Although hiring a professional painting contractor is probably the best choice you could make when it comes to painting your home, if you would like to save yourself some money, you could attempt to paint your house on your own. It is not very hard to do at all if you have the right tools and do it in the right weather. If you have patience and are willing to learn as you go, it may be a good thing and could end up being fun.

First Things First – Calculate Your Paint Needs

The first thing you have to do is determine the amount of space that you are going to paint, then calculate the correct amount of paint that you will use for your job—the bigger your home, the more paint that you will need to paint, the whole thing. You can do this by getting a tape measure and measuring one wall at a time. You measure the bottom, horizontal width of the wall, then measure the highest point of the wall height. Once you get these numbers you can multiply them together in order to calculate the approximate square footage of each wall. Yes, the top of the peak of the roof could be considerably less than the side of the roof that is not peaked, but you will have a general idea of your square footage on each wall. If you want to get technical you can take a measurement from each corner of the ground to the top corner vertically in the places that are lower and calculate the square footage by misusing the extra square footage that was at first calculated into the equation. However, it is not such a bad thing to have some extra paint, in the end, to patch up places that need it.

Second; Determine Your Paint Type

Once you figure out how much paint you will need, you have to determine what kind of paint you will use for your home. In this article, we will be discussing the external paint job since you will be painting the part of your home that will be exposed to the weather and elements. A professional painter would instantly know the type of paint to use for the best results. If you have no idea what type of paint is best, the best thing to do is hope that somebody with good painting advice has great SEO skills so that you can find their advice and answers on the web. Do a web search for the area that your home is in and the best type of paint for that environment. If you can’t find anything, the best thing to do is go into a paint store and ask somebody who knows what they are doing. In most cases, the oil-based paints that have the primer already inside of them work the best. Oil-based paint will not wash away in the rain. If you try to paint your home with inferior paint, you will only cause more problems in the end. Sun, wind, rain, and barometric pressure all play a huge role in the deterioration of paints.

Protect The Area From Paint Spills and Brush Strokes

Paint can cause a huge mess if you’re not careful and take the time to prevent messes before they happen. Whenever you paint in a place over concrete, flooring, or any other stainable area, be sure to lay down a tarp. Don’t just put down a small tarp either; make sure that it is big enough to protect a large area. You should use a tarp that is at least 20 X 20 feet and is capable of protecting an area from any spillage. If your tarp is the cheap kind that will allow for paint seepage, you need to throw it in the trash and get a good one. If you want to keep the area from getting stained up with oil-based paints, you have to take the time to protect it. Wherever you are painting trim or small areas that are close to different colored paint, use a good painter’s tape like Frog tape in order to keep the excess paint from contaminating the other painted area. Use a tape that will seal the area but will not pull off the tape after it has been applied.

Start Painting

Once you have your paint, your tools, and your area protected from paint spillage, you are now ready to begin painting. Most painting contractors will use professional tools like sprayers and high-quality rollers, but if you don’t have those things, it’s OK. If you take your time and use a brush with a roller it will come out great. The key is to not rush it, and to roll the paint roller smoothly and easily over the walls as you paint. Never push too hard, or roll too fast because the excess paint will fly off of the roller in a long spiral that will ruin everything within 10 feet around it.

Conclusion

If after you finish painting your home and it looks awful, don’t fret. Just call a professional to do it as you should have in the first place. Leave things like painting homes and other jobs up to the professionals, or you could end up with a big mess.