So you’ve signed the contract and have a start date scheduled for your project. Now it is time to prepare for your interior painting project. Here is what comes next:
- Choose Your Paint Colors and Sheen
- Prepping Your House For Interior Painting
- The First Day of the Project
- What if You Can’t Be There?
- What Does SurePro do at the Start of a Project?
- What About The End of a Project?
1. Choose Your Paint Colors and Sheen
Please have your paint and stain colors and sheens picked out before we begin. If you already know them, you can share them with us here.
If you haven’t picked a paint color yet but have an idea of the colors you want, you will want to try some samples to see how they look in your space:
Visit a Paint or Hardware Store
You can get color sample cards, a color book, and paint samples at your local paint or hardware store. We use and recommend various paints by the following (click for location):
- Sherwin-Williams
- Kelly Moore
- Benjamin Moore
- Home Depot (Behr Paint)
- Lowe’s (Valspar)
Paint a Couple of Sample Spots
A color can look far different on a wall than it does on the sample card. We always recommend painting a couple of sample spots in differently lit areas of a room. Lighting can greatly affect how certain paint colors look. A color may look more green or red depending on the amount of natural light and color temperature of bulbs in a room.
Don’t Forget to Choose a Sheen
In addition to the color, you need to select a sheen. This is how “shiny” the paint finish appears. Common choices are flat/matte, eggshell, satin, semi-gloss, and gloss. As a general rule, paints with higher sheens (gloss and sem-gloss) are more durable and easier to clean, hence their popularity on cabinets, trim, doors, etc.
Flat and matte sheens can scatter the light making a surface appear softer. It also hides imperfections more easily. They are popular for walls and especially ceilings.
Satins and eggshell are very popular for walls, especially areas with more moisture or higher use, like a kitchen or bathroom. They are much easier to clean and more durable than a flat finish.
Depending on the paint company and even individual product, some terms are interchangeable (satin for eggshell, flat for matte, etc). Or new terminology is used altogether (low-lustre, pearl, etc). Your options will depend on what brand of paint is being used.
You can learn more about paint sheen here.
Tell Us Your Final Selections
Once you have chosen your colors and sheen, make sure to pass the choices along to us by email or by texting them to your project manager. Please give us the color name as well as the corresponding number or “color code”. For example, the color “Moth Wing” by Sherwin-Williams has the code “SW 9174”. These numbers will be printed on the sample cards or paint samples you received.
Do You Need Help Picking Paint Colors?
Ok, choosing paint colors isn’t as easy as it first seems for many of us. There are so many shades… even choosing a shade of white paint isn’t easy. Luckily, Sherwin-Williams offers professional color consultation and it’s very affordable.
For $95 (as of early 2020), you get a 90-minute onsite consultation with a professional color consultant. AND, they give you back a $50 Sherwin-Williams gift card which we can apply to your painting project as a credit.
This is a great, affordable way to get a professional’s input and suggestions on the colors you are choosing. And if your painting project is over $4,000, we offer this service for free!
Learn more about Sherwin-Williams Colorsnap Program
2. Prepping Your House For Interior Painting
Each different project has its unique demands, but here are some basic items that the homeowner will need to do to prepare for an interior painting project:
- Remove Artwork, Photos, and Wall Hangings – Any items that are hanging on the walls needs to come down. This means artwork, photos, and wall hangings need to be removed. Please note the locations. In most cases we will remove nail and picture hangers in order to properly paint a wall. Larger anchors will be left in place.
- Take Down the TV – In order to paint the wall behind a TV, the TV will need to be taken down in most cases unless it is on a pivoting arm mount. As a general rule, we do not remove and re-install TV’s.
- Move the Furniture – This one will depend on the work you are having done. In most cases, furniture should be moved away from the walls toward the center of the rooms. If the walls are being painted, our painters will need at least 3′ of clearance to work. In some cases, furniture may need to be moved as we go. The less items that are in the way, the better.
- We Can Help You – We are not professional movers. But we realize that many people sometimes just need a hand or two to move that dresser or other items. We can even move all the furniture during a project for a small fee. However, be aware that we prefer the customers to handle their own belongings. For this reason, we cannot be responsible for damage or scratches or other issues that may arise from handling personal items.
3. The First Day of the Project
We will schedule a day with a time window for the start of your project which your project manager will coordinate with you. On the start day, your project manager will go over the summary of the project with you as well as walk through the details with our crew.
If you haven’t given us your paint color and sheen choices yet, you can give them to the project manager at this time. They can also answer any questions you might have about the overall project or any details that may need to be covered.
4. What if You Can’t Be There?
We prefer that you are onsite to meet with us at the beginning of your project so we can go over the scope one last time before beginning and clear up any questions. However, sometimes we have clients who can’t be there or who are located out of town.
If you are comfortable with the scope of the work being done and have a pretty straightforward project, we can sometimes get started even if you can’t be there.
JUST MAKE SURE WE HAVE ACCESS TO THE PROPERTY
This is commonly done in a variety of ways:
- Realtor-style combo lockbox
- Hidden key
- Garage key code
- Door key code
- Family/friend onsite to grant access
We will make sure to lock up at the end of the day and put the key back where it needs to go.
5. What Does SurePro Do at the Start of the Project?
Your house is now our canvas! But we’re not quite ready to start yet. Here is what we do as part of any interior painting project:
- Plastic and Dropcloths – To protect the floors, fixtures, counters, furniture, and personal belongings
- Cleaning – Some surfaces need to be vacuumed or wiped down before they can be prepped for painting
- Caulking – Caulking open gaps and seems, such as along trim and baseboard
- Fill Nail Holes – Fill nail holes of various sizes with putty before painting
- Prepping – Might include light sanding of trim or doors, or otherwise preparing surfaces for painting
- Taping & Masking – Masking and taping windows, trim and baseboards, and edges of surfaces is a required part of most projects.
- Clean Up – A clean jobsite is a happy jobsite! We will straighten up and broom-sweep daily, and will thoroughly clean our mess at the end of a project.
6. What About The End of a Project?
At then end of a project, we clean up the mess from the project, vacuuming loose debris and disposing of all project trash. All opened leftover paint cans are left with the customer for any future touch-ups or color-matching, and any unopened returnables are taken back to the store. (If needed, we can look up your colors from a previous project in the last two years)
Now you are ready for your walk-through! During the walk-through, your project manager will walk through the scope of the work to make sure everything was completed. This is the time to point out any blemishes, missed spots, or other areas that need touch-ups. We will also take some final photos. These photos are sometimes used as examples of our work in our portfolio, however we never share your private info such as name or address or any other identifying info.
Touch-ups are required for nearly every project, and we want to give you the best result possible. We will return for one touch-up session to address all final issues and touch-ups. Walk-throughs need to be completed within three (3) days of initial completion of project, and any final touch-ups pointed out and addressed within ten (10) days of project completion.
Trust SurePro Painting for a job done right. Feel free to contact us with any questions, or click the button to schedule a free estimate!
