Very often, water-based or oil paint, as well as various kinds of enamels, are used for decorative wall decoration. Before using these products, the concrete or plastered surface should be prepared with the utmost care. After all, any, even small irregularities (bumps, pits) on the painted walls will stand out very strongly.
The surface is usually prepared for painting in several stages. First of all, you will have to remove the old coating. After that, the walls will need to be plastered or puttied. And at the final stage, a thorough cleaning of the premises is mandatory.
How to prepare the walls for painting: the first stage
Before you start finishing work, it is advisable to de-energize the power grid in the house. If the surface of the walls has a lot of defects and it is supposed to be leveled, sockets and switches should be completely dismantled. Of course, it will be necessaryalso remove all hanging decorative elements from the room: panels, paintings, photos, etc. You will also have to remove shelves and hangers, pull out dowels and nails.
How to remove wallpaper from walls
Of course, before you start finishing the surface, you need to remove the old coating from it. First, let's see how to prepare the walls for painting after wallpaper. The latter are usually removed using two spatulas - large and small. It is very important to choose tools with as sharp edges as possible. If necessary, spatulas can be sharpened with emery. Also, to remove old wallpaper, you will need to prepare warm water in a basin, a roller with needles and a soft rag.
You need to soak the wallpaper gradually, moving from one place to another and periodically checking how well the stripes have fallen behind. It is best to start tearing the material from the walls with a spatula from the seam. Dried wallpaper should be moistened again. In order for water to penetrate the adhesive better, it is advisable to pre-pass the strips with a spiked roller.
How to remove old paint
So, we figured out how to remove old wallpaper from the surface. Next, let's find out how to prepare the walls for painting correctly if they were previously covered with enamel. This type of finish is, of course, much more difficult to remove from the surface than wallpaper. However, it is definitely worth doing. You can remove enamel or oil paint from the walls using different tools and tools.
The easiest way is to try to delete the old layer withusing a solvent. This tool is suitable for removing all types of paints. In addition to the solvent itself, in this case you will also need a wide brush. It is best to start removing enamel from the top of the walls. It is necessary to rub the solvent into the paint in several passes. As soon as the enamel softens, you should take a scraper and just clean it off. Residue is usually removed using a stiff brush.
Also, an ax and warm water are often used to remove old paint. In this case, notches are first made on the wall. The more often they are, the better. Next, the surface is abundantly watered. After 4-5 minutes after that, the plaster will get wet, and the enamel can be quite easily cut off with the same ax.
How to properly prepare walls for painting if they are uneven
As soon as the old decorative coating is removed, you can proceed to the next stage of surface treatment. It consists in carefully leveling the walls. This procedure can be performed in several ways:
- plastering;
- puttying;
- by installing GKL sheets.
Wall plastering
Applying cement or asbestos mortar to the surface is an excellent answer to the question of how to prepare walls for painting if they are very uneven. Corrective work is carried out in this way mainly when the old plaster layer adheres very poorly to concrete (or itsthickness is negligible). The work is done in this case in this way:
- The old plaster layer is carefully peeled off the walls.
- A layer of primer "Betonkontakt" is applied to the concrete.
- Beacons are installed on the wall.
- A masking net is stretched between the beacons.
- The wall gets wet with water.
- A plaster layer is applied through the rule.
So, the surface is leveled with cement or alabaster mortar. Next, let's see how to prepare plastered walls for painting. In order for them to look neat in the future, they need to be puttied. In this case, it is worth using only a high-quality fine-grained product. Very well suited for this purpose, for example, the compositions of the popular brand "Knauf".
Wall plastering
Plastering is an excellent answer to the question of how to prepare walls for painting in a new building (where the concrete surface is not finished with mortar at all). Also, this method is well suited for rooms in very old houses. However, in apartments of high-rise buildings built 15-20 years ago, the plaster layer often adheres to the walls quite firmly. In this case, knocking it down, of course, should not be. It is enough just to level the surface, removing all the bumps. Next, you need to go through the wall with sandpaper. The puttying of such surfaces, as well as those finished with plaster in a new way, is carried out using two spatulas as followsway:
- putty mixed according to the instructions is picked up with a narrow spatula and applied to a wide one;
- composition is evenly distributed over the wall (layer no more than 2 mm).
When processing with putty, the wall should be sanded periodically with sandpaper No. 60-80. Significant effort is not required. Otherwise, the putty layer can be simply peeled off.
Leveling walls with drywall
Using drywall sheets is also a great answer to the question of how to prepare walls for painting. This method is quite expensive, but with the help of such material the surface can be made perfectly flat. Most often, drywall for wall cladding is used in wooden houses. Sometimes this material is also used to level concrete surfaces with a large number of defects.
GKL sheets are usually installed on a metal profile. The latter is attached to the wall in increments of 60 cm. Actually, the drywall sheets themselves are fixed on the profile using self-tapping screws (with an interval of 25 cm). GKL should be installed in a checkerboard pattern with a shift of about 50 cm. The joints between the sheets must be glued with sickle tape.
Often the owners of country houses and apartments are also interested in how to prepare plasterboard walls for painting. As well as plastered, before applying a decorative layer, such a surface must be puttied. It is not recommended to skip this step. Being applied directly todrywall, paint may be absorbed or discolored. In addition, ugly spots will definitely appear on it. And the seams between the sheets will be clearly visible.
Primer surface
The puttyed walls after drying should be once again passed with fine sandpaper. Next, you can start priming the surface. It is best to use acrylic for this purpose. The walls are treated with such a primer, usually in two layers. A roller is used as a tool. The second layer is applied to the first after it has completely dried.
Final stage
After the walls are carefully leveled, puttied and primed, the room must be cleaned up. In no case should there be dust in the rooms. Otherwise, it will certainly begin to settle on the surface in the process of drying it. This will make painted walls look messy.
Features of work in the bathroom
Above, we discussed how to level a concrete or plastered surface in ordinary dry rooms: a living room, a bedroom, an office, etc. The answer to the question of how to prepare the walls in the bathroom for painting will be a little different. The surface in this case can also be leveled with plaster or drywall. However, materials should be used exclusively moisture resistant. It is best to take cement plaster (prepared in a ratio of 1x3) or alabaster, but designed specifically for wall decoration in bathrooms.rooms. Gypsum boards for cladding such premises are also used special - green, moisture resistant.
Thus, we have figured out how to prepare the walls for painting with water-based paint (oil or enamel). If their surface is fairly even, this procedure will not take too long. To eliminate significant defects, of course, forces and means will be needed. But in any case, preparation should be carried out as carefully as possible. This is the only way to ensure that the room ultimately looks neat and beautiful.
