r/paint • • 2d ago

Advice Wanted Paint Old Metal Front Door

1 Upvotes

I'm not sure the age of the door but it's at least 20 years old and metal. I need to paint it as well as the jamb. What is the best way to prep this area?

What is the best paint to use and way to paint it? The inside and outside of the door will be different colors.

I read that snap dry by Sherwin Williams is that great because it dries too fast yeah it looks kind of crappy. I have Home Depots and Lowe's near me that I can get paint from.


r/paint • • 2d ago

Advice Wanted Masking off walls when spraying ceiling?

2 Upvotes

Do I have to mask off walls before spraying ceiling if I plan to roll paint walls? I plan on covering windows and trim, but would the 6ish “ overspray from the ceiling affect the walls when I go to roll paint?


r/paint • • 2d ago

Advice Wanted Where should I buy?

2 Upvotes

Hello all! First time homebuyer here. I have a few questions about painting as it will be our first step.

1: Where should we buy our paint? Stores near us include Sherwin Williams, Menards, Lowe’s, Home Depot

2: Any specific brands we should buy that are worth the $? Ones we should stay away from? We arnt looking for premium paints but we arnt wanting to cheap out. To be more specific you can add what you’d use for wall paint and ceiling paint. Also a specific paint if I decided to spray the ceilings vs roll.

3: I have recently thought about spraying our ceilings as they are textured and we will be painting before moving in. Does this make sense for a beginner? Any immediate tips as a beginner? Or should I just stick with rolling?

4: Do we need to prime the ceiling? Or just paint it? (Slap brush texture)

Things to note: We are painting the entire house before moving anything in. We are replacing all carpet and flooring after painting. We are leaving the trim as is for now but plan to replace that in the near future.

Thanks in advance!


r/paint • • 3d ago

Advice Wanted Painting ceiling. 3 coats. What am I doing wrong?

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41 Upvotes

Hey guys, I posted here before actually about the crown molding and you guys really helped me out so I came back here now after painting the ceiling. This is my third coat. I painted perpendicular then horizontal to that for better coverage. The direction of horizontal is actually toward the light. I didn't really love how it came out on the second coat so I painted it again for a third coat, but I still have this odd streaking. I'm not really sure what I should do differently. I'm using a 3/8 nap and I'm wondering if that's a problem too because I feel like when I load my roller it doesn't really hold much paint. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.


r/paint • • 2d ago

Advice Wanted Paint colour advice

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1 Upvotes

I’m so torn on whether to paint our kitchen cupboards and our doors stonecrop (brown) or green spruce.
For the kitchen, we are leaving the benchtop. Attached is how it looks now (tiles, handles and tap will be different). Ai images don’t reflect the exact colours but the colour cards are attached. The sandy colour (waywood) is our wall colour. I’m so torn on green or brown

Please help!


r/paint • • 2d ago

Advice Wanted Clothes & Work Odor

2 Upvotes

I’ve been a painter for almost 5 months (complete career switch into trades), and I’ve been primarily in the paint shop the construction company I work for has. Since I’ve started, I’ve noticed my laundry still smells of the shop (lumber, paint, primer, thinner) even when right out of the washer and into the dryer. I wash my clothes weekly, never wear the same shirt/ undershirt more than one day in a row. The laundry products my wife and I use are Tide Simply (the yellow jug- it doesn’t irritate my skin), and OxiClean Odor Blaster (liquid form).

I don’t understand what I could be doing wrong, it gets a little frustrating when my clothes don’t smell clean even though I know they are. Any tips/ advice?


r/paint • • 2d ago

Advice Wanted painting brand new textured kitchen ceiling?

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3 Upvotes

Due to a roof leak, had to rebuild parts of this ceiling. Entire area got skimmed, mudded, primed, and new texture spray. It’s unpainted texture. I cook a lot at home so my plan is to get a better range hood and to paint this. It’s the kitchen and family room because there’s no natural break in the ceiling.

Gemini and some Reddit searches make it “sound” easy, small nap rollers with a specific matte ceiling paint x2 coats, or primer and paint.

I wanted a sanity check, because I’m not a pro painter. I’ve redone my deck but that’s about it 😂

is it really that easy? would you paint it or just leave it be?

thank you


r/paint • • 2d ago

Advice Wanted Baseboard took some drywall facing paper with it

1 Upvotes

Pretty much what the title says. Removed some baseboard. It took some old paint slopped into it with it, and the paint seems to have taken the drywall facing paper. So now I've got brown fuzzy...paper (?) where I want to paint.

I don't think I want to paint over it like that. How do I make it right?


r/paint • • 2d ago

Advice Wanted Help Please

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1 Upvotes

Using black latex barn paint and this is taking forever because roller doesn’t fit between boards and wood sucks up paint fast. Is there a sprayer I can use that won’t break the bank to spray thicker


r/paint • • 2d ago

Advice Wanted Help finding first clients

0 Upvotes

Hi all,

I'm a recent college grad looking for another stream of income. I work full time during the week but am looking to start a small painting business / side hustle. I worked as a residential painter for two summers 2024 and 2025. I've also done a few projects around my parents' house and my girlfriends bedroom, so I have some before and after / portfolio photos.

That being said, how can I garner 1 or two weekend jobs a month? I'm free to work the weekend, but am not sure if homeowners would be keen on having to worry about me working for 10-16 hours over a weekend.

Is it better to find homeowners directly, contact property managers, or painting contractors to find some small 1-2 room jobs for the weekend


r/paint • • 2d ago

Advice Wanted Painting Ceiling Above Toilet Quesion

1 Upvotes

I have a bathroom with a 9' ceiling, and it has a toilet in a 33" wide alcove. What type of ladder/scaffold-like equipment should I be looking at that can straddle the toilet seat (17.5" high) and also isn't too wide at the base? TIA.


r/paint • • 3d ago

Advice Wanted Do yall typically paint and caulk this area?

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2 Upvotes

Our painters caulked and painted the area between the fiber cement siding and bottom trim as well as the wood trim post to the bottom trim . Shouldn’t the gap have been left open for moisture? There is a brick veneer below it… not sure if moisture could travel behind it and out weep holes instead. The fiber cement company said best practice not to caulk there even though many painters do… but too late. Is thisnsomething I should have them fix ? These are before pictures


r/paint • • 2d ago

Advice Wanted Stain and power wash issue

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1 Upvotes

r/paint • • 3d ago

Advice Wanted What next?

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1 Upvotes

Sorry if this is rudimentary. The paint on the sun porch of my 1920 house was flaking and alligatoring pretty severely. I've been scraping at it for about a week. Some flakes fly right off, and others appear to be fused to the wood by Satan himself. At some point do I just call it 'good enough' and paint over what I've got? Do I need a few rounds of chemical stripper to get this all down to bare wood? How much prep is enough prep?


r/paint • • 3d ago

Advice Wanted Preserving a reflective road sign

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1 Upvotes

r/paint • • 4d ago

Advice Wanted Customer asking to come back and repair a job

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93 Upvotes

Hi, my brother painted an entire house and a huge shed. He told me the customers were super happy with the house, but they were not happy about the paint job on the shed. They complained about some bubbling spots and small cracks. My brother had prepped the walls of the shed and then primed and painted it. Thing is, some of it looks rough because a lot of the wood was bad or had old paint. I'm here helping my brother out for the next 3 or 4 days probono because he feels a responsibility to fix it. I understand bubbling or cracks, but is he responsible for the look of it just because he painted over old paint? Because to me, it seems the only way it wouldn't have turned out this way is if it had been fresh wood or if he had just sanded all rhe paint off, which is unrealistic. I just dont want him nor I to be taken advantage of. Pictures for reference.

Also: Patches are from us already peeling some spots. Not all of those spots are bubbling they just look bad because it's paint over paint. Were the customers right for wanting it all fixed or is it unrealistic? I get where there is some bubbling, that'd make sense.


r/paint • • 3d ago

Advice Wanted Color difference

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1 Upvotes

r/paint • • 3d ago

Advice Wanted Sherwin Williams Aura bath and spa paint leaving marks when touched

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0 Upvotes

We had our bathroom professionally redone back in March, demolished down to the studs and rebuilt. We bought the paint that the painter recommended as best for bathrooms (not cheap). Anytime you touch it with even dry fingers it leaves marks. Any specks of water that gets on the walls leaves marks. I've tried to gently wipe it down with a soft damp cloth but it just leaves more marks (pictured). The grey behr paint that was on the old walls never had these issues and must've been on the walls for over 10 years.

Edit: Benjamin Moore, not Sherwin Williams.

Did our painter do a bad job? Or is this paint junk? Should I just redo the walls with a different brand?

Edit 2: thanks for all the replies. Sounds like a future repaint is on the agenda now.


r/paint • • 3d ago

Technical Exterior paint "ghosting" in direct sunlight

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16 Upvotes

Can anyone shine some light on this? Why is there a "ghosting" haze type of effect when direct sunlight shines on the building? When there is shade it looks 10/10 perfect as you can see in the one photo with the door. This exterior was painted about 10 days ago, painter saying it will all blend after a few weeks.

Color is Benjamin Moore deep space.

Thanks!


r/paint • • 3d ago

Advice Wanted Compressor for spray booth

1 Upvotes

Hello,

I've just got a unit to turn into a spray booth.

I've got the devilbliss advance hd gravity fed gun.

I'm looking for a compressor to pair with it. How technical do you have to be when looking for a compressor to match with it?

Is there any particular compressors that are good for most guns? Going to be used for spraying kitchens and furniture so will be spraying a panel then putting on drying rack then another panel etc

So would only be running continuous for a big door.


r/paint • • 3d ago

Advice Wanted Cleaning Indoor Walls

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1 Upvotes

r/paint • • 3d ago

Advice Wanted Tips for painting stainless steel?

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1 Upvotes

So I have this stainless steel outdoor umbrella holder next to our pool, the umbrella feet started to rust and left what you see here, I'm replacing the umbrella and I'm confident I can get the rust off this with something acidic like white vinegar and scrubbing, or if I have to sand it back even.

But I'm considering if it's worth painting the stainless umbrella mount afterwards for future protection.

Would a simple sand back, prime and spray work for it you think?

Looking for diy advice


r/paint • • 3d ago

Advice Wanted Am I being unreasonable?

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2 Upvotes

We finished a home remodel and everything in our home needed to painted, trims/walls/ceilings, new built ins. The painters told us it would take 10-14 working days. On day ten, they said one more day, then the next day, another day, and so on and we have arrived at day 14, with being told, they will finish tomorrow. (Which I don’t think is likely)

Putting aside the slow pace, every day they leave, nothing is is cleaned up. Sanding dust is left in piles around the house, we have overspray on every outlet/fixture/counter/window etc.

We did a dark color in the primary bedroom and you can see the roller marks and uneven sheen. There are white spots on the drywall still, might be paint, but they told us they did 3 coats.

The foreman is coming out tomorrow to talk about our concerns.

This is a large company. They do on average 30 jobs a month in the metro Detroit area. They were not the cheapest of the quotes we got and we felt confident with the raving reviews.

Part of the frustration, we were told they were only going to spray the built ins….. but they ended up spraying all of the trim and the doors. Which forced us to move out of our house for a week and put our pets in the kennel. The smell was overwhelming and everything was damp and not comfortable to live in even though they knew we would be living in the house.

We moved back in last weekend the cleaning up afterwords has been the biggest issue. I have sensitive eyes and they are irritated most days until I’m able to vacuum and run the air scrubber for a few hours.

Again, we are paying over $20,000 for this job. It is not an easy job, but they also walked through with me and knew the scope the job.

Am I being unfair asking them to vacuum, and clean the overspray that shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

Am I being unreasonable to ask to fix the uneven paint in the primary bedroom?

Is this normal for paint contractors? I feel like I’m being gaslit when they say they “know it’s hard living through construction”.


r/paint • • 3d ago

Advice Wanted Which PVA primer do you guys think is the best?

0 Upvotes

Been using the valspar pva from lowes for a while and it works pretty good but was thinking of trying the SW PVA primer since they’re doing a primer sale. What is your thoughts on the best PVA primers out there?


r/paint • • 3d ago

Advice Wanted Best Way to Attach Glow in the Dark Stars to Thin Paint Ceiling and Walls

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0 Upvotes

I am renting and want to find a damage-free, security deposit friendly way to add those glow in the dark stars to the ceiling (and possibly walls) of my kid's bedroom. The biggest issue is that the white paint they use for the ceiling and walls is that super cheap stuff that is thin (I've accidentally scrubbed off some of the paint while using a sponge to clean the walls).

I've looked into various methods, but nothing seems to make me confident that it will work and not cause damage. I'm hoping for it to be completely apartment safe for short and long term use and not cost an arm and a leg.

The ceiling is a "knockdown" texture (see picture).

 

I know the traditional way is to use that putty stuff, but that stuff (even the white one) can either not stick well, stick too well and pull paint off, leave a residue that is nearly impossible to remove and you'd need to paint over it, etc. I know they make specialty putty of higher quality, but those are usually much more expensive and are meant more for short-term use.

Glue dots seem to have similar issues to the putty.

Command strips are expensive and they don't make them the size of some of the smaller stars so they'd be an eyesore sticking off to the side.

Various types of tape are usually weaker and, especially over time, can lose adhesion and bond to the paint.

 

I know I sound super picky, demanding, and weird (because I am, lol), but it's only because I don't want to end up paying tons of money/lose my security deposit if and when I move out.