Thursday 24 March 2016

How You can Care for Painted Walls

A properly painted wall does not require any kind of formal maintenance. All that is needed to keep it look fresh and new for years is regular cleaning, done in the right way.

A common mistake that many homeowners make is to scrub a wall hard in an effort to remove a mark on it. While the mark may disappear, what is often left is a strange new shiny patch on the wall.

The hard scrubbing strips off some of the paint and smoothens the shiny patch differently to the rest of the surface; it is known as burnishing. The key to cleaning a painted wall is to react rapidly to stains, and remove them as soon as possible.

Cleaning painted walls

There are basically two kinds of stains – water- and oil-based. The water-based ones are caused by things like mustard, wine, sodas etc. These can generally be removed by wiping them off with a clean wet cloth.

Oil-based stains caused by things like shoe polish, lipstick, cooking grease and so on are more difficult to deal with. To remove oil-based marks from a wall try the following:

  • Wipe away the mark or stain with a rag, paper towel or nonabrasive sponge, soaked in clean water at room temperature.
  • If that does not remove the mark, repeat the process with a mild mixture of a little dishwashing liquid and water. If this too does not work, apply a few drops of detergent to a clean cloth or sponge and wipe off the mark. Do not use excessive pressure.
  • If the stain is tough to remove even after all these attempts, apply some detergent directly on the stain and gently wipe it off.
  • If nothing works, you may have to buy a special stain removing product designed for cleaning painted surfaces. Follow the usage instructions carefully. Note that these products have strong solvents in them that can affect the painted surface. Ensure that the spot is completely rinsed off and all the solvent is removed after the cleaning process is over.

Permanent markers

As the name says they are accepted to be permanent, and so are not easy to get rid of. You can try the detergent method outlined above, and follow it up with the addition of a stain removing product. However, it is likely that in the end there will be so much abrasion and paint damage caused that repainting becomes necessary.

Painting a home is a far more complex job than most people realize it to be. It is not just a matter of using good quality paint and the right brushes and rollers.

The type of paint, the preparation of the surface, the way the paint is applied, the number of layers and much more contribute to the quality and longevity of the results.

A badly painted surface will never look good or last no matter how clean it is kept. On the other hand, quality painting done by a professional finishing company can be expected to last for years with only minimal care.

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