Painting FAQ

An average interior room takes us a day and a half. We can frequently finish within a day, but because of dry times and touch-ups, we may need a few hours the following day to complete a room. If you are doing several rooms at once, things go a little faster because we can work in a second room while the first room is drying.

For walls we use latex. For your trim, we will check to see if your existing paint is oil or latex and typically use what you already have. Mixing paint types can cause you long-term problems that can only be fixed by stripping all the paint from your trim or by installing new trim.

All trim gets caulked and the nail holes get two coats of an epoxy wood filler. We then prime all trim with an oil-based primer. If your trim comes pre-primed, we will be priming it again because we need to apply this coat of primer to cover the wood filler and caulk we have applied to your nail holes and seams. After we prime your trim we apply two coats of paint. We sand your trim after we fill your nail holes, after we prime it, and after the first coat of paint.

Monk’s recommends oil-based paint for interior trim. There is a difference between how the oil and latex look when it dries. Oil-based paint is also easier to sand and will give you a smoother finish on your trim. We recommend a semi-gloss finish for your trim.

We recommend having new walls primed immediately after the taping and spackling job, but before any of the interior trim is hung. We can prime the drywall of most any house in two days. It does not affect our price if we prime the walls and then return in several weeks to finish the job, or if we prime and paint in one trip at the end of the job.

Once the walls are primed, it is easier to spot any problems in the drywall job. You can see if the seams, corners, and screw heads are evenly finished. If you need to call the Sheetrock contractor back for some touch-up work, there is plenty of time without holding up the job.

Priming the walls before installing the trim also makes it easier for the carpenters to see exactly how their trim looks on a white wall. It can be hard to see exactly how big the gaps between the wall and trim are when the wall isn’t primed first. In addition, having us prime early ensures that all your drywall is sealed up before any cabinets are installed.

After priming, we coat all the walls with two coats of latex paint. We use Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams products because we think they are the best. We recommend a flat finish for your ceiling, a matte finish for most walls, and an eggshell finish for your kitchen and bathrooms. On a large job, it may be worthwhile for you to hire a color consultant.

You need to move all the small, delicate, and valuable items from the work area. Other examples include:

• You should remove all your wall hangings before we arrive, but we can help you move heavy mirrors.
• You need to move the books, but we will move the bookshelf.
• Disconnect any large flat-screen TVs before we arrive.
• We will handle the sofas, desks, chairs, and beds.

We cover your wood floors in work areas with resin paper and use plastic covered with canvas tarps to protect your carpets and furniture.

The best situation for the homeowner is to have the flooring contractor complete the sanding, staining, and one coat of polyurethane before painting begins. We will then protect the floors with resin paper while we paint. After we finish, the flooring contractor comes back and applies the final coat of polyurethane. Most reputable floor contractors work this way and will not be surprised if you ask for this arrangement.

If the flooring contractor applies all three coats before we arrive, the painting job becomes very difficult. That’s because it’s difficult to tape resin paper to the new polyurethane on the floor without damaging it. Plus, we will be creating dust in the house that will end up on the new polyurethane.

Also, if the flooring contractor doesn’t start his sanding until after we finish, dust will be all over your newly painted walls. The flooring contractor might also ding up the paint job on the baseboards as he sands the floor.

No matter what, the flooring contractor needs to leave and return to the job between coats of stain and polyurethane. It does not add any work for him to delay the final coat by a week or two. If we paint after the sanding and before the final coat of polyurethane, you will find most rooms dust-free with clean fresh paint and polyurethane. Your floor and walls will then be in perfect condition.

Monk’s also offers dustless floor refinishing. We will coordinate our crews to minimize your project time while ensuring the best result. Please let us know if you are interested in this option.

Monk’s painters will not paint over wallpaper unless it has been previously painted over. The first person to paint over wallpaper creates a big problem for someone else that must be corrected sometime in the future. Additional paint jobs do not make the problem any worse. If you have a house where the wallpaper has been painted over, we recommend continuing to paint over it until the paper starts peeling from the wall and becomes a problem. It is very difficult to remove wallpaper once it has been painted over until the glue fails and the paper starts coming off by itself.

Otherwise, we will remove the wallpaper prior to painting your walls. After removing your wallpaper, we will prime your walls with one coat of an oil-based primer. This prevents any remaining glue from ruining the paint job over future years. Without priming them first, your paint will flake and peel for years to come. It is very difficult to solve this problem once the walls have been painted. After the oil-based primer dries, we will repair any cracks and smooth the walls before painting.

Nail pops and seam failures are the biggest issues we correct on Sheetrock walls and ceilings. For nail pops, we install additional screws around the popped nail head in an effort to secure the Sheetrock and prevent future nail pops. For seams, it is often necessary to remove the old tape and install new tape. Ultimately most houses have Sheetrock issues because the house is settling. Painters can repair the visible issues, but the causes are in the walls and we cannot promise that the issues will not return.

For holes in drywall, we have two options. If the hole is small enough, we can use a patch kit to cover the hole and then skim coat the patch to match the wall. If the hole is larger, we will cut the drywall back to a stud and patch the hole with new drywall.

We mix our own plaster for repairs. Depending on the size of the hole, we may mix the plaster with steel wool. If a significant section of a plaster wall or ceiling is damaged, we may recommend installing a new section of sheetrock. When dealing with cracks in plaster, we use a knife to open up the crack and remove the pressure before filling the crack with new plaster.