How to properly prepare a wall for painting

Published: 27th October 2009

It may sound like the easiest and simplest of all DIY tasks, but learning how to prepare, paint and finish a wall properly can be extremely important. If a wall is not painted correctly, it can look unprofessional and can ruin the overall appearance of your interior décor.

Preparation is the key to a finely finished wall; it is essential to correctly prepare the wall for painting so that it is smooth and free of cracks or blemishes. There are three steps you need to follow before the wall is ready for painting:

Filler - Cracks can be repaired using filler; general purpose lightweight filler will be adequate for most areas, but you may need to use specialist types for filling wood or cracks between edges.

Sanding -To make the wall a smooth surface on which to paint, you should sand the walls using sandpaper. The more uneven the surface or the more you want to sand, the rougher the sand paper should be. Luckily, sand.paper is graded on a roughness scale to help you choose the appropriate one.

Masking- Finally, you need to mask off any areas that will be tricky to paint. Use masking tape around skirting board and curtain frame edges, light switches and light fittings to make sure you don’t get paint on them. This is especially useful for protecting newly laid or expensive floor tiles, and also helps to maintain straight edges in order to avoid a messy or unprofessional looking appearance.

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