A common question I am asked from my Toronto home painting clients is, “What’s the best brush and roller to use for a painting project?” It really depends on what you’re painting and the finish you want to achieve.
Last post I talked about brushes, this post let’s talk about rollers.
In order to know what is best let’s talk about what you’re planning on painting.
Ceilings and Walls – roller for no texture
These are wide-open spaces that you want to cover as evenly and efficiently as possible. Typically we use a 9″ roller, however, if we’ve got a lot of the same colour to roll out (ie. a big room or multiple rooms of the same colour) we’ll use a big 18″. The advantage of the 18″ is that paint is rolled out twice as quickly, without any sacrifice in the quality of the final product.
What about thickness? For flat walls and ceilings I generally use a 15mm roller, which is a medium thickness roller. If we go with a thinner roller we have to dip it in the paint too often, which is inefficient, or the paint ends up being too thin. If we go with too thick of a roller it puts too much paint on the walls which can result in drips and sags.
I really like microfibre rollers, I find that they produce the smoothest finish with the least amount of texture, or “orange peel”.
Pro tip: Even if a roller says that it’s lint free, it can still leave lint on the surface. To minimize this wet the roller with water and give it a spin with a roller spinner before using. This will take off any loose fibres, so they don’t end up on your freshly painted walls.
Many ceilings in Toronto homes have stucco or popcorn texture. For these surfaces, I would use a thicker version, perhaps 20mm or even 25mm. More thickness is needed to get into all the nooks and crannies of the texture.
2 words of caution:
Popcorn ceilings give off a lot of spray and paint splatter, so be prepared for this and cover everything in the room. If it’s not properly covered it will get paint on it. Also, you’ll get paint on the bottom of your shoes so be careful when exiting the room after painting!
Check to see if the popcorn ceiling has been painted before. If it is unpainted you will have to use alkyd paint. I’ve written a post on painting popcorn ceilings, click here.
Trim painting involves a lot of brush work, however, the process can be streamlined with the use of a mini roller. Also, a very smooth finish can be achieved with a mini-roller.
For doors, cabinets and other flat surfaces I use what’s called a flocked foam mini roller. It’s foam with a flocked covering on the outside. Foam lays paint out very flat, however, they can leave bubbles in the paint. With the flocked foam, the flock pops the bubbles, leaving the smooth surface with no bubbles!
To use a roller on trim, first, brush out what it won’t be able to reach and then roll the areas that are left. Always brush before rolling to ensure the smoothest end result.
If you’d like a quote on your next painting project feel free to book a quote online. We’d be happy to Transform your home with lasting beauty!
So the question is, “what’s the best way to sequence those projects?”
There are advantages to laying Kahrs Engineered flooring first, and there are advantages to doing the painting first. I’ll give you both sides and then you can make an informed decision.
Let’s do the painting first.
The Advantages:
The painting contractor does not have to cover the floors, which saves time. With the time savings there can potentially be a cost savings as well. Some flooring is very delicate and hard to clean (click here for some of the best vacuuming advice for wooden floors), so painting first can leave less cleaning once the floor goes in.
The Disadvantages:
Removal of the old flooring can be dusty, and result in dust getting on newly painted walls. As well the installation of the new flooring can create dust as well, resulting in dust getting on the newly painted walls.
Some flooring material can be cumbersome to move around. Despite the flooring contractor being careful, sometimes the flooring material can mark walls, especially when they bring it around corners or up stairwells, etc.
When the flooring contractor is working with hardwood, or similar materials they need to install a shoe moulding or quarter round at the bottom of the baseboard. Most of the time the painter has to come back to paint these.
If a flooring contractor is sanding and revarnishing hardwood floors the sanders can nick the quarter round or shoe moulding. This means that the painter has to come for a return trip to touch up these pieces of trim.
In summary, if the painting is done first, count on the painter having to come back to do some touch ups after the flooring contractor is done. For most projects we would need less than a day to do these touch ups.
What happens if the flooring is done first?
The advantages:
The painter can do the project from start to finish, there are no return trips for touch ups.
The area can be dusted and cleaned for painting, so that newly painted walls don’t get dirty
The disadvantages:
Cover those floors!
If you’ve just secured one of the great deals on vinyl flooring, you’re going to want to make sure it is properly protected. To protect the new flooring will take a lot of time and effort. For hard surfaces such as hardwood, laminate and tile we use tape and kraft paper to ensure that the surface is properly protected. This can add 1 to 3 hours of labour depending on the size of the room.
In summary, I generally recommend that we paint after flooring so that newly painted ceilings, walls and trim stay clean and beautiful. If we have to paint before the flooring is done, I like to plan on doing some touch ups after the flooring goes in so that your paint job looks as good as your new floors!
Why not book a quote online and Transform Your Home With Lasting Beauty!
It’s important to know is the paint in your toronto home is oil or latex. In this post we’ll show you how to tell the difference.
First off, why is it important to know if my home is currently painted with oil or latex?
Oil paint generally dries harder and slicker than latex and latex paint has a hard time binding on to oil without proper preparation. If oil paint is present and proper preparation isn’t done the latex paint won’t adhere to the oil paint underneath – see picture
Latex paint over oil without proper preparation
How likely is it that I have oil paint in my home?
If your home was painted within the last 5 years there was likely no oil used. If it’s been over 10 years since your home was painted there are a couple of areas that could be painted oil:
trim – doors, door frames, window frames, baseboard
walls and possible ceilings in the kitchen and bathrooms
These are the places that I would check first. 10 years ago oil was a much more durable alternative than latex for these high traffic and high moisture areas. Recently, with advances in paint technology there are great latex paints that are more than suitable for these areas.
How do I tell if the paint on my walls and/or trim is oil?
Look at the paint closely:
if there are a lot of brush or roller marks it’s likely latex, oil looks more smooth than latex. Oil will also feel smoother to the touch than latex.
Use the acetone test:
Put some acetone or nail polish remover on a rag and rub it on the surface of the paint. If the paint comes off on the rag it’s latex paint, if the paint doesn’t come off on the rag it’s oil.
I think my paint is oil, what do I do now?
Proper preparation is key. There are 2 things that I’d do to ensure that the latex top coat will adhere to the oil paint:
scuff sand the oil paint – use 100 or 120 grit sand paper and go over the entire surface. The sandpaper opens up the surface and allows the primer to penetrate the surface.
You’ve selected a reputable painting contractor, received a written quote, signed the quote and scheduled the work, now what? There are certain things you can prepare before the painting starts to ensure you will have a great painting experience.
Select your colours
We use both Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams paints. You can select any colour from either Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, or any colour that you have a chip for and we can do a custom match. We are able to provide a colour fan for you to select colours from. We are also able to get test quarts and do test patches on the walls so you can be confident in your colour selections prior to your project start date.
If you need assistance selecting colours we can refer an interior designer to you for a colour consultation.
We require your final colour selections 24 hrs prior to your start date. This allows us to have all the materials available when we start your project, so there are no delays.
Arrange access to your home
If you are not going to be home while the work is being done we will need access to the home. Please ensure that a set of keys is available for us to use. We can either take them with us or we have a lock-box, similar to what a real estate agent would use to store your keys securely on site.
Prepare the room(s) being painted
It is a great help if you can declutter the room(s) being painted. Some really useful boxes drawers and other storage units can be used to keep your things safe. This is particularly important if you are having your home office painted, as you do not want any documents, files, or any other important pieces of office furniture to get in the way. If you don’t have a storage barn, it’s not the end of the world. We will also move large items of furniture into the centre of the room and cover them with plastic sheeting for protection. If there is anything that you are very cautious and protective of, or if you don’t have the space in your rooms to move things into the centre, you could look into storing your furniture and belongings. Boombox Storage offers a ‘pickup, store and deliver’ service (https://www.boomboxstorage.com/pickup-delivery) which is ideal for this situation.
Here is a check-list of the items you should be moving out of the room prior to painting:
The contents of the closet (if the closet is being painted)
Pictures on the walls
Table lamps
Electronics
Books from bookshelves (unless it’s a built-in bookshelf that won’t be moved)
Side tables and any other small pieces of furniture (if possible)
Any other small items
By moving these items prior to us arriving we will be able to complete your painting project in a timely manner and without extra expense.
The end result of clearing out the room(s) as much as possible is so we can have unfettered access (at least 3-4 ft) to the walls once the larger items are placed in the middle of the room.
What if I want to put my pictures back in the same spot?
No problem, after you take the picture off the wall keep the picture hook in the wall and we won’t fill in that hole and we will put the picture hook back in the exact same spot after painting. If you do want to reposition a picture, or just not rehang it at all, take the picture hook out and we’ll fill in those holes.
What if I’m unable to clear out the room prior to painting?
This is no problem either. We realize that some of our clients are physically unable to prepare a room prior to painting. How about using a personal concierge? Jodi Goldfinger of I Dream of Jodi is an excellent choice, she can assist you in preparing your home for painting and putting everything back after we’re done.
By following these suggestions you will ensure your painting project runs as smoothly as possible. To book a quote for your painting project click here and Transform your home with lasting beauty!
We frequently receive requests asking if stucco (sometimes called popcorn) texture can be removed. Our answer is YES! CAM Painters has the tools and the experience to make your textured ceiling flat.
Let me take you through the process step by step
The stucco texture has to be sanded down as much as possible. Is this messy? Without the right tools it can be very messy. We , however, have a Festool dust extraction system which greatly minimizes the mess. It’s basically a high-tech power sander attached to a powerful HEPA filter vacuum cleaner. 90% of the dust is sucked into the vacuum canister before it has a chance to float around in the air and settle on your floor. This is one of the greatest cordless vacuum cleaners at busting the dust. This is amazing because it means that you don’t have to waste as much time hoovering up all of the scattered dust afterwards and is much smaller than an industrial system such as the ones avaliable at Integrated Air Systems. Here it is in action:
We then have to do 1 or 2 skim coats of plaster, depending on how smooth the ceiling is after the stucco removal.
We then have to sand our skim coats smooth.
Then we prime and make sure that there are no bubbles or other minor flaws in the skim coats. If we find any flaws we touch these up.
We apply 2 coats of high quality ceiling paint!
There you have it, that’s the process from start to finish.
A couple of other questions I get asked:
Does it matter if the stucco is painted vs. unpainted?
Yes, it does. Unpainted stucco is much easier to remove. The surface hasn’t been sealed and it comes off much quicker than painted stucco.
Painted stucco, on the other hand, requires a little more time and effort, but we can remove it, just the same.
I’ve heard that unpainted stucco can just be sprayed with water and scraped off, is this correct?
Yes it can. Unpainted stucco becomes very soft when misted with water and can be scraped off with a putty knife. Why don’t we do this? Two reasons:
Wet stucco makes a huge mess. We have a dust extraction system that sucks 90% of the dust into a vacuum cannister before it even has a chance to hit the floor, which means less mess.
If too much water is used it can damage the seams in the drywall making additional repairs necessary.
If you hate your stucco ceiling and want to make it smooth and flat schedule an estimate now and have CAM Painters Transform your home with lasting beauty!
Before you start to paint the stucco ceiling in your Toronto home STOP and read this post! You could save yourself some frustration.
The most important thing to figure out is whether the stucco has been previously painted or whether it’s bare.
Isn’t my ceiling painted already if it’s stucco? Not necessarily, stucco when it is initially applied is not sealed and stucco is water-soluble.
If latex paint is applied directly over bare stucco, the water content in the paint wets the stucco and makes it soft and heavy and it can cause the stucco to fall right off your ceiling!
How do I tell if my stucco is bare, or has been previously painted?
The first thing I would check is whether it powders up when it’s touched, if you have a powdery residue on your fingers after you touch the stucco, it’s bare stucco.
I’ve determined that I have bare stucco on my ceilings, how do I go about painting it?
You will have to use a flat sheen oil to paint your ceiling, in this case.
I’d recommend Zinsser Odourless, or something similar. Keep in mind, even though the product says “odourless” it still has a definite odour, so wear a respirator and make sure that young children and pets are not exposed to the fumes. You can buy a respirator from somewhere like www.sciquip.co.uk/products/ppe/ffp3-respirator-mask that will protect you from any harmful fumes.
Actually, my ceilings have been previously painted, how do I go about repainting them?
In this case you can use a flat sheen latex on your ceilings, just like if they were regular flat ceilings.
Regardless of whether the stucco ceiling is bare or previously painted keep in mind that you will get significantly more paint splatter and spray off the roller than with a flat ceiling. Keep this in mind when you prepare the room with dropsheets and plastic and make sure every nook and cranny is covered.
If you’d prefer to have us over to give you a quote for your stucco ceiling or to have your stucco ceiling made flat, you can click here to book a quote online. We’ll have your stucco ceiling looking great!
A common question I am asked from my Toronto home painting clients is, “What’s the best brush and roller to use for a painting project?” It really depends on what you’re painting and the finish you want to achieve.
