Painting Interior Walls

PREP PREP PREP Makes the job turn out looking as if a professional was hired. 1st: Start with using a sanding pole with at least fine to medium grit drywall sand paper and sand walls with some lite to medium pressure. 2nd:Spackle all holes and while that's drying caulk trim as need to wall if this hasn't taken place during your trim painting. 3rd: Using a hand held sponge block to sand Spackle holes. 4th: I use a five gallon bucket of water with mild soap and a damp sponge mop and clean the walls and rag down the trim. Be sure to double check above door and window trim. These areas always collects dust build up and trashes your cut in. 5th: Step if you are a first timer, use the Green Frog tape and mask off the trim. Please make sure the tape is sealed to trim to stop paint from seeping onto trim. No don't start painting yet! To determine the amount of paint say measure one wall from floor to ceiling then corner to corner. Example: You measure 8'x10'=80sq.ft. then 80' x 4 = 320sqft. and on the bucket of paint it covers 400sqft. which I found to be about 250 to 300 sqft. .If you purchased more than one gallon box them together before applying. I mean take a five gallon bucket and pour both gallons in together and mix. Now your ready to apply paint. 1st using one of the gallon buckets, pour up 1/3 to 1/2 full. Then attach pot hook to bucket so you can hang the bucket onto the ladder while cutting the ceilings. While cutting in ceilings paint down the corners as far as possible this makes cutting in the walls to base much faster. 2nd now cut in the wall to base and that completes that. 3rd Now your ready to roll the walls. I use a 5'x 9' or 4' x 9' drop cloth are maybe a little longer but not much wider maybe 4' wide drop cloth. The paint stores uses the term walkers. Makes rolling much easier and if not painting ceilings the furniture is fine. 4th Assuming you have a roller frame now a lot of difference between frames. The metal rod is much smaller in diameter when you purchase them in the combo packs unless you buy the orange Home Depot packs and their OK but I recommend a frame made by USA a very sturdy and smooth rolling. Using this frame with 3/4" Purdy WhiteDove roller cover and with adjustable extension pole 2' to 5' for 8' to 9' ceiling height lets apply some paint. 5th load the nap with paint and start in the middle of the wall. Next roll in a {N} pattern and finish with up and down strokes and do not stop the rolling in the middle of the wall, always pull off the wall at the bottom or top I prefer the bottom. By not doing so you will see a variation in texture. Roll out one complete wall. Without loading your nap using what we call a dry roller, easily roll back over the wall you just completed stopping the nap at the bottom. This eliminates hard lines in the paint. Now using this technique roll all your walls the same and always apply two coats. GOOD LUCK