Homeowners rarely think about their walls, or the paint on them, until they feel the need for something new and fresh. Whether it involves exterior or interior decorative paint, the walls require attention from time to time. Without regular maintenance, your home can look old and dilapidated quickly.
The appearance of your walls affect not only the home’s overall ambiance, but also its perceived value. The cost of maintenance can add up. Over time, you may need to spend more to get the issues fixed.
Let our expert painters and decorators in Dubai guide you in terms of keeping your walls’ paint looking great. Think of following these maintenance tips as a way to prevent your paint from peeling or disintegrating, and preserving the beauty of your beloved home.
Check The Walls
The smallest spots and stains, when they accumulate, can get bigger and become more difficult to remove. To make cleanups less challenging, remove any imperfections as soon as you see them. This is the ideal way of accomplishing the goal, although executing the technique itself is far from easy.
Inspecting and scrutinizing every inch of your walls’ surfaces require a lot of time, even in small spaces. Instead of spending hours or days obsessing over each surface, consider where your high-traffic areas are and examine those first. Areas such as the hallways, kitchen, the staircase, and inside your children’s bedrooms have the highest occurrences of walls getting dirty.
If you have a roommate, or if you live with a partner, kids, or pets, think about their movements and activities. Toddlers, for instance, love to play in any room, and they often end up touching or drawing on the walls in the process. Taking into account the areas that they frequent can give you a better idea of which areas to focus on and scrutinize more carefully.
Vacuum Your Walls
When cleaning your walls, deal with the dry components first before moving on to the stains and spots. Cobwebs and dust are some of the things that can quickly form along the corners or edges of the walls, especially near the ceiling. You can easily remove these by using a vacuum cleaner with a smooth brush attachment.
Unlike the other tips on this list, it is not recommended that you regularly vacuum your walls. As effective as the tool may be in removing dust, dirt, and cobwebs, the brush itself can be abrasive. As such, limit your vacuuming to a few times each year.
Remove Spots & Stains
In most cases, paper towels or a clean sponge dunked in a solution of dishwashing liquid and water can suffice in wiping away the spots and stains. However, your success rate can still vary depending on many factors, which include the following:
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Paint Type
Paint comes in many colors and finishes to create unique effects. Some are made specifically for interiors, while others are better suited for façades. Consider this to prevent damaging the paint layer while cleaning.
Out of the many types of paint, enamel and semi-gloss are the hardiest. Walls covered with these types of paint can handle most types of cleaning agents without causing you to worry about damage. The same cannot be said with flat paint, eggshell finishes, and certain stains.
The last three tend to be more delicate. Using an abrasive cleaner or rubbing too hard can remove some of the paint. As such, be gentle and stick to soap and water when cleaning the surface.
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Wall Texture
Another consideration is the texture. Stucco, for instance, is great for concealing imperfections. However, the rough surfaces can attract dust and dirt, making them tricky to clean.
Much like thinner paint and finishes, rigorous rubbing on the surface or using abrasive sponges can chip away at the paint. What you end up with are areas with exposed concrete that may need to be painted over. As such, you need to be extra careful when wiping away the spots or stains.
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The Source Of The Stain
Kids love to draw on walls using crayons. Unfortunately, it is not the type of color that homeowners would like to see on their walls. Compared to other stains, crayon marks on the wall require a lot more elbow grease and a more potent type of cleanser.
For crayon marks, you can try either baking soda, toothpaste, WD-40, rubbing alcohol, or an eraser cleaner. When removing any type of stain, experts recommend starting with the mildest form and working your way up to the stronger ones. This way, you can reduce the chances of damaging the paint job on your walls.
Practice Wall Care
Daily or regular activities can damage your walls without you knowing it. You can easily chip off the paint as you move your dining chair to sit down and you hit the wall, for example. But there are ways to protect your walls and the paint on it.
For one, place some distance between your furniture and the wall itself. Allowing any piece of décor or furnishing to rest against the walls can leave stains in the long run. Even with large stationary components such as a sofa or refrigerator, leaving a gap of a few inches is recommended to keep the wall clean and stain-free.
If you can, invest in protective strips or rubber bumpers and install them on furnishings that are moved around regularly, such as dining chairs or ottomans. This will prevent your pieces from hitting the wall and chipping the paint over time.
Reduce any strain on the walls as much as you can. Use multiple hooks on larger picture frames, shelves, or similar components that are hanging from the walls. By doing so, you prevent these components from moving around and damaging the paint and your wall over time.
Repainting your walls is the easiest way to give your walls a fresh new look. However, it is neither cheap nor quick. A more practical option is to do small things to prevent your paint from getting damaged.
By following these tips, you can be on your way to making your paintwork last for years to come. For more tips and advice regarding your walls, contact a reputable provider of decorative paints today.
Author Bio
Ralph El Eid is the Business Development Manager at COLORTEK – Wall & Floor Fashion. EQUIPAINT is the franchise owner of COLORTEK in Dubai (U.A.E.) and Doha (Qatar); an international paints manufacturer specializing in the widest range of decorative paints and seamless concrete & resin flooring, with a unique showroom concept, and thus an ideal destination for homeowners, consultants, architects, interior designers and paint applicators.
