How to Prepare Walls Before Painting

Prepare your walls before painting.

When you have all your painting materials laid out and ready to go, it's time to make sure your painting surface is ready too. Painting over a wall surface that isn't ready will lead to a paint job that looks sub-par. For the best looking painted walls it is very important to prepare walls before you begin painting. Here are some tips to help you prepare walls before painting them.

Things You'll Need

• Goggles and a dust mask
• Wall paper remover. if applicable
• Soapy water solution
• Sponge
• Scraper
• Spackling paste
• Medium and fine grit sand paper
• Latex primer
• Paint roller and tray

Instructions

1. Completely remove all wallpaper or any other wall covering. Use a warm soapy water solution and a sponge to help with wallpaper removal. You can use a wallpaper remover that will score the surface allowing the soapy water to better penetrate through to the wallpaper adhesive. If you are painting over existing paint you will need to scrape off any cracked or loose paint areas.

2. Inspect the surface of your walls. Check for any holes from nails or sizable cracks in the plaster walls. Using your putty knife or scraper cover these holes with spackling paste. Blend in any chipped paint areas that you previously scraped with some medium grit sand paper.

3. Begin lightly sanding your wall once the spackling has dried. With your fine grit sandpaper, smooth out any bumps or other irregularities until your wall is smooth to the touch. With a damp cloth you can now wipe off any excess dust from the wall surface to prepare it for your primer surface coat.

4. Begin applying a primer coat with a paint roller. A primer coat will help protect your wall surface and seal all the tiny cracks, leaving an even smoother surface for the paint to adhere to. Depending on your wall type (wood, plaster etc.) consider using specialized primers. For example, if your walls are old and have a lot of porous plaster there are primers that will do an even better job of sealing this type of wall. Once your primer coat is dry your walls are now ready for painting.

Tips & Warnings

• There are extendable wall sander attachments available that you can use for bigger jobs if need be.

• Add a second coat of primer if you can see any wall stains or adhesive residue underneath the first coat of primer. All of these items are readily available at virtually any hardware store.