Did you just work with painting companies and get a beautiful new painting style that looks great for your home? Congratulations, you made a smart choice that you’re not going to regret! According to Open Door, interior painting typically results in a 107% ROI. However, it’s important to make sure that you take good care of your room right after it gets painted to ensure that it doesn’t get damaged and you maintain that high ROI. Here are several steps that you can take that can ensure that your paint stays strong after you’re done.
1. Pay Close Attention to High-Traffic Areas
High-traffic areas are any spot in your home that gets used regularly, and they typically need more careful attention after painting. For example, according to Forbes, high-traffic areas like family rooms or guest areas may need paints that can withstand cleaning more aggressively than occasional wipe-downs. Identify these areas and make sure you get special paint for them.
Furthermore, you need to talk with your family to make sure that they find ways to reduce potential issues with your paint. For example, you might want to redirect them around high-traffic areas by relocating things like your food to areas that aren’t as regularly used or which haven’t been painted yet. Doing so can not only help reduce wear and tear but can also minimize potential paint leakage onto your clothes and other areas of your home.
After you have identified these areas and properly helped your family mitigate potential problems, it’s important to regularly care for your paint to help it last longer. In the following sections, we’ll break down a few steps that you can take to ensure that you get the best results possible. Let’s take a deeper dive into this topic to get an idea of what to expect when maintaining your walls after painting.
2. Take Preventative Steps
After managing your high-traffic areas, it’s a good idea to take several preventative steps to ensure that your home’s protected from more wear and tear problems. First of all, you need to regularly clean your walls to ensure that dirt doesn’t accumulate and cause serious stains. After all, dirt can become permanently embedded in the paint film if it’s left to sit too long, so regular cleaning (weekly) can help keep your new paint fresh and clean for much longer.
Now, when you are cleaning your walls after a fresh paint job, you need to make sure that you cut back on the power that you use when cleaning. Power cleaners are a terrible idea because they’re likely to strip paint or cause severe damage that may worsen with time. Instead, wash the walls with your hands using a soft sponge or wash rag that can carefully break apart the dirt without stripping your paint’s finish and removing or damaging its color.
Importantly, make sure that you use a mild cleaner that doesn’t risk seriously damaging your walls and your paint. A mild soap solution is always a good choice, as it uses a soft sponge to reduce pressure on the walls. Rinsing your walls with warm water is also a good choice because it can break apart dirt and stains and minimize problems. Regularly cleaning your walls in this way can reduce the risk of paint damage and help the paint stay stronger for longer.
3. Breaking Apart Specific Issues
Have you run into problems in the past with your paint due to specific issues? We’re talking about things like crayons and washable markers that your kids simply couldn’t keep off the walls. If so, you should try to avoid these issues in the future by either keeping these items out of your kids’ hands or by cleaning your walls regularly when they get damaged. For example, crayons and markers can break apart with a high-strength, multipurpose cleaner.
In some cases, you may need to use baking soda on a damp sponge to break apart more difficult stains. This process may include scrubbing the imperfections and stains with a light sponge to break them apart and get your walls back to normal. Typically, it’s best to perform this kind of spot cleaning the moment you notice an issue: doing so can ensure that you take care of the problem more quickly and help you keep your paint from getting damaged.
You should also try to clean your walls based on the type of room they’re in to ensure you take care of specific stain problems. For example, greasy kitchens may need liquid ammonia diluted in water to break apart grease stains and other concerns. You can also use a multipurpose cleaner to get rid of kick marks and scuffs in entryways, which are a common issue in entry rooms or in children’s bedrooms. Don’t neglect cleaning up your walls daily if your kids threaten your paint.
Note that some stains might not come off your walls at all, so it’s important to keep these items away from your walls at any cost. Painting companies suggest keeping permanent markets, other types of paint, acidic substances, and other materials away from your walls to minimize serious damage problems. Trying to clean these can also increase the risk of damaging your walls by forcing you to scrub too hard and potentially stripping paint off of your walls.
4. Remove Wax and Other Materials
What about problems like wax and gum? These hard substances can seem nearly impossible to get off your walls without damaging your paint. However, that doesn’t have to be the case if you understand a few simple hacks. Thankfully, these shouldn’t be too hard to do and typically only include a few simple tools that you probably already have in your home already!
For instance, you can hold a bag of cold ice to hardened gum to harden it up and dry it out. In some cases, the gum might just fall right off the wall without damaging your paint after getting frozen in this way. However, you may need to use a spatula or a dull butter knife to get underneath the gum and carefully pry it away from the wall without damaging your paint.
As for wax, use a hair dryer to warm it up and melt it slightly before wiping it away with a paper towel or another similar cleaning tool. Typically, this should remove the wax without damaging your paint, though it might leave behind a mark. Thankfully, a solution of diluted vinegar should help remove this mark without damaging your paint too severely.
5. Protecting the Walls With Primers
While spot cleaning can do a lot to keep your new paint safe from severe damage, it’s a good idea to have your painters apply a stain-blocking primer to its surface to avoid residual stains. The primer not only helps make it easier to clean stains off the walls but can block them from developing. Even better, a good stain will produce a consistent look that makes your walls even more attractive.
By taking these steps seriously, you’ll be able to enjoy your freshly painted walls for years to come! If necessary, you can contact one of your local painting companies, such as our team, to learn more about proper paint maintenance and to ensure that you can improve your overall home’s style and quality. We’ll do what we can to touch up any issues with your home and provide the high-quality support that you need to keep your home’s paint as strong as possible for years to come. Reach out to our team at Derheim Painting today to learn more.