Help for new home owner (flooring, painting, ceilings, installing)

[crankygf]

Help!!!

I'm a woman who knows nothing about house stuff. I am in the process of closing on a house. Its perfect for me, but not quite perfect. I will be installing flooring and carpet- professionally. But I'd like to save some money on painting. Quick question, does it make sense to paint first, then put in flooring, or flooring first? Are there any tips you have for a do-it-yourself paintjob?

Thanks in advance.

[janetvj]

Originally Posted by crankygf

Help!!!

I'm a woman who knows nothing about house stuff. I am in the process of closing on a house. Its perfect for me, but not quite perfect. I will be installing flooring and carpet- professionally. But I'd like to save some money on painting. Quick question, does it make sense to paint first, then put in flooring, or flooring first? Are there any tips you have for a do-it-yourself paintjob?

Thanks in advance.

I'm not an expert either, but in my case I painted first, and did it myself. It's not that difficult, and by painting first I didn't have to worry about spilling paint all over the floor, since I was pulling out the carpet anyway.

The only suggestions I have about the painting is to get a good quality paint, buy a step ladder (I initially tried to get by standing on a chair and that didn't work very well) and buy decent brushes and rollers. Take your time taping areas you want to protect (baseboards, ceilings, etc.) And make sure you spackle over any holes or wall imperfections and allow it to dry before painting over it.

Good luck! And congratulations on your house!

[SXMGirl]

I agree with Janetvj. Paint the rooms yourself and use a good quality paint. There should be lots of sales going on in the paint departments. My personal preference is no flat paint. You really need a paint that you can easily wash. Make sure that you tape everything off. There is a new ceiling paint out, don't know the name, that goes on purple so you can see the spots you missed. If you are painting baseboards, you probably want a bright white. Spackle first.

Enjoy your new home. It is an exciting time.

[Uconn97]

Heres how I would tackle it...

I would first prep the walls, fill in any holes and imperfections, sand, wipe everything down and then prime.

I would actually suggest then having the floors and carpets done first before you put on the final coat of paint. Bumps and accidents happen during installation and I think it will break your heart to see a perfect paint job messed up by an install team. You can always cover the new flooring materials with drop cloths to protect them while you are putting on your final coat of paint.

Good luck!

[HEATHER72]

I've spent the past year painting our entire home. No easy task. Invest in the cloth drop cloths... not the sticky plastic ones. We've been happiest with the "delicate" surface tape. Buy a couple of metal paint trays and get the plastic liners you can toss. I'm anti metal paint cans after using the plastic jugs from Sherwin Williams. They make painting so much easier. Get a good roller. The best ones we found were at Target made by rubbermaid. We did buy some rollers from SW that just splattered paint everywhere! Get a stick you can attach your roller to so you aren't constantly going up and down the ladder for high places. Wear safety goggles if you are going to paint your ceilings. I lost track of how many times I got paint on my contacts! I also agree to paint the walls AFTER the flooring is installed or at least be ready to do touch ups! We decide to put in wood flooring in our family room after we had painted. You should have seen the damage all the way around and we were being careful!

[desertsun41]

Janet is right. Use the old carpets as your painting tarp. Just let the mess fall on the old carpets. Your tearing it up anyway to throw away. You just saved yourself from buying the plastic and tape.

Use semi gloss on trim and doors and flat on walls except kitchen and bath walls where you use all semi gloss. All ceilings should be flat. The semi gloss is easy to clean while flat is very hard to clean. You can use high gloss on trim if you like the look but generally semi gloss is the norm.

Some 30 years ago I was told a little trick by an old timer painter. It stuck with me all these years even though painting is not my main thing.

Here is the tip for a perfect paint job with zero or few brush marks:

"LAST STROKE INTO THE WET"

Always remember that and your paint job will be much more professional. So you can stroke back and forth but always always do your last stroke into the wet paint. This makes the brush marks minimal or non existant.

Good luck in your new house........

[jimboburnsy]

Painting is probably the easiest method of home improvement and has one of the biggest impacts on the overall "finished" appearance of a home. That said, I hate it. There is a lot of prep work that gets overlooked. I highly recommend that you thoroughly clean the walls prior to painting (a bottle of 409, a good sponge and some strong shoulders) to insure that you do not have dust, dirt or any grease under your new coat(s) of paint. If the wall has any stains they have a funny way of seeping through new paint and dust or dirt underneath new paint have a funny way of making new paint flake off.

[SubaruFiend]

Originally Posted by Uconn97

Heres how I would tackle it...

I would first prep the walls, fill in any holes and imperfections, sand, wipe everything down and then prime.

I would actually suggest then having the floors and carpets done first before you put on the final coat of paint. Bumps and accidents happen during installation and I think it will break your heart to see a perfect paint job messed up by an install team. You can always cover the new flooring materials with drop cloths to protect them while you are putting on your final coat of paint.

Good luck!

A good quality flooring install team wouldn't cause damage/accidents to walls if they knew what they were doing. I mean, let's say you WEREN'T painting the walls.... would you just be EXPECTING the install team to still have accidents???? That doesn't make any sense at all. I've never seen a flooring install team put any knicks in the walls ....... as long as they're reputable....

[Uconn97]

Originally Posted by SubaruFiend

A good quality flooring install team wouldn't cause damage/accidents to walls if they knew what they were doing. I mean, let's say you WEREN'T painting the walls.... would you just be EXPECTING the install team to still have accidents???? That doesn't make any sense at all. I've never seen a flooring install team put any knicks in the walls ....... as long as they're reputable....

Having dealt with a number of contractors (and yes i check my references), accidents happen and frankly i do expect them to happen, particularly since I am 6 years into my homes renovation. No, they shouldn't happen, but they do. Perhaps you've just been lucky

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by Uconn97

Having dealt with a number of contractors (and yes i check my references), accidents happen and frankly i do expect them to happen, particularly since I am 6 years into my homes renovation. No, they shouldn't happen, but they do. Perhaps you've just been lucky

I certainly agree that it isn't unreasonable to EXPECT accidents, but I think that I would rather be messing with spackle, a putty knife and touch up paint than trying to clean a paint spill off of a brand new floor.