Starting off I remove everything I can that is easy to remove to make the job better. That is: furniture goes in other rooms or the garage, paintings and wall chachkis, blinds and shades, and cover plates from light swithches and outlets (put in a drawer or 1 gal. ziplock).. If fixtures are too hard too remove they are taped off. I use a leaf blower and a broom to remove cobwebs and ? from the walls and ceilings. In the kitchen and bathroom (usually painted in semigloss) I use a sponge mop and bucket of TSP (trisodium phosphate), a handfull to a couple of gallons (it should feel slippery), and wash the ceilings and walls, also clean doors and trim that are semigloss.. Let the solution stay there awhile but not dry out then rinse with water with the sponge mop. I use dry towels than are rags to wipe the walls down speeding up the drying process. Kitchens and bathroom accumulate grease from cooking and shower scum and always need cleaning. Any extra dirty areas in the house get spot cleaned with orange cleaner. Home depot sells ZEP orange cleaner concentrate that I reduce 10/1 and works great ($8/gal), or you can use fantastic or a similiar degreaser. Getting the painted surfaces clean is very important because putting a coat of paint on is easy but stripping it off is a nightmare. Latex is very forgiving however and will cover over poorly cleaned areas but I would much rather not paint over dirt and grease. Glossy areas will be dulled by TSP but sanding lightly with 100G is helpfull for good adhesion, and necessary if its oil based paint or trim including doors. I routinly paint over latex semigloss kithchen with just a TSP washing but I am sure a light sanding would be better. Of course cover everything with tarps. I like carpet runner canvas tarps 4' wide by 12' or? as they keep wall spatter contained but are light and easy to move from wall to wall. Plastic works well for floor and furniture protection.
I like to caulk the corners of rooms and edges, door jamb trim, baseboard mouldings,etc. Angle cut approx 1/16"-1/8" hole from the caulk tube end and apply a running bead for 3' or so and wipe in with your finger or a wet sponge. When you are accomplished the amount applied will match the amount necessary and there should be no residual. Keep paper towels handy untill then to wipe off your finger on and a bucket of water to clean your fingers. Caulking will improve the finished look tremendously but takes time so I usually do some and leave some for the next time. Fixing dents, holes etc. is done with spackle (quicker drying, less shrinking) or joint compound (sheetrock mud: longer drying, more shrinkage) compounds. You can use caulk to fill holes and imperfections but later it is much more difficult to fix as you have a rubbery spot to smooth over whereas the others can be sanded etc. Cracks are filled with caulk as it will stretch and be pliable but spackle will soon open up again. See the restoration link for a good crack fixing technique.
If you have crayon, wax, smoke stains water stains, etc. then clean them with TSP or orange cleaner and prime them. I like Zinnser BullsEye 123 (water base) for priming large areas. It seals in stains, wood tannins (like knot holes) that continue to "bleed" through and works well without the toxic aspect of oil base primers.
For small areas I use Zinnser BIN spray can white pigmented shellac. There is no messy clean up (brushes are usually ruined due to the quick drying nature) and since it is a small area the fumes aren't to bad.
New Construction
Sheetrock and wood mouldings need priming prior to painting. For sheetrock white PVA (polyvinylacetate) is recommended but 123 will work. Priming is the best way to start the paint process off with unpainted surfaces as it gives superior adhesion and sealing and you only get this chance to do it right once. Oil base will work well and seals better against moisture penetration but I feel its toxicity doesn't justify its use. Oil prime under wallpaper so later when steaming it off the steam won't loosen the water based paint.
The aspects of choosing paint are; asthetic (how it looks or color availabity), cost , length of servicable life,
ease of use, and the ability to cover well (needing less labor). Most people use flat for walls and ceilings and semigloss for the ceiling and walls in the kitchen and bath, and the trim work (including doors) throughout the house. I like the practical side of things and prefer semigloss for the whole house. The cheapest semigloss ( I use Glidden contractor @ $45/5gallon) will outperform the most expensive $30/gal. Benjamine Moore flat for being able to be cleaned with a damp rag. Choose a "matte" finish for a somewhat flat look while still being able to somewhat be cleaned. Why is the paint job being done? Most often to "freshen up" the house (make it look clean), to change the decorating scheme (change color), or because some sort of remodeling or repairs have been done. Since the semigloss cleans so easily if a few spots are touched up (where the walls have been nicked) with very little work the room can be "freshened up". The rooms are repainted every 5 years here but I thing they could easily go 10, so length of service is adequate for the cheaper paint. Then comes covering in 1 coat. I do that too, but then I use an airless sprayer which I believe is better suited to 1 coat coverage. My advice is get Benjamine Moore or Sherwin Williams mid line $20/gallon paints and you will be happy and get good service and free advice. One advantage to going to a paint store is convenience you will get good advice, color matching, availabilty of every kind you desire. I don't like Behr from H.D. as I feel it has poor adhesion and is overpriced. When using deepbase colors (there are 3 tint bases that colors are mixed into), because they are mixed in a medium with little or no white in it they wont cover in 1 or even 2 coats so use a (grey, or match the top coat) tinted primer (123-$17/Gal.) for the 1st coat and get better adhesion and coverage on your top coat and if using expensive paint its also cheaper.
I razor blade the windows after misting them with windex. When removeing taped items I use a razor blade to knife through the paint edge otherwise when pulling up the tape the fresh paint film will peel off the wall. This will always happen. Ammonia is like paint thinner for latex and I will use that in hard to clean areas otherwise cleaning spills, drips, etc. immediately with water (keep a 5 gal bucket of fresh water and rag) and using orange cleaner (better than water). I go around with a gal. of each color with a brush in it and touch up everything with a walk through. Then vacuum and replace everything. I use a 5in1 putty knife (it has a 1/2 round cut out) to clean rollers. I find after 3 or so uses rollers and brushes build up too much paint internally to be usefull. The blue 3M tape will be able to be removed after a week of the sun hitting it and be able to put down on fresh floor polyurethane and other sensitive areas without ruining anything. Cheap tape will work fine but has to be removed soon after painting if in the sun and within 3 or so days if not..
I use hallway runner tarps a lot. They are 4 or 5' wide and 10-24' long and made out of heavy canvass. When the spray hits an area the air pressure will blow up light plastic tarps so canvass is necessary. When spraying the spray falling to the ground will become dust as the particle size is very small and dries quickly in the air. I use plastic tarps to cover the floors and furniture. Preferably the whole house is covered so going from room to room I bring the small hallway runner tarps to cover the area next to the wall (where most of the overspray falls) and move them as I progress around the room. I like haveing 2 so I do 1/2 the room's walls and ceiling then move and do the other 1/2. I fold them up small to put in closets. I also make use of a spray sheild. The one to get is made of aluminum (stays rigid better and cleans up with a heat gun and putty knife). You can use cardboard as a sheild. If I am doing 2 colors (i.e. trim-white, body-cream) I spray the crown moulding, baseboard, doors and jambs with the semigloss (white-or?) and then spray the ceiling with the cream color using the sheild against the crown moulding and moveing it along. Then using the shield below the crown moulding I paint the wall down thus the moulding doesnt get painted. If I get some spray on the moulding, I immediately clean it off with a sponge and fresh water. I use the sheild on the floor to keep the tarp from blowing up and overspray from building up on the tarp and it helps push carpet down.. Keeping a bucket of fresh water and a rag and sponge make mistakes easy to fix if done immediately. I use the sheild up against the top of the baseboard to prevent it from being painted and the same for the door jamb. It is amazing how quickly trim can be painted with a spray gun. When doing a lot of doors I sometimes pop the hinge pins and remove them to the garage (mark them as to location on their top edge with a felt tip marker). I staple plastic to the wall to protect it and lean the doors up against it for spraying. If most of what you need will be a 4" pattern you can get a .211 tip.
For small lattice (wood) windows I brush them by hand as I am steady enough not to have to tape them and it is quicker than tape and paper to spray. I will tape double hung windows by running the tape and paper down against the glass and over the cross bar. This way most of the window gets painted and I hand do the horizontal wood that didn't. To see a picture off this go to the exterior page (there is a lattice window taped)
Taping takes a while to master. If you over tape (the tape is on the area to be protected) when pulling the tape off the paint will come with it and using a razor blade to cut through the edge wont work. I find if you get paint on metal door handles it is easy to scrape off later (although less work to tape it well). For windows, furnace baffles, door bell chimes, ceiling lights, etc. I use a 3M hand masking machine ($30). I use 6" paper on it and it attaches the tape automaticly. This is a necessity and makes the job easy however you can attach the tape to newspaper and cover things. I don't cover windows completely and instead use the 6" paper, or just the sheild, as protection from spray. I can spray within 1" of something so the 6" protection factor is plenty. If I do get some on a window the wet rag soon fixes that. Since I clean all the windows later anyway paint wash on one doesn't hurt.
I don't often "back roll" (spray the paint on and then roll it out) but there are times when it helps. If I want a more even finish, doing doors when the gun has spit or runs and sags develope, or if there is a very heavy texture (the roller forces the paint in to crevices). If the gun shoot a thicker line at the top and bottom ("tails") when dry the sheen will be differnt and "lines" on the walls will be noticable. To deal with this adjust the pressure up, and if the pressure is maxed, thin with water to eliminate tails. After the job is dried, mist over areas that dont look right holding the gun back 18" to even out the finish. This "blends" the spot in and I have never had any problems even with semigloss fixing things.
After the house is done and paint dry ( at least 1-2 hours if hot out) I walk through the place and look for "holidays" (areas that dont have good coverage or have flaws) and spray over them. When paint is wet you can't see it not being covered, but after drying it shows up. Since the whole house is covered this is only moving the small tarps around and makes it easy to remedy things. When completely done I walk through with a can of each color with a brush in it and detail edges, corners, behing toilets etc. Click HERE to see a page on airless equipment use.
There are times that using the airless takes longer but I find them rare..The biggest one is when the machine isn't working for you. As with any machine, fixing them is always worthwhile but at the time it is tempting to just get the trusty hand tools out. When using a gal. of paint it takes almost 1 qt. to fill the 50' line and suction tube. Doing a closet would be faster to roll as dragging the machine in etc. takes time. Clean up with the airless is faster than cleaning out roller heads and brushes I find.
