Why DIY Paint Jobs Never Look Right

Welcome back to the Walls Revived YouTube channel. I’m Trevor, and I’m here with Leanne, who is the owner and operator of Walls Revived out of Edmonton, Alberta. And you are a painting company. Tell us a little bit about that.

For sure. I’ve been painting. I first dabbled in it back in 2007, and then I incorporated back in 2011. And I’ve been, if you add it all up, over 15 years experience. I mostly focus on residential repaints for clients, homeowners just looking to refresh their spaces.

Okay. And now, one thing that I learned about you is that you actually have your Red Seal in painting. So tell us a little bit about that. What’s involved in that process?

Yeah, so I had to—I apprenticed under NAIT program, and it actually was a full-time program. And I wanted to know more about my industry because anyone can really just pick up a paintbrush and paint, but to know the basics and how to prep properly, you get that title, journeyman painter and decorator, cuz they also teach us how to install wallpaper, how to do faux finishings, wood staining, the basics, and even more, you know, deep dives into painting. And then, so I got my red and blue seal journeyman painter certificates. The red seal means I can paint all across Canada, and then the blue seal means I have a business background, which I do. I took business management at NAIT as well.

Nice.

Yeah.

So, you’re more than just a painter, someone with a brush and a roller and going to town on someone’s home.

That’s right.

You actually know what you’re doing.

Yes.

And you’ve got the experience to back it up.

Correct.

Professional Residential Painting in Edmonton: Meet Walls Revived

Awesome. So today, let’s talk about common mistakes that homeowners make with their painting. So where do you want to start with that?

Oh, I have—oh my god. So the biggest thing that I find is that homeowners just rush into the project. They just want to, you know, get the paint on the wall. So they’re missing the most important step, which is prepping. And that’s, you know, sanding the walls, preparing the surface, the walls or the trims properly. So if you have holes or whatnot, filling it and then sanding it actually, because I’ve come across so many times where they just paint over the patches. And you know, like the end goal is to have just smooth walls to bring it back to like as if the builder, you know, just signed off on the house and here’s your new house.

So that’s the main thing. The other one is they go to the dollar store and they buy materials like the applicators.

Okay.

And so they cheap out on all that stuff, or they cheap out on the paint. And the paint does make a big difference. So that’s that first part. The other part is just they don’t have the skills to do it. So, you know, I’ll see paint smudges on the ceiling or big drips, or, you know, it’s just the application of a painting by homeowners is—I can tell.

You can tell. You can see when it happens, right?

That’s right. But I can fix it though.

So—

Well, that’s good. That’s good. It can be fixed.

It can be fixed. Now, homeowners, when they want to jump into doing a project, so they’re not taking the time to fill holes, do proper prep work, clean the walls if they need cleaning, sand them. And it’s been a long time, right, since, you know, oil-based paints have been used. But, I mean, you probably come across it somewhere.

Of course.

Why Proper Paint Prep Matters More Than the Paint Itself

So applying your latex acrylic over oil-based—do they do that mistake sometimes? And what happens in that case?

Yes. Yes, I do see that. And essentially, you can almost peel off the paint because it doesn’t adhere properly. So yeah, that’s just another instance. It’s rare nowadays because usually people have slapped on a coat of paint since, what, 60s and 70s when oil was definitely used a lot more.

Yeah, it’s, you know, a huge misconception. The paint stores sell is like primer and paint in one. It doesn’t actually really exist, right? Like the good quality paints, it already automatically—like the primer—primer is actually a cheap product, so you don’t really want primer in your paint. But it just means that it’ll adhere to the wall more so.

And yeah. Well, what should people be looking for?

You do want quality for sure. Something that levels out. So, you know, if you’re a DIYer, it will assist you in achieving that smooth finish. Something that doesn’t dry too fast, cuz, you know, DIYers, they hesitate or they reroll an area. And I don’t know, there’s so many application errors that I see all the time, right? So, you know what, it does matter, the quality of paint. So spend that extra $10 more on a gallon, and then you can get, you know, it’s more workability, and the end result will be better for you.

Okay. What are some other errors that you see homeowners make when they’re approaching painting?

Oh my—oh, I know. The use of tape.

Okay.

Common DIY Painting Mistakes Homeowners Make (And How to Avoid Them)

Yeah. So I always—like, I use tape every now and then, but only when I need to get that, you know, crisp line. But I’ve seen people overuse tape. Like, they tape everything, and then they rely on it too much. Or they cheap out on the tape. And that’s another one, because if it’s cheap tape, you’ll get that bleed through. So when you pull it off, either you’re pulling off the first layer of paint underneath it, or else you get those little—we call it bleed through. So you get that little, you know, rough edge kind of thing.

Oh yeah.

Or yeah. It’s just—that’s a huge one for me. And it takes a lot of time to, like, tape everything in your house.

Yeah, it sure does.

Yeah, takes a while.

So let’s say you’re coming into someone’s home. How do you approach it differently than a homeowner would? Like, we’re trying to give people the reason why they should bring in a professional painter like yourself, right?

When you hire a professional painter, you get that professional result. And by that, I mean even walls, even application. Even just simply painting the baseboards makes a huge difference, and a lot of homeowners overlook that. I’ll go into their houses and we discuss the scope. I’m like, “All right, take me around. Give me a walkthrough. What do you want done?”

And I will often point out things that they haven’t seen, or, you know, like we want it to look clean and professional and not like if they didn’t—they would just do it themselves or they would get a family member to paint it, right? But, you know, I will point out certain things that they might not have seen—ceiling stains or, like I was saying, their baseboards or trim. People often are like, “Well, I don’t know if my trim needs painting.” And I’ll be like, well, I often find that, you know, you refresh the walls and they look, you know, spectacular, and then all of a sudden your eye gets drawn to your dirty baseboards.

Right.

So it’s just that. Or else, yeah, people could do it themselves. I used to have this motto: anyone can paint, but not everyone should, right?

It’s, you know—and the scary fact is, like, anyone can just go to the hardware store, buy some tools, call themselves a professional painter.

And you know—

Yeah. Yeah. You don’t know what kind of result you’re going to get, right?

No. Exactly. Exactly. Especially with the prep work, right? Because the prep work is a big part of the project. If you don’t do that right, everything after it looks awful.

That’s right.

Yeah.

Red Seal Certified Painter in Edmonton: What That Really Means for Your Home

All right. Cool. Is there anything else you’d like to share about painting and, you know, problems that homeowners run into when doing a painting project?

I find that, like, a huge complaint that I get from homeowners hiring me is a lot of them—they’re either senior and they’re like, “I used to paint, but I can’t do it anymore physically. It’s too taxing on myself.” The other one is they start the project and they get distracted, and it takes them forever to finish.

So when you hire a professional, like, we’re in and out, right? We want to try and make this less, you know, obtrusive. And it’s just—we want to get the job done, get it done right and fast, so that you can get back to your life and, you know, normal living and stuff.

So yeah, I think they underestimate how long it’s going to take them. And then where do they start? Where they, like—they have to, like, simply just getting a ladder and all the tools. And it’s a huge process. And in the end, we just want to save people time, right? Like, that’s, you know, a huge benefit in hiring a professional.

Yeah, I think that’s it right there. Like, what is your time worth?

That’s right.

Why Hiring a Professional Painter Saves Time, Money, and Stress

Like, what is your time worth? Like, do you want to spend a day and a half or two days prepping, sanding, painting to get a lackluster result, or do you want to get a professional who knows what they’re doing? They’re in and they’re out. And you can do anything else.

You can, you know, do other parts of the house, clean the house, go about your errands, go to work.

That’s right.

Watch a movie.

Watch a movie, yeah, while the painter’s going away and doing it.

So that’s really good. So, you know, I think saving people’s time is a big reason why they should hire a professional.

100%. And you know, it’s not that, you know, taxing or that much of a budget constraint because, you know, once you look at the amount of time you have to spend—not only in prepping and sanding and painting—but then there’s the cleanup and disposal and all of that. Like, who wants to do that, right?

Exactly.

Yeah.

So if you are in the Edmonton area and you are looking for a professional painter that can take your dream and make it reality, look at Leanne from Walls Revived. And you can reach her by the website. It’s—what is the website?

It’s www.wallsrevived.com. Thank you so much, and we’ll see you on the next video.