How to Plan Your Next Painting Project

Learn a few tips on planning and budgeting for your next painting project.This is the time of year many people are thinking about doing some painting either inside their buildings, or homes, or on the outside. Left with many choices not only about what color to choose, but also about what brand, what kind of preparation to do, what finish, and what kind of paint and primer to use on their particular project. Many people turn to various sources of information, some more reliable than others. Planning out your next painting project using this information below will vastly increase it’s chances of success!

Examination of what you, or your painters did last year, or the years prior may give you insight into what is working or not working so well. Changing up some of your preparation procedures or identifying how a different paint, primer or products may help you, and is part of this initial phase of evaluation. This is great real-world knowledge. Setting your goals and limits early on as to how much preparation work you want to do vs. what kind of results you are expecting is another good way to set your budget and expectations for any upcoming project.

Whether you choose to have your project professionally painted or not I would like to share with you some of my guide lines for planning out a long lasting, thoroughly executed painting project, as well how to choose the right primer, paint and color for your upcoming project.

This article will be in three parts. This first part covers Planning, Inspiration and Evaluation. My next article will cover Solving Common Problems and Good Work Practices for achieving flawless results. In part three, what primers, paint and colors work best for specific applications, decorating needs, and budgets.

This first part will be an important one. You will want to step back to carefully examine the surface you want to have painted. Take your time and take note of the following things about the surface and consider what you want it to look like when you are done. Now is the time to take a good look around and consider all options that will not only save you time and money, but will give you the best looking results. Remember, not all problems are directly related to the paint work itself and can not always be solved with the right prep and paint work, sometimes a needed carpentry repair, roof repair or an external problem might be the culprit.

Here is a list of some good basic questions to ask yourself before endeavoring into a painting project whether you do it yourself, or have someone else do it for you. Answering these questions will point you in the right direction as to what kind of preparation procedure to implement as well as what types of primers and paint to use. Doing it this way will save you time and give you a great looking results that will last for years to come!

• Has the surfaces been previously painted/coated, what condition is the paint/coating in?
• What condition is the substrate in?
• Is the substrate or paint film faded, rotten, moving, peeling, cracking or flaking?
• Do I need to use a power washer?
• How has it held up for you?
• What colors or paint might be a better choice? What color change will be if any?
• What repairs, if any, might I do to alleviate the situations?
• What type of paint exists on the surface now, oil or water based?
• How much prep work do I need vs. want? Fix what’s broken, or go further
• Is lead present in any of the paint layers?

We are local experts in identifying underlying problems, whether structural or paint related. Using moisture meters and having good knowledge of building structures and materials is good start.

Once you have taken a careful look at the surfaces to be painted you can now formulate a plan of attack, and you will know roughly what your preparation schedule will look like. Will it be simple or complex? You will know if you will need a primer and if you answered all of your questions you may want to consider using a tinted primer to provide a undercoat for a planned color change. Speaking of primers, there are many specially formulated primers available on the market today. Most projects will take only one kind.

On our projects we only use the very best quality interior/exterior primer that Benjamin Moore makes. It covers a lot of bases and does double even triple duty as a excellent bonding primer, high adhesion primer, high hiding and sealing primer. So it’s an excellent one to have on hand for whatever your project throws at you.

If you maintain, own or manage a large property or even a small apartment I probably don’t have to tell you that it can be overwhelming! Don’t panic. Start with a small or medium sized project every year, or every 3 months. Work your way around completing each little bit when you can, and how you can. Find a way to break down a big task into small more manageable scope. For instance, if you’re planning on painting the exterior of your home, but don’t have the time or money to invest in doing the whole thing you can do the windows as one project first. Then just do a maintenance touch-up of peeling areas before launching into a large project you will find yourself quickly defeated in. As well, inside an apartment you might want to only repair and repaint your ceilings if they really are what is requiring attention. Here is a money saving tip..Often times trim, moldings or woodwork, if painted correctly will outlast the walls and ceilings by 2 to 1! So not repainting them will save you time and money. Again if painted correctly they can be cleaned with amazing results! Remember putting layer on top of layer of paint is not really the right way to maintain something. Too much paint on a surface will eventually be a bad thing. Many of our customers that live in older homes know this only too well.

I hope this article has been helpful in getting your painting project ideas flowing? Let me know at my email address, jp@jpinteriors.com and look out for my next article on solving some of the most common problems and good work practices for achieving flawless results! We will be answering the questions above and covering some solutions to some basic problems. Now that you have a plan… give us a call for any advise, or to schedule an estimate should you feel that you would like some help with it. 718-227-1200