A surprising as it may seem, siding and walls get dirty just like any other surface. Dust, dirt, and stains can easily turn a freshly-painted, vivid area into a dull, even un-welcoming space within months. After spending your hard-earned money on a flawless paint job, it’s important to know how to maintain a pristine, elegant image for your business in Florida.
To promote proper wall care and help business owners keep painted walls looking fresh for a long time, any Florida commercial painter would suggest the following 10 tips:
- Choose dirt-resistant paint: While a flat paint is more appropriate for office spaces, satin, gloss, or semi-gloss finishes should be used in high-traffic areas, such as hallways. Since these paints contain higher proportions of latex polymer microparticles, they provide smoother surfaces, highly resistant to dirt.
- Dust your walls regularly: The easiest way to get rid of dust and cobwebs is to run a dust cloth over your painted walls every couple of months. If you decide to vacuum your walls, do it with a brush attached to avoid scratching the surface.
- Prevent damage to walls: Wainscoting, chair rails, rubber buffers, and door bumpers and stops can help prevent damage to walls and costly repairs in the future. When hanging picture frames and artwork, use two hooks instead of just one to prevent scuff marks on walls.
- Test before you clean: Any Florida commercial painter would strongly advise you to test cleaning solutions in an inconspicuous spot. If the paint looks the same, but cleaner, you can use the solutions.
Wash your walls every few months: Wash your walls using a sponge and warm soapy water. It’s recommended that you repeat the cleaning process in areas that get touched often (e.g. around switches) instead of using abrasive cleaners or scrubbing too hard, which may cause discoloration.
- Remove all stains: If stains are still present after washing the walls, try using a stronger solution, such as laundry detergent, ammonia, or baking soda mixed with water, or a heavy-duty cleaner. For stubborn stains, you can always opt for the last-resort solution: touching up the affected spots or repainting the entire area.
- Use the right products: A Florida commercial painter would never use standard solutions, such as glass cleaners, to clean painted surfaces. As most of these products contain alcohol and strong solvents that can damage the paint.
- Restore the original appearance of paint: Satin, gloss, and semi-gloss finishes may appear dull after washing. To restore the shine and color to your walls, rub the surface lightly with a soft,dry cloth.
- Repair damaged areas: Keep some touch-up paint and small, clean brushes on hand to repair chipped surfaces. For superficial wall damage, use a good-quality patching material, sand away imperfections, and then touch up each spot with paint left from the original job. Since paint color can change slightly over time, feathering the paint over the surrounding area by applying less and less pressure will help minimize color differences.
- Computer-match your painted walls: If you no longer have the original paint, you don’t need to repaint the entire area. All you need to do is to cut a 2-inch square of paint out and approach a paint store. With the help of a computerized paint-matching system, the store will give you the exact recipe to match the original color.
Paint Maintenance Takeaways:
- flat paints are more prone to staining than gloss finishes;
- satin, gloss, and semi-gloss paints withstand cleaning much better than any flat paint;
- premium paints usually allow for better touch-up work;
- after washing a painted wall, rinse it with clear water immediately.
