When painting a house, you don't make mistakes with the color or the roller: you make a mistake at the beginning, when you decide to do the whole house at once. Those who start out like this find themselves in a state of disarray for days, tire, and finish quickly. Those who start with just one room take it home, see it finished, and tackle the next one with the skill they learned in the first.

We are Painters in Manchester for over thirty years. Here's how we do it, in the exact order as we do it, with real numbers: how many coats, how much to thin, how long it really takes.

The order of processing, from start to finish

It's not a list of scattered suggestions: it's the sequence. Skipping a step means paying for it later.

1. Evaluate the work

Look at what's in front of you and start with just one space. It's the difference between a livable home and a house that's under construction for a week.

2. Move and cover

Move furniture that can be moved to the center of the room and then cover it. Cover the floor, cover the furniture. Apply the tape to the window frames and doors now, not when you have the roller in hand.

3. Putty with the lighthouse

Holes, cracks, imperfections: they're filled with a low-beam spotlight, because with a frontal light you can't see them and then you find them gone. And the filler needs to be reapplied twice: the second time as soon as the first is dry, because the filler shrinks.

4. Sandpaper

Filler and imperfections must be sanded. If you skip this step, every repair will show through under the paint.

5. Dust off and give The Preparer

First, remove all the dust, then apply a coat of primer. I'll return to this later, because it's the step most often skipped by DIYers and the one that determines the final result.

6. Wait for it to dry, then apply two coats

Don't paint on a still-wet surface. Once dry, apply two coats of Absolute paint.

7. Read the technical data sheet

I say it last but it should be said first: the product data sheet should be read before opening the jar, not after something has gone wrong.

The detailed step-by-step is here: how to paint a wall and how to prepare the wall before painting.

How many coats and how much to dilute

The two numbers they always ask me for, and I'll give them to you straight.

Always two coats. Not one. One coat covers as long as you look at it from the front, then when held up to the light you can see everything: the first coat is the one that evens out, the second is the one that adds color.

It starts with the profiling. First, the brush edge is applied along the corners, ceiling, and baseboards, then the roller. And the profiling must be repeated with each coat, not just the first: if you do it only once, the end result will be a different band around the entire room.

Paint thinning: Absolute: 30-35% This is the point at which the paint spreads without stretching or leaving streaks. Thinning too little creates thickness and roller marks; too thin results in poor coverage and requires a third coat.

Mistakes I Recognize on the Fly

When I walk into a room painted by a DIYer, I notice these things. They're always the same.

Poorly done profiling, and dirt everywhere: sign number one.
No tape on window frames, doors, or baseboards. It's immediately visible and can't be fixed.
Little work and thickness rolling: the roller passed quickly, without crossing, leaves the material in relief.
Poor coverage: almost always it's one coat too few, not the wrong paint.
Smudged color breaks where two colors meet. The right tape here is low-tack pink tape: It keeps the line clean and comes off without taking the paint underneath, which is exactly what happens with regular tape.
Dark, patchy colors: dark colors are unforgiving and come up in patches if the background is uneven.

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How to Paint Your House: The Complete Guide

We are Painters in Manchester for over thirty years.