Painting Your Rentals Part IV

Normally painting goes like this 1) Prep (and repair if needed) 2) Cutting in and trimming 3) Rolling. We've spent the first three sections covering #1, and are now looking at cutting in and trimming. This is a very time-consuming part of the painting, and we are going to look hard for exceptions time savers.

Cutting in is basically just hand painting with a brush those areas you can't get to with a roller (which is much faster). I tend to prefer a tapered edge brush about 3 inches wide. Your preference may vary, but the tapered edge I find better for making a tight cut - say around a door knob - than with a regular straight edged brush. Find your own comfort level in this area. To cut the area where the wall meets the ceiling, you'll need a step stool or small step ladder. Cutting is simply slow and tedious, especially if you get a critical line like having different colors next to each other (avoid!). Then you'll likely have to use painter's tape and still be very careful. There are two things you can do to help with cutting in:

1) Use the same color on the walls and ceiling. Ceiling paint is thinner than "regular" latex paints, and dries quickly to an ultra flat finish. However, the shades (and they are usually limited to one) available of ceiling paint seldom if ever match the standard whites that are from the same manufacturer. The result is you get two slightly different shades of white, and if you roll up too far on the wall and touch the ceiling you'll get spots that have to be taken care of. Ceilings don't need to be painted nearly as often as walls, but it does happen - if you have a heavy smoker, gas furnace, etc. a dingy film can build up on the ceiling that requires painting in order to look good. When you do, skip the ceiling paint and just use the same flat white you're using on the walls. Yes, you might have to be a little more careful of drips (drop cloth recommended for sure in this case), but we've found that to be no real problem with Kilz and other brands we've tried. Once you have ceiling and walls the same paint, when you do have to cut in there's no need to be as cautious about getting paint on the ceiling and can move along faster. Life is also simpler with one less type of paint to deal with.

2) Break the rules. If you are repainting a room that you have already painted your standard flat white, chances are that it's due to smudges and damages from eye level down, and not things that need to be repainted in the 4 to 5 inches at the top of the wall where you have to cut in. In this case, roll the room first, and then seen if any of the cut-in area needs touch up. You might be able to avoid cutting altogether (though usually there are scuffs at the bottom of the wall the require touch-up, but still much less time than a full cut-in).

Trim is what you have left; wood trim around the doors, along the baseboards, the doors themselves, etc. Trim areas tend to get touched a lot, so we typically use the satin finish rather than the flat on these. Painting trim is another, very time-consuming aspect of painting. Most people do it by hand. Along the baseboards, hand painting is almost unavoidable. You scoot along the floor doing a bit at a time (using a plastic paint guard that you nudge under the baseboard or quarter-round). You just have to tough it out. On other trim, though, there is a time-saver. There are now available foam roller brushes, typically available in three and six inch lengths. These are smaller around than standard rollers, and the big trick is that the foam will cover one end of the roller, allowing you to turn it on end and squish paint into tricky spots like the recesses on typical "cross and bible" doors. These rollers have their own, small, paint trays that are easy to hold in one hand while you paint with the other, keeping you moving along more quickly as well. You'll find that they cut your time painting doors by about half.

Two other notes:

When painting with a hand brush, a little paint goes a long way - you don't need to drag the whole paint can around with you. This is where the well-designed tops of Kilz paint come in so handy. Just put some paint in the top and you're ready to move faster. When you're through, the design causes extra paint in the top to drain back down into the container.

Get rid of quarter-round whenever you can. Quarter-round is the round trim (one-quarter of a circle) that is often put at the bottom of baseboard trim. It is placed to seal the visual "gap" that can occur between the baseboard and the flooring. It serves no physical function, it is just visual. In some cases there is such a gap that you might want it, but we've found in most cases it can be done without. Quarter-round is expensive (for what it is - which is low-grade thin pine strips), very labor intensive to put in (miter cuts in the corners), often has to be replaced when you replace carpet (because it is flush against the carpet and breaks when removed), and is very slow to paint. It also tends to pick up dirt and lint in the seam where it meets the baseboard. Without the quarter-round, that small gap means you don't have to paint so carefully on the baseboard.