Painting

Painting

What is painting. The purpose of painting is to improve the aesthetic look of a building and to protect the interior surfaces and exterior surfaces from damage by regular wear and tear, weather, water, rust, corrosion, insects and mold with primer, paints, and stain products. Almost all types of interior surfaces and exterior surfaces can be painted with any type of paint, but commonly used interior paint and exterior paint, primer, and stain products are readily available and recommended for each type of surface to be painted.

A painter or painter and decorator is a tradesman or tradeswoman responsible for the preparation, priming, painting and decorating the various types of common interior and exterior surfaces associated with homes, houses, offices, and buildings such as government institutions, hospitals, schools, shopping malls, hotels, strip malls, commercial retail store fronts and big chain box stores, etc.

Professional painters and painters and decorators are typically responsible for all of the surface preparations prior to priming and painting in both new construction painting and existing structure repainting. On new construction interior projects such as new homes and and new offices being built by home builders, house builders, and large construction companies building large buildings, painters, and painters and decorators typically work together with or along side drywall tapers to patch and repair drywall dents, dings, deficiencies, and typical trade damage prior to, during, and after the painting process if required. On exterior paints and repaints, painters, or painters and decorators typically repair and paint all surfaces alone.

On repaints in existing homes, offices, and buildings the painter or the painter and decorator will typically fill and repair minor drywall deficiencies, dents, and dings associated with regular wear and tear. Some painters and decorators that specialize in new construction painting and and existing building repaints or repainting are readily capable of providing both drywall installation, drywall taping, and both painting and decorating to suit the customers needs.

For professional painters, painter helpers, and painting labor employees providing high quality and finer interior painting finishes and workmanship to customers and clients such as typically seen in extremely high end new level five interior painting and decorating in new homes and houses and condos, etc, the majority of the painters time is spent in surface preparation for the following primer sealer paint and stain applications and not in actually painting or applying paint to the surfaces.

Much preparation needs to be considered before simply applying paint. For instance, taping and dropcloth techniques, sizes of brushes or rollers, material types or dimensions of rollers or brushes (there are different sizes or types of brushes and rollers for different paints), amount of paint, number of paint coats, amount of primer, types of primers and paints, certain grits and cuts of sandpaper, trim cutting (the act of painting with a brush on the outline of baseboard, mouldings and other trim work), wallpaper removal, and nail-hole filling techniques.

All priming, scraping, sanding, wallpaper removal, caulking, drywall or wood repair and patching, stain removal, filling nail holes in doors, door frames, windows, window frames and casings,or any defects with plaster or putty, cleaning, taping, preparation and priming are considered to be done by the professional contracted painter.

Professional painters need to have keen knowledge of tools of the trade, including sanders, scrapers, paint sprayers, brushes, paint rollers, ladders and scaffolding, in addition to just the paint in order to correctly complete work.

Cleaning, sanding surfaces, caulking, filling nail holes, dents, and dings, scraping loose paint, failing paint and debry, removing and vacuuming away dust, taping and masking off near by walls, surfaces, fixtures, structures, and other near by areas, and applying tape, paper, plastic to surfaces not to be painted typically involve about 50% or more of the painter's total time and painting budget.

Historically in the past, the painter was responsible for the mixing of the paint; keeping a ready supply of pigments, oils, thinners, driers, and paints. The painter would then use his or her experience to determine a suitable mixture depending on the nature of the paint job.

In modern times however, the customer, client, the house builder, or the building architect picks the type of paint, the paint colors, and the paint finish. The customer or client prepares a work order for the painter, paint contractor, or painting company, and the painter or the painter employee is then primarily responsible for preparation of the surfaces to be painted and the painting.

such as patching holes in drywall, door frames, window frames, and doors, and using masking tape, masking paper, plastic polly and other types of protection on surfaces not to be painted, applying the paint to the various surfaces and then cleaning up after painting.

Larger firms operating within the trade were generally capable of performing many painting or decoration services, from creating an accent wall to sign writing, to the gilding of objects or the finishing or refinishing of furniture.

Today many painters are attempting to break into the field of faux painting, allowing them more creativity and access to a higher end customer base.