14 June, 2022

A fresh coat of paint can work wonders for your home. It can beautify your space while increasing the value of your home and make it more inviting. Read on to learn some of the circumstances in which home painters in Santa Rosa suggest cleaning your walls.

Why Clean Walls Before Painting Them?

Before painting your walls, clean them. Like surfaces, floors, and furniture, walls can get dirty over time. However, they aren’t cleaned as frequently as the other circumstances in your home. Cleaning walls before painting them is a great way to get rid of cobwebs, grime, dust and stains.

It may be tempting to skip this step and start painting walls straightaway. Painting over dirty walls is a waste of time, resources and effort. Paint may not adhere properly to dirty surfaces. Even if you are able to paint a dirty surface, mold and mildew can grow over it or the paint may crack, blister, chip or peel prematurely. If this happens, you may have to paint your walls again.

The walls in some rooms such as the kitchen and bathroom need more attention than the walls in other rooms such as the bedroom and living room as they get dirty quickly. This is why you should expect to spend more time cleaning your kitchen and bathroom walls prior to painting.

The Right Way to Clean Walls Before Painting

Remove dust from your walls: Clean baseboards and the upper corners with a duster. Remove any dust or cobwebs with a broom. Using the dust brush attachment and vacuum your walls.

Wash the walls: Prepare a mixture of water and a grease-cutting detergent. Soak a sponge in the mixture and scrub your walls with it. Once you get rid of dirt, stains, and dust on your walls, rinse them with clean water. Wipe clean with a damp towel and allow your walls to dry.

Get rid of mold and mildew: If there is residual mold or mildew-usually the case when repainting the basement, bathroom or any other area that is more humid than other areas in the house, use a cleaning solution of three-parts water to one-part bleach. Be careful when handling mold and mildew. Use protective equipment to avoid breathing in mold spores and prevent cross-contamination.

When To Use Trisodium Phosphate for Cleaning

For stubborn stains, consider using Trisodium Phosphate (or TSP). To make an alkaline cleaning solution, mix TSP with water. The cleaning solution dissolves greases and oils and can be used to clean kitchen walls and bathrooms walls. The solution also removes crayon stains from walls.

Soak a sponge in the solution and clean your walls with it. Work in sections of three feet square. Allow the solution to dry, then scrub again. Immediately scrub each section with another sponge.

Pellegrini’s Platinum Painting Services is a leading painting contractor serving the Santa Rosa and Sonoma County. Our team consists of seasoned home painters. We have extensive experience giving tired and dull areas a chic makeover with a fresh coat of paint. To learn more, call (707) 291-2615.