UK - Tips For Preparing Walls For Painting

Preparing your walls for painting is the first step in getting a smooth, attractive, and durable finish. Whether you’re painting an old and worn wall or a newly plastered wall, you should always prep it before applying the first coat of paint. If you don’t have a painting background or haven’t painted before it is something you might not know. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to prepare different walls for painting that you’ll find useful for your home painting project.

Preparing a wall before painting

There are different wall surfaces that you may need to prepare before you start painting. The technique you use on an old chipped, and a rough wall will not be the same as the one you use on a newly finished and generally smooth wall with a plastered finish. Depending on the surface you’re dealing with, follow the steps outlined below when preparing walls for painting:

Preparing a plastered wall

A plastered wall is the easiest to paint, as the surface will be relatively smooth with little blemishes.

A freshly plastered wall will only need a primer and undercoat to get your wall ready for the first coat of paint

Use a roller to apply a primer, followed by an undercoat to create the best painting surface

Priming the surface will seal it and keep the plaster from soaking up the paint when you apply it. If you don’t do this it can lead to a lot of waste, resulting in more coats of paint being needed than necessary

Also, remember to let the new plaster fully dry before you start prepping to paint. This will be evident when the wall turns a uniform grey/pink colour with no dark patches and can take anything from 24 hours up to a week depending on the temperature of a room

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Preparing walls for painting

Walls that have been previously painted tend to be easier to prepare for fresh paint compared to wallpapered walls. However, they will need a bit of work to make them look smooth and professional. Use the following steps to prepare your wall:

Fill any cracks and holes

Clean any marks or blemishes on the wall using Eco Solutions Painters’ Prep to remove any dust, debris and grease that could prevent the filler from curing into the wall. Using a flexible filling knife, press the filler into the gaps to achieve a smooth surface. Allow the filler to dry before smoothing the spot with sandpaper.

For surface preparation before painting or refinishing, Trade Strip Painters’ Prep Professional Strength is the safest option. We offer a water-based formula that doesn’t require mixing.

This eco-friendly product will remove stains, wax, grease, oil, dirt, adhesive residues and wax in just one step, and is the alternative to using sugar soap to prepare your surfaces for painting as well as cleaning and brightening.

Painters’ Prep can be used indoors with no need to wash off, simply spray on and wipe clean with a damp cloth.

Read our full and informative article here to achieve the best results.