own a few basic tools, your costs will be limited
start. Prep work is crucial for a good paint job.
to the few tools you’ll need to rent and the paint
Whether you’ll be painting a building’s interior or
you choose.
exterior, follow these guidelines:
This chapter covers both exterior and interior
Correct structural or moisture-related
painting, including trim, doors, windows, and
problems.
cabinets. For information on stripping and fin-
Scrape or sand down paint that’s poorly
ishing floors, refer to chapter 20.
adhered or applied excessively.
Sometimes art doesn’t hang on a
Sand surface irregularities.
wall: It is the wall.
Choose primer that will adhere well and
be compatible with the finish coats.
Follow instructions on paint cans,
including optimal temperatures for painting.
Sand lightly between coats for better
adhesion.
Wear an appropriate mask or respirator.
Choosing Paint
Manufacturers frequently reformulate their
primers, paints, and stains, so look for a reputa-
ble supplier who keeps up with changes. Before
buying paint, examine the surfaces to be painted
and think about the conditions it must endure.
Then ask the following questions.
Four telling questions
Interior or exterior paint? Beware of
paint labeled “interior/exterior.” It’s probably
cheap. Quality exterior paints contain
additives that repel moisture, block UV rays,
and discourage mold. These additives are not
substances you’d want to inhale indoors while
504
the paint is curing. In general, don’t use
P R O T I P
exterior paints indoors and vice versa.
Has the surface been painted before?
buy the best paint and equip-
Surfaces should be primed if they (1) have
ment you can afford. good paint
never been painted, (2) have been extensively
adheres better, dries smoother,
scraped or sanded, or (3) are “chalky” or
and lasts longer. generally, quality
poorly prepped. However, if existing paint is
paint has higher percentages of
well adhered, priming probably isn’t
solids (pigments and binders)
necessary; just paint over the old coat.
that yield a thicker film of paint
when dry. using cheap paint is a
What type of finish (sheen) do you want?
waste of time and money.
Topcoat finishes range from flat (also called
dull or matte) to semigloss (aka eggshell,
velvet, satin) to gloss. Glossier finishes tend to
be more durable and easier to clean, so they’re
favored in high-use areas such as bathrooms
and kitchens. Enamel, which dries to a hard,
One big advantage of latex paint is that you can easily
durable finish, is best for window sashes,
clean brushes and your hands with soap and water.
doors, and casings.
Is the surface unusual? Specialty paints
are available for masonry; hard, nonporous
surfaces; high-humidity areas; and nonslip
surfaces. There are even paints that won’t
Colorful
reduce the sound-deadening properties of
Language: Primers,
acoustic tile. If you have an unusual surface
PainTs, and sTains
to paint, ask your supplier to recommend
a finish.
Primer. An important base coat, primer is applied to substrates such as raw wood,
drywall, plaster, or previously painted surfaces. Above all, primers must stick to the
oil based versus latex
substrate; they may also contain stain blockers, preservatives, pigments, or other
additives to hide flaws and ensure more uniform topcoats of paint.
Whether you’re painting exterior or interior sur-
faces, latex paints are probably the best bet. The
PAint. if primer’s job is adhesion, paint’s is protection—protecting the primer and
next sections explain why.
substrate from moisture, mild abuse, and (if it’s exterior paint) UV rays. Paint must
also hold color, dry smoothly, and withstand weather, so its pigments, solvents, and
Two essential definitions.
additives must be carefully blended and held together by a binder, or resin.
Oil-based paints and stains may contain
linseed oil, tung oil, or synthetic resins called
Binder. Binders determine a paint’s penetration, adhesion, drying rate,
alkyds. Because alkyds are the most common
flexibility, and durability. in relation to pigment, the more binder a paint has,
“oil” in oil-based paints, professionals often
the shinier and more durable its finish will be. Glossy paints tend to have high
use the term alkyd instead of oil based.
binder-to-pigment ratios.
However, oil based is the broader, more
PiGment. Color is determined by pigment. the more pigment a paint has, the more
inclusive term for products that must be
intense its color and the better it hides what’s beneath.
thinned and cleaned up with solvents.
VehiCle. A paint’s liquid component, the vehicle, is needed to suspend the
Latex paints and stains are water based.
pigments and binders. Oil-based vehicles (linseed oil, tung oil, or modified oils called
They can be thinned with water and cleaned
alkyds) thin with mineral spirits, also known as paint thinner. latex paints suspend
up with warm, soapy water. In recent decades,
polymer particles (plastic) in water.
latex paints have improved so dramatically
that they now account for about 90% of house-
StAin. Penetrating or semitransparent stains are most often pigmented oils that
paint sales.
soak into wood and form a thin film on the wood’s surface; there are also water-based
stains. You can see wood grain through stain. Although stains may contain water
Oil based: advantages and disadvantages. Oil-
repellants, preservatives, and some UV blocking, they don’t protect wood as well as
based paints are durable and tenacious, adhering
paint does and so must be reapplied periodically—say, every two to four years.
even to glossy or chalky surfaces. Thus, many
pros still insist on an oil-based exterior primer,
SOlid-COlOr StAin. despite the name, solid-color stain, a fast-growing group of
even if they’ll be applying latex topcoats. Many
exterior coatings, is more like thinned paint than stain. it’s popular because wood
old-school painters also favor oil-based paints for
texture (but not wood grain) remains visible. however, solid-color stains have only
interior trim because they dry slowly and level
about half the life span of painted surfaces. Acrylic latex solid-color stains are the
well, thus minimizing brushmarks.
most durable.
The problem is that oil-based paints never
completely cure. Rather, they oxidize and, ove
r
Painting
505
apply. However, its quick-drying characteristic
can be a problem if you’re painting an exterior in
iCandy: COLOr samPLes by PhOne 90º F heat, which causes the paint to dry on the
For some of us, choosing the
brush. In that case, additives such as Flood®
correct paint color is harder
Floetrol® will slow drying time and extend its
brushability.
than applying it. matching or
complementing existing color
tiPs For the Paint store
schemes is even trickier. no
matter how perfect the hue on a
Before heading for the paint store, calculate the
paint-store color strip, the
square footage of surfaces to be painted. Then
color always looks different
compare those figures with the coverage figures
when paint is applied to a wall.
listed on the paint containers. Unless a wall is
mostly glass, don’t bother to subtract the square
thanks to a new phone app,
footage of windows and doors from your total.
ColorSnap®, the process just
You’ll need the paint someday for touchups.
got easier. Use your cell phone
Predicting the coverage of stains is more diffi-
to take a photo of a color you
cult, especially if the wood is untreated. Add 15%
want to duplicate and the app
to 25% if you need to special-order the stain and
will color-match any part of the
must wait more than a day or two for delivery.
photo to a Sherwin-Williams®
That way, you’ll be ensured of having enough
color code. Using the app, you
stain to finish the job.
can adjust saturation and light-
If the job is big, you’ll save money by buying
ness or alter hue. the app also
5-gal. rather than 1-gal. containers. However, if
Take a cell-phone photo and the ColorSnap app can
match its color to Sherwin-Williams’s paint codes.
offers a palette of complemen-
you need only a few 1-gal. cans, ensure uniform
tary colors.
color by mixing their contents in a clean, empty
5-gal. bucket. This way, you’ll avoid finishing one
can in the middle of a wall and resuming with a
noticeably different hue.
Have the paint store mechanically shake the
paint for you—unless, of course, the manufactur-
the years, erode and crack. Any siding, especially
er’s instructions indicate it shouldn’t be shaken.
wood, expands and contracts as temperatures
For example, polyurethanes and varnishes trap
fluctuate, so the inflexibility of oil-based paints
air bubbles when shaken.
leads to cracking and more commonly to chalk-
ing, a powdery residue of oxidized oil and pig-
ment. In addition, mold feeds on the organic
Tools and Equipment
P R O T I P
compounds in oil-based paints. But the biggest
Ladders and scaffolding are essential for many
problem is their solvents: noxious, volatile, pol-
painting jobs. For more on them, see chapter 3.
less expensive than finish
luting, and tedious to clean off tools and equip-
paints, tinted primers also hide
ment. Availability may also be an issue: Because
more and therefore ensure a more
of more stringent regulations on volatile organic
uniform finish color. so you can
compounds, or VOCs (such as in California), oil-
Clear Finishes
save money by having your paint
based paints are increasingly harder to get.
store tint the primer closer to the
Clear finishes include polyurethane, varnish,
Latex: advantages and disadvantages. Acrylic
color of the finish coat. this is
lacquer, and shellac. Polyurethane, also called
latex has almost everything a painter or a sub-
especially true if you’re painting
poly, is the most durable of the clear finishes
over existing paint that’s darker
strate could want: As the paint or stain dries, its
than the new paint.
water base evaporates with minimal odor, leaving
and thus the most suitable for heavy-traffic sur-
a flexible coat of polymer particles (plastic) that
faces, such as trim and stair parts. Although poly
rarely cracks, as oil-based paints often do. Latex
and varnish resist moisture, they may become
also is semipermeable, so moisture generated
cloudy with sustained exposure to wet condi-
inside the house can migrate, through the paint,
tions. Shellac also clouds up near water. Spar
to the outdoors. Because latex is synthetic, it’s
varnish—originally used on boats—has a hard
inhospitable to mold. Finally, latex cleans up eas-
finish that stands up well to water, if well main-
ily and dries quickly.
tained. For more about clear floor finishes, see
Inside, latex is the only paint to use on drywall
chapter 20.
because it won’t raise the paper facing of panels.
Exterior latex is colorfast, durable, and easy to
506 Chapter 18
Although some artists can hand-tint
5-gal. quantities to match existing
paint, the rest of us should rely on
paint-store mixologists. They have
color charts, recipes, and accurate
measuring tools. The blue object
at the lower right is a power-drill
paint mixer.
Masks and resPirators
TO thin Or nOT TO Thin?
The level of respiratory protection you need
depends on how harmful the particles, vapors, or
most paint manufacturers advise against thinning their paints. Certainly, latex rarely
chemicals you will be exposed to are. So read the
needs thinning. But oil-based paints are another story. many professional painters
fine print on the label, which will list the chemi-
routinely thin oil-based paints with small amounts of paint thinner and Penetrol
cals present in the paint, or refer to the Material
because, they report, today’s alkyds contain lower levels of VOCs, making them thicker
Safety Data Sheet that comes with the finish or is
available from the manufacturer. I will use mask
and more difficult to apply. So, pros thin, following recommendations on the container.
to denote a lightweight, inexpensive, usually dis-
posable paper device and respirator to denote a
more serious apparatus that fits snugly, protects
against chemicals and vapors, and may have
replaceable filter cartridges. Following OSHA
HEPA cartridges (P100 or N100). For most paint
guidelines, filters are color-coded according to
applications, a half-face respirator with replace-
the substances they protect against.
able cartridges will be adequate. Masks vary, so
Dust masks will do for most woodworking,
find one that fits snugly. To test the fit, cover the
P R O T I P
s
anding, and general cleanup tasks, but if you are cartridge openings and inhale: No air should
sanding drywall—especially paperless drywall,
enter the mask.
You may be able to extend the
which has a fiberglass mat facing—wear a sand-
Respiratory cartridge service life varies
life of a filter cartridge by remov-
ing and fiberglass respirator. It’s advisable to wear according to the chemical you’re using, the type
ing it from the mask, placing it
a mask or respirator even when the chemicals in
of filter specified for that chemical, ventilation in
in a sealed plastic bag, and
a paint—say, latex—are largely benign.
your workspace, and the care you take to keep
putting it in the refrigerator.
Consequently, you can wear a relatively inexpen-
cartridges “alive” in storage. Change the cartridges
if you leave cartridges in a mask
sive latex paint and odor mask when using any
whenever you smell fumes or whenever it
merely hanging in your shop
product with “nuisance-level vapors.” You could
becomes difficult to breathe through the respira-
or garage, they will be dead in
about three weeks.
also choose a lightweight respirator. Point being,
tor. Manufacturers suggest their own change
concentrates of any vapor can give you head-
schedules. For example, when filtering epoxy-
aches or cause more serious health problems in
based paints (very toxic) or urethanes, filters can
chemically sensitive people, so you need good
become loaded in 4 to 8 hours, whereas filters for
ventilation and some respiratory protection.
latex-based paints typically have a longer change
As you’ll learn later in the chapter, for any task schedule. OSHA’s website offers three ways to
involving leaded paint, wear a respirator with
calculate when to change filters.
Painting
507
Protect your lungs whenever you
sand, scrape, or strip paint—even
if there’s plenty of fresh air. While
respirator Filters
heating old paint for scraping,
this worker is wearing a light-
weight respirator with
P100 particulate filters.
black
organic vapors
Yellow acid gases and organic vapors
olive
Multigas (several gases and vapors)
Purple any particulates: P100
orange any particulates: P95, P99, r99, r100
Renovation 4th Edition Page 117
