ROLLING ON (continued)
Now that the ceiling is completed we can clean our buckets and tools in preparation of rolling the walls.Before we finish paint the walls, let's prime that grooved prefinished paneling. Although we have already cleaned and lightly sanded the wall, a primer is still recommended. The primer of choice here is our acrylic latex general purpose primer. The cutting and rolling technique for primers is the same for finish paints. Let's "cut in" the wall with the trim brush. Brush out from the corners, above the baseboard, down from the ceiling and around the windows, doors and electrical outlets. As I stated earlier, a three or four inch strip is the best bet. You can get a little primer on the trim, but remember that the ceiling is finished, so be careful at the ceiling line. Because they are deep, the grooves in this paneling need to be brush painted before we roll.
With the wall cut in, we can set up our roller equipment in the same manner as we did while rolling the ceiling.
Each section of the wall that we roll requires two steps, "laying on" is step one and "laying off" is step two.
Method One
Step one (laying on).
Starting at a corner, load the roller as we did with the ceiling. Place the loaded roller about two inches out from the corner and in the middle of the wall. Now roll up to about a foot from the ceiling and back down to about a foot from the baseboard. Reload and repeat, positioning the roller to slightly overlap the previously painted area. Repeat this procedure four or five times. That completes the "laying on" step of this section, but we are not finished.
Step two (laying off).
Roll off all the excess primer onto the screen. Start back in the corner and from the vertical middle, roll up to about two inches from the ceiling and back down to about two inches from the baseboard. With the roller at the bottom of the wall reposition it to slightly overlap the area we just rolled and carry it up to the ceiling and back down to the baseboard, reposition and repeat until the section is complete. Move on to lay out and complete each section in the same manner until the wall is completed.
The finish paint is applied in the same manner.
There are many ways to roll a wall, but the above method is used by most professionals.
Another common method is laying on in a pattern then laying off as described above, I recommend this method for DIY homeowners simply because it prevents "dry rolling" , a very common mistake.
See illustrations on next pages
Before finish painting the drywall and plaster one additional step is required. Remember all those patches on the walls, they need a little more attention. We need to "spot prime" the patches with the finish paint. Simply apply the finish paint to the patches with the trim brush. This will prevent the patches from showing up as "dead" spots after we have finished the walls. We can now finish paint the walls with the same cut and roll method that we used while priming our paneling.
Look's great...Let them dry.... tomorrow we'll be finishing up.
