12 Traits Of A Professional Painter

All of us paint a room. It’s not such a hard work. However, we can get a little bit disappointed after we see the results. This is why professional painters exist. They won’t make mistakes that we make while painting the room. They have various tricks and secrets how to do a remarkable job, and that’s why we are paying them. In this article, we will try to cover some characteristic and tricks that the painters use.

1) Clear the room
Yes, a professional painter knows how hard it is to work in a room stocked with furniture. He will ask from the homeowner to remove everything from the room. This process may be boring, and it may take you a lot of time. However, it is a necessity if you want the best possible painting job. Paint can drip everywhere, so many pieces of furniture could be ruined. Be sure to move everything around the room, because furniture can also block the painter from moving around the room. 

2) Preparation
A professional painter will inspect the wall that he’s dealing with. He will check for cracks or lumps that can harden his work. This is very important. Cracks and bumps will stop the painter from doing the job properly. The painter will send every lump. He will caulk the holes and cracks, and he will remove the old color. The final touch would be a sponge and a water to remove the last traits of the problems.

3) The paint and equipment
Every professional needs to have the right tool. We all know cases where extraordinary artists didn’t have money for a proper tool but they still managed to do a great job. But, you don’t want to risk. The first thing is to buy quality paint. Don’t try to save your money on this one, because you will suffer the consequences. A professional painter has proper tools. The brushes and rollers are all of high quality, and a painter knows the right way to use them.

4) A perfect load of paint
The ideal amount of paint on the brush or roller is that amount that you can control. This is what every professional painter will tell you. They will inspect the brush by tapping it against the can. They will tap both sides to knock of the drips. If the brush is moving along the wall there is a smaller chance of drippings. A professional painter will know this trick, and he will reduce the mess in the room.

5) Painting the doors
An amateur painter will come with a thought that door painting is easy. However, this is a great mistake. Professional painter knows the right way to paint the door. He will remove them and place them horizontally. This will stop any undesired vertical drips that you can see on doors that amateurs painted. They will start the work from the outside edges toward the center. While the paint is wet, they will use the dry brush to pull the brush from the panel to level out the finish. Stiles and rails are easy to paint. The professional will just follow the grain of the wood. This will create a coherent door paint job.

6) Professionals paint from top to bottom
This is the usual way to see if someone is a professional or an amateur. If you hire a painter that starts the work from the middle or from the bottom, you know that there is a small chance that he will do the proper job. A professional knows how to use the possibility of dripping, so he starts from the top. This way, he will have a chance to fix those dripping lines later.

7) Wall by wall
Professionals don’t get tempted to do the corners first and then go back to roll the walls. They are aware that this is not the proper way to do the job. They do the cutting on a wall and then use rollers to fill the large surfaces. This will allow the brushed paint and the rolled one to blend better. It will eliminate the possibility of painting traces, which is a great sin in the painting business.

8) Mixing the color
This may sound strange but professionals like to mix the same color into one big bucket. You are probably wondering why are they doing this if that’s the same paint? Well, it is the same paint, but that might not be the truth. It is not a rare case where manufacturers produce the same line of paints but with slight hue differences. This can ruin the painting, so the professionals are mixing everything to create one color.

9) Elimination of brush marks
Professionals are using paint extender to remove the possibility of brush marks. You will get two benefits from using this trick. Your paint will need more time to dry, and this eliminates the brush traces. It also levels out the paint, which eliminates the possibility of brush strokes. This is a great trick because it will make the walls smooth and neat.

10) Professionals use degreaser
You cannot paint over dirty and greasy surfaces. With the use of rubber gloves, the professional will use the degreaser to clean these areas. This is usually a kitchen scenario because of all the cooking. After cleaning the wall and removing the old cracked paint, a painter will slowly remove the dirty spots with a degreaser. This will allow perfect painting flow and brush moves.

11) Avoiding lap marks
A professional know the right way to use the roller. He does this by keeping the wet edge. Lap marks happen when you roll over the parts that started to dry. Keeping a wet edge means that a professional will make strokes that overlap the previous strokes. This will create a coherent surface.

12) Tape trick
Tapping the surfaces that you don’t want to paint is essential for a proper painting job. However, we can’t always keep a straight tape line. A professional knows how to do this. He holds the tape against the wall and unrolls a couple of inches of tape. The next step is to rotate the roll down until the tape is stuck. Then he repeats the process.

There are many things that differ a professional from an amateur. Here, we tried to cover some interesting tricks that will help you to detect a professional. However, if you are interested in painting, you can try them yourself.