start by filling in all holes and cracks with an appropriate filler. When the filler is dry, use a fine sandpaper and sand all surfaces lightly. Then wipe all surfaces to ensure they are dust-free.
Bathrooms and kitchens
Because of high moisture, use an enamel rather than a flat paint for walls as well as woodwork.
An enamel is easier to clean and less likely to be harmed by moisture. Epoxy paints will hold on sinks, bathtubs, ceramic tiles and other areas that are extremely smooth and exposed to water. These paints must be handled carefully and require good ventilation.
Basement
A latex masonry paint is good for concrete basement walls. Many paints are designed to damp proof or water-proof basement walls. Their effectiveness depends on how well they are applied. However, it’s virtually impossible to waterproof a basement from the inside by simply applying waterproof paint on the walls.
Use heat-resistant enamels on any surface that gets hot, such as metal pipes. Concrete basement floors must be cleaned before painting.
Outdoors
Any paint you use should be designed to withstand the weather. The surfaces — whether aluminium, iron, steel, brick, concrete, wood, wicker, etc. — must be prepared in advance as recommended by the paint manufacturer. Before starting any project, be sure to consult your local paint store representative for ideas and advice.
