7 Basement Painting Mistakes To Avoid in Ottawa, Ontario

It can be a rather satisfying endeavor when we seek to improve the way our homes look and depending on what room you’re looking to improve the ways that we are going to improve them are going to be a bit different.

However, you may come to find out that if you make certain painting errors, you will ultimately have a lengthier painting project and one that might even cost a bit more than you would have had without the mistakes.

It’s understandable that you’d want to avoid such errors – and so it’s worth learning about them in order to better ensure that you won’t make them.

Let’s now look at and consider seven basement painting mistakes to avoid in Ottawa, Ontario.

1. Not Ventilating At All

One mistake that you can make while you are painting your basement is to not ventilate during the painting process.

Even though we might want to use the least strong paints in terms of the fumes they produce, that nevertheless doesn’t mean we are exempt from ventilation.

At the very least we should have the door to the basement open so that there can be some airflow going, perhaps with an exhaust fan near it to push the air out of the basement.

2. Not Protecting Anything (Or Not Enough)

You may be well aware of the fact that paint can be a rather messy thing, and so when you are painting your basement walls there’s always a chance that you’re going to get paint places where you don’t intend it to go.

This can be prevented, however, if you make the time to protect the areas that should not get paint on them — the floors, for example.

If you want to protect your floors, you are best making use of some kind of drop cloth that will help to keep the paint off of them – bearing in mind that the thicker the drop cloth, the less likely that the paint will seep through it.

3. Using Inexpensive Paint Brushes And Paint Rollers

It’s entirely possible that you’re going to want to find ways to save money on your painting project, but buying inexpensive paint brushes and paint rollers should not be one of them.

However, what you are doing by making use of these brushes is just making for a worse overall painting result – these inexpensive brushes are inexpensive for a reason – they will be more difficult to use and in some cases, bristles will come off of the brushes and go right into the paint.

Imagine the time you’ll have to spend getting bristles out of your paint and then recognize that it’s not worth getting cheap brushes and rollers.

4. Not Planning Beforehand

One of the biggest mistakes that people don’t even realize that they are making is when they just jump into a painting project without making the time to plan it out beforehand.

This is problematic for a number of reasons, one being that you’re not going to just be able to guess how much paint you’re going to need (and if you do guess you will likely be wrong) and so in planning to paint you will measure the walls and find out how much paint you will need.

You also should plan out the paintwork so that you’ll know when to paint and when to rest – to allow surfaces to dry, for example (more on this later)

5. Not Cleaning Before You Paint

Though you might look at the walls while you are getting ready to paint and think about how good they will look after you are done painting, don’t take this to mean that you can just paint them without cleaning them first.

No, for all this is going to do is to make you have basement walls that look like dirty walls covered with paint – and that’s not a look anybody is likely trying to get.

Make the time to clean the walls first and you will have a much better painting result.

6. Not Cleaning After Sanding

There’s a lot to be said for sanding the surface when you’re painting your basement walls, but did you know that the process of sanding can leave a lot of what is known as sanding dust?

If you don’t clean your sanding dust, you can be guaranteed that the same dust will return on the surface of your basement walls, and that’s not a particularly pleasant sight to behold.

7. Not Allowing Surfaces To Dry

Lastly, remember that you should always make sure to give adequate time for your surfaces to dry after you have gotten them moist (such as when you clean or after you’ve applied primer)

By doing this you will make sure that the surfaces are properly prepared for the next step in the process.

At Millers Painting, we offer free paint consultancy alongside high-quality residential and commercial painting services in Kanata, Nepean, Barrhaven, and Westboro areas of Ottawa, Ontario. To get started with us, book a FREE estimate or call us on 613-979-5435

Related: Interior Décor and Painting Ottawa, Ontario: Creating the Minimalist Style
5 Mistakes Often Made Dealing With Bathroom Mold in Ottawa, Ontario