If you are planning to paint a room in your house you should take time to prepare the walls for paint. Even if you don’t have nail pops or holes there are things you should do before applying that coat of primer or another top coat.
Cleaning your walls is a must for every paint job and doing so will allow you to inspect your walls for any imperfections that need to be fixed.
If your room has not been painted in over 5 years you may want to think about washing the ceiling too. If you are a smoker or have a fireplace resins from the smoke will attach to all surfaces in the room.
Bathrooms and kitchens have the same problems.
In your kitchen you are likely to have a lot of grease buildup that can cause problems with adhesion if you were to paint over it even with a primer.
In bathrooms its not cooking grease but house hold chemicals and general dirt that can cause paint problems.
The best thing to do is wash all surfaces that you intend to paint with a weak soap and water solution. Some people may suggest a commercial cleaner like tri-sodium phosphate but thats really not necessary.
For a simple cleaning solution that you can put in an empty spray bottle or prepare in a bucket add one cap full of liquid laundry detergent to a bucket of water. Five gallon painter buckets work great for this and you should fill it about 3/4 of the way full with water.
Use a combination of rags and sponges to wet the wall well with the solution and let it sit for about an hour. If you have a large room you may not even make it around the whole area before that hour is up. After the walls have been washed with soap you should rinse with water to remove the residue.
After Cleaning
After all the walls are clean you can begin repairing any damage such as popped nails, cracks or holes from thumbtacks and nails.
Vinyl Spackle is a good choice because it will dry quickly and tends to hold small holes out better then drywall compound.
If you have painted moldings make sure they are in good condition. You can use drywall spackle or compound to fix small problems on these surfaces there is no reason to buy wood filer unless the damage is large.
Check for gaps around doors where the moldings attach to the wall they are a common place for cracking during settling of the house. If the jams are painted you can use standard interior latex caulk.
If you have problem stains you may want to preprime those areas. If you will be painting your windows and they have wood surfaces then an alcohol based primer will dry fast enough to allow you to paint the same day.
After repairs are done
Once you have the walls washed of grease and other problems and have repaired any damage you should vacuum clean the area around the base board of your walls. Dirt and debris that are on your floor will end up in your paint and after drying they will be a headach to repair.
If you can not vacuum clean the whole room then at least pickup what you can around the base of the wall with a shopvac.
The very last step would be to tack cloth the wall but this is only necessary if there is a lot of dust from your repairs. You can use a painters tack cloth around your moldings and windows and a very lightly moistened towel to pickup dust on your drywall surfaces.
Your room should now be as good as you can get it for painting.
You can now begin masking where necessary and get to painting.