There are instances wherein your home needs to be repainted in order to give it a makeover.
Other times, repainting is already necessary, not only for aesthetics, but already as a form of repair. Regardless of your purpose, here are some tips to effectively remove the old paint in your house.
Test for Lead
The first thing that you need to do before getting old paint out and putting new paint in is to test the current paint off your walls for lead.
There are already several testing kits in the market that will make testing for lead easy for you to do. In case the current paint on your walls are positive for lead, you need to exert extra precaution in handling the dust and chips of the old paint.
Inspect your Walls
After testing for lead, the next thing you need to do is to give your walls a quick inspection. In this step, check for any signs of bubbling, cracking or peeling. This is because if you find any indication of unevenness or paint failure, there might be a need for you to scrape your walls. Otherwise, scraping won’t be necessary.
Prepare the Room
Before taking out the old paint or embarking on a new paint job, you need to prepare the room to be able to protect your floor and furniture. If your floor is carpeted, you can cover it with a canvas drop cloth or protect hard floors with rosin paper.
The important thing is to be able to cover up the things that you need to protect from the mess that may ensure from your paint job.
Remove Paint with a Scraper
You can remove old paint with a scraper, but ensure that you use a dust mask while you are at it. A scraper is best used on round corners, minimizing the risk for you to scratch the wall. It is best if you can use a heat gun or a hair dryer to loosen peeling paint, making your scraping job easier.
Remove Paint with a Paint Stripper
Apart from using a scraper, you can also remove old paint in your house using a paint stripper. The best paint stripper or paint remover are those which have a water-based formula, making them an eco-friendly choice.
Nevertheless, it is best to choose one that works on most surfaces such as brick, steel, concrete, vinyl, wood, and plaster because this will allow you to have a single product for all types of surface you need to work with.
You just need to paint it on with a brush before applying a laminated paper, and removing both the paint and paper with a putty knife.
To wrap things up, removing the old paint on your home may be necessary to enhance and complement a new look. There may also be instances wherein repainting is essential to preserve the interiors of your home.
Regardless of your purpose for repainting your house, ensure that you implement the proper way to do so to ensure that you will achieve your end goal, instead of otherwise.