Maggie Evans 
Painting is one of the most important aspects of finishing that a building needs to really make it pop. In fact, an old building can be made to look exquisite with a simple covering of paint. However, painting a building is way more than just slapping some paint on the walls. It’s both an art and a science.
Some experts at Big Als Dallas painters have revealed some important secrets of painting professionals in Dallas TX and we’ll be sharing some of these with you in this article.
Top Painting Secrets that Pros Will Not Tell You
The following are top painting secrets that pros will not tell you:
Sanding the Flaws
You need to start your painting work by sanding the walls or the surfaces. This is very important as it will determine how perfect the painted surface will look. Sanding ensures that you have a smooth surface to paint. It helps to level the spackle or compound patches.
Sanding also helps to flatten the ridges surrounding nail holes and removes rough spots and burrs in trims. You need to attach the sanding paper to a pole sander, then start sanding from baseboard to ceiling. Ensure that the sanding paper has a fine grit.
If you apply much pressure on your pole sander, the head will flip, and this can damage the sanded surface. Use sanding sponge when sanding woodwork; this will give you the access you need into narrow openings.
Buy Top Quality Supplies
Professional painters always choose the best set of brushes and paints. In fact, a client will rate you as soon as they see the items listed in your quotation. If you need clients to take you seriously, you have to invest in your business.
Always go for top quality brands. Cheap materials will cost you more in the long run and that is a false economy. Your plastic brush of 5 dollars will make your work look like a rake was used to smear the paint. And what is worse? The brittles will fall out because they were not built to last.
You can buy a good, angled brush of two and half inches, which is versatile. When it is washed, it can be used again as the brittles will not wear down like the cheap brush.
You also need to invest in high-quality paint. A brand that is known by everyone for its quality is a good brand. Quality paints will make your work very easy. You will get a good coverage that will last long. Also, stains can be washed off the painted surface without removing the paint.
You can do an online search on https://www.yelp.com/search to find quality paint suppliers in Dallas, TX.
Cover All Furniture
It goes without saying that all furniture should be moved outside or to another room if you need to paint your house. But what happens when you cannot move all the furniture?
In this case, move them to a central point in the room. After that, use plastic sheets to wrap them. The sheets should be taped underneath. The plastic sheets will protect the furniture from dust during sanding and paint splatters and drips during the actual painting.
Use a Tinted Primer
Experts usually fill up holes and cracks in the walls or surfaces to be painted before they start painting. Skipping this step will result in a problem known as flashing. The painted surface will have a dull appearance. Therefore, spots where there were holes and cracks will appear different from the other parts.
Professional painters do prime walls to prevent flashing and rather than using the white primer, they use tinted gray. But you can use any color that looks like the finish coat. A tinted primer will conceal the previous paint color on the wall. In the end, you will be left with a vibrant finish coat that will require just a few more coats to be done.
This trick will benefit you more if you are painting with orange or red. These colors need to be coated severally if you are not using a primer.
Spatula for Pressing the Tape
Peeling off the tape from the woodwork after painting, only to discover that the paint seeped through, can be discouraging. This gives the painter/you an additional work of scrapping the paint off the woodwork. To prevent this from happening, use a spatula to press the tape down. You will be assured of a properly sealed tape while painting.
Avoid using masking tape as it easily comes off, allowing the paint to seep in. Also, the sticky residue that it leaves behind is usually difficult to clean. Pros use painter’s tape which is blue in color. You can leave it for some days or weeks, and it will still be able to peel over neatly.
Use Paint Extender
Mix the paint with an extender or conditioner if you want your finish to be free of brush marks or marks from lapping. This will delay the drying time of the painted wall, giving you enough time to overlap freshly painted spots without having lap marks. These marks occur when paint is applied on a dry painted wall in order to make the color darker.
Paint extender also levels the applied paint, thereby, eliminating or masking brushstrokes. You can use the paint extender when working on doors, drywalls, cabinets, and woodworks. Ensure you follow the manufacturer’s instruction on the ratio of extender to paint.
Watch this video to know more about paint extender.
Use Drop Cloths
Professional painters do not use bedsheets, plastic, or thin sheets to cover the floor. Plastic can hold spills, but the paint will remain wet for long. So, they will run under your shoes which would in turn leave stains of shoe prints as you move around the house.
The ideal drop cloths for painters are made of canvas. They can absorb spills to a large extent and are easy to move around the house.
Conclusion
It is true that every trade has its own secret, but you can get to know a trade’s secret from the pros in the business. Every painter has a unique preference and method that works for them which they keep modifying as they continue to learn new things on the job. When they have garnered experience with different environments and surfaces overtime, this translates into quality work.
We hope that this article has contributed to your wealth of knowledge about painting.
