Many choices of painting material are available and the trend is to look for best-looking and durable paintwork, irrespective of the cost involved. However, simply buying the best and most expensive paints doesn't bring the desired results. Certain workmanship points too need to be kept in mind. Renaissance is the idea at the back of the mind when a house owner decides to repaint his house. The old paint needs to be removed and surfaces prepared. And, painting a newly-built house demands equal attention, as the first paintwork lays the foundation for all future works. So, a few guidelines given here and in next six episodes must be followed.
First check
Before doing internal and external finishing work, ensure that all doors and windows have been installed in position, all electrical conduits, their boxes and fixtures embedded in walls and walls finished smooth. There should be no plaster finishing marks along the conduits. All plumbing and sanitary pipeline chases must have been filled and finished. Take some more precautions. Tape all the edges of switchboards and window frames. Put jute bags or waste clothes on the floor to save it from paint droppings. When painting external walls, remove your vehicles from the site and cover the plants and shrubs, if you can't move them. Cover all door and window fittings with polythene and tape to avoid messy blotches.
Colour Magic
Decide the colours you are going to in your home very carefully. Pastel shades of pink, green and blue bring a soothing effect to a room while yellow and red are very attractive and make the room look warm. In
Generally, a colour palette displaying hundreds of colours is available with paint dealers. Check it to choose shades of your choice. The present trend is to use a dark colour on one wall of a room to highlight it and project it as the feature wall while lighter colour is applied on the other walls.
If the walls and floor are light-coloured, a room will look bigger. So, choose light colours if you want your room to look bigger. If the ceiling is low, again choose light colours as these will enhance visibility in the room. If the ceiling is too high, apply a dark colour to it and see the room height decrease instantly. Shining and reflecting wall surfaces will also make the room look bigger. If you run a strip or band of colour all round a room, it will give a compact look.
Light and shade
While deciding the colour scheme, you must see how they look in artificial light. Generally, dark colours look brighter in artificial light while light ones appear suppressed. Shade cards don't give you the exact idea. Choose by visiting a friend's house or showrooms where you could see the colours on a wall. Before buying your total requirement, buy samplers (easily available now in most leading brands). Paint a small area of wall, allow it to dry and then decide. You just cannot go wrong this way.
Sequence it Right
Paint a room in the following sequence: Always paint the ceiling first. That way, any drops trickling on to the walls will not be a problem. Next, do the walls and finally, the doors and windows. The most important part of painting, white washing and colouring your house is to find a really good painter. Take extra pain here -- a good painter can put an end to more than half your worries instantly.
Brand Matters
Always buy good quality paint from a reputed company. Never go for cheap and low quality paint even if the painter suggests so. Look for reputed names. Even if you choose a lower grade -- i.e. first, second or third quality -- let it be of a reputed brand. This will help in getting a well-finished surface. Buy the paint in one lot. Different manufacturing lots may have slight difference in appearance. So, to avoid a variation in shade and to have a uniform look, buying full quantity of paint in one lot is important.
Options Aplenty
A large variety of wall and woodwork paints is available and it is difficult for the house builder to decide which paint to choose for each surface. For internal surfaces, the choice is between whitewash, colourwash, dry distemper, oil bound (oil emulsion) distempers, plastic (acrylic) emulsion paints and premium emulsion paints. For exterior surfaces, choice is between cement paints such as Snowcem Paints red paints, semi acrylic emulsion paints, 100% acrylic emulsion paints, heritage finish, spectrum finish and cladding. For woodwork, choice is between synthetic enamel paint, French polish, polyurethane polish and melamine polish.
Calculation Time
Work out the required quantity of each type of paint to be used by measuring the areas of the walls and the ceiling. Deduct the area of doors, windows, ventilators, openings, cupboards etc from the wall area. Work out the area of ceilings. If you can't work this out, as a thumb rule, multiply your floor area by 5 and this is the approximate total area to be painted. Different type of paints have different covering capacities. Wall emulsions such as acrylic, plastic and lustre cover about 80 to 150 sq ft. area a litre when applied in two coats. Acrylic and oil bound distempers cover 60 to 100 sqft per kg per two coats. Wood enamels cover 80 to 90 sqft per litre per two coats while transparent finishes cover just 40 sq ft per litre per two coats. Exterior acrylic or textured can cover 50 to 75 sq ft area per litre per two coats and cement paints cover about 30 sqft area per litre per two coats. Coverage capacity differs from company to company.
Cost Factor
For least cost of finishing work, the combination of paints is cement paint for external walls, dry or oil bound distemper for internal walls, French polish or synthetic enamel of second quality for woodwork and third quality synthetic emulsion for metals. For best quality work and no cost consideration, use a combination of dirt proof and weather proof 100 per cent acrylic exterior emulsion paint or heritage finish or spectrum finish for external walls, premium emulsion paint for internal walls, melamine or polyurethane finish for woodwork and first quality synthetic enamel for metallic surfaces. For medium cost and quality, use textured exterior emulsion paint or semi acrylic emulsion paint or cladding for external walls, low range plastic emulsion for internal walls, low range melamine or polyurethane polish for woodwork and second quality synthetic enamel for metallic surfaces.
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