Living at Home During Interior Painting

For most families, painting the inside of the house is something they live through rather than move out for. That is normal, and with a little planning it is perfectly manageable. It helps to know in advance what the days will feel like, which parts of the house you will lose and for how long, and what you can do to make it go well for everyone.

How is the work arranged around you?

Interior painting is usually planned in zones rather than all at once. A bedroom wing might be done first while the living spaces stay in use, then the living spaces while the bedrooms are back to normal. The order is something to talk through at the estimate: which rooms you can manage without, which ones must stay usable, where someone works from home, and where a pet sleeps. Ebenezer manages every project personally, so the person who plans the order with you is the person running the job.

A home takes between one and ten days, depending on how many rooms, how much repair and how much trim and door work is involved. Weekends are worked when the project needs it.

What the days feel like

Every job is different, but most interior work passes through the same stages, and each one has a different effect on the household.

Moving and masking

The first part of each room is furniture and protection. Furniture that stays is moved to the center and covered; floors are covered edge to edge; fixtures, outlets and switch plates are dealt with. Rooms in this stage are out of use. Expect a lot of activity and very little color.

Repair days

Holes are filled, cracks repaired, nail pops reset and trim caulked. Filler has to dry before it is sanded, so repair work often stretches over more than one visit to a room. Sanding makes fine dust. It is contained as much as possible, doors to finished rooms are kept closed, and it is worth turning off a central forced-air system or covering its return vents during sanding, then checking the filter afterwards. You may hear scraping and the hum of a vacuum. If the house was built before 1978, the old paint may contain lead, and that changes how it can be sanded at all. Ebenezer is EPA lead-safe (RRP) certified, so raise it at the estimate and the preparation is planned around lead-safe practices before any sanding starts.

Painting days

Ceilings first, then walls, then trim and doors. This is when you will notice the smell, and when doors and windows need to stay open for air. Freshly painted doors are left slightly ajar so they do not stick to their stops. Rooms being painted are still off limits, but rooms finished the day before can often be used again once the paint is dry.

The final day

Masking comes down, furniture goes back, outlet covers are refitted and any touch-ups are done. Then the rooms are walked through and looked at closely, in daylight, with you. Anything that is not right is put right. That is the guarantee: if something is not right, he comes back and repairs it.

Air, smell and the San Diego weather

Modern interior paints are far lower in odor than those of a generation ago, but there is still a smell while paint is drying, and good airflow is what clears it. Low-VOC and zero-VOC paint explains what the labels mean.

Local weather plays a part. On a hot inland afternoon in El Cajon or elsewhere in East County, opening every window lets the heat in, so ventilation is usually a combination of an open window or two and a fan pushing air out of the room. Near the coast, as in Imperial Beach, damp marine-layer mornings slow drying, and a room may need longer before the next coat or before it is closed up for the night.

Pets and children

Paint, ladders and open cans do not mix with curious children and animals. It helps to:

1. Give pets a base away from the rooms being worked on, such as a room already finished or one not being painted, with the door closed.
2. Keep children out of work areas. Even dry-looking paint can be soft for hours, and ladders and masking are not play equipment.
3. Watch the doors. With doors propped open for air, an animal that normally stays in can slip out. Say so at the start if a pet must not get outside.
4. Store medicines and small valuables somewhere out of the rooms being worked in, so you are not hunting for them under drop cloths.

Working from home

If you work from home, choose a room that is being painted early or not at all, and let Ebenezer know your calls and meetings. Repair and sanding days are noisier than painting days, and the order of rooms can often be arranged so your workspace is not in the middle of them.

Evenings during the job

At the end of each day the work areas are left safe and tidy, with tools and paint put away. A few things are worth knowing for the evening:

• Do not touch the tape. Masking left in place overnight is there for the next day’s work.
• Leave fresh doors open and do not hang anything on the walls yet.
• Look, but in daylight. Evening lamps can make a wet wall look patchy; it is usually drying unevenly, not painted unevenly. If something concerns you, mention it the next morning.

After the last coat

Paint dries in hours, but it cures over a few weeks. During that time, be gentle with it: no scrubbing, leave a gap between furniture and fresh walls, and wait for the label’s cure time before hanging pictures or sticking anything to the walls. Keep the leftover paint, labeled with the room and color, for touch-ups later.

Planning your weeks around it

If you have a date in mind, a family gathering, a new baby, a house going on the market, it helps to work back from it. Tell Ebenezer at the estimate and he will explain how the job can be ordered around your household. Can a home keep running while it is painted? Absolutely, it’s possible.

Ask for a free estimate to plan yours, or read more about interior painting and how a job runs from the first visit to the walk-through.