VIDEOS
Painting Tips, FAQ & How-To
How to properly cut walls and corners in half the time
Shawn Toliver:
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Hi, I'm Shawn with Toliver Painting. Today we're going to look at brush techniques and proper cutting techniques. We're going to look at two ways, the way most homeowners do it and some of the professional tips and tricks that we use to get the job done fast and still make it look great. First, I want to start with the fact that I have about an inch of paint in the bottom of the bucket. I never paint out of a full bucket. If you paint out of a full can, your risk spilling a full can of paint. I have a tarp here in case there's spills and drips but it's a safety measure. You want to work with a little bit of paint in the bottom of your bucket. I put an inch in there because that's how much paint we're supposed to load this brush with.
What I see most people do when they start painting with our company is they will drip the paintbrush in the paint, like I do here and then wipe the extra paint off on the side of the bucket and then they'll start painting the wall. I see them making these short strokes down the wall, trying to make it look really nice and neat and it's like they're petting the kitty cat. It just takes forever. Yes, the lines are nice and straight but it takes forever. You notice I'm using an angled sash brush here. This is designed for corners. This is a straight edge. So I'm not using the right brush for the job.
Corners are down here at the edge of the door. I'll start here and put some paint away from the door but I'm shaping my brush to create a real sharp chisel and then I lay the back of the brush on the wall and roll that tip right in where it belongs. Tight in that corner and move the excess paint back out of the corner. I mentioned there were two different types of brushes for two different things. This is your detail corner brush, your flat sash brush is designed for these straight edges. Some people prefer this because you got a lot more control over the bristles, but once you're comfortable painting, a brush like this will get your job done a lot faster.
Load the brush. Remember I've got about an inch of paint in the bottom of it. The brush is fully loaded. Instead of wiping it off on the bucket, because we're not here to paint the bucket, we're here to paint the wall, we load that brush full, tap it on each side of the bucket and take that fully loaded brush and wipe it off on the wall.
Speaker 2:
I see you're doing a little twisty technique.
Shawn Toliver:
I am. I'm taking the paint off all the way around. That way, I don't have to worry about drips coming out of the brush anymore. I compare this a lot to, if you've ever seen road workers work, the dump truck comes along and they pour all the gravel in the middle of the road and then a road grader or tractor comes along and they spread the gravel out where it really belongs and that's what we're doing. We're dumping a lot of paint, a couple of inches away from where it really belongs and then we're going to come back and push this paint where it belongs or where it's supposed to be.
So I'm grabbing some paint off the wall, see how I got the paint on the tip of the brush there now, I'm grabbing paint off the wall and I've got that at an angle intentionally so that it's as I move the brush down the wall, it's raking that excess paint right over against the door where it belongs. Instead of little bitty strokes like I mentioned petting the kitty, we are just going to set it where it belongs and move the brush down the wall in one nice, long, solid stroke. If you need to grab some more paint, it's right there. There's no need to go back to the bucket to get more paint. You've got more right here in front of you. That's a lot faster to move the paint around.
I mean, in business for me, time is money. So I teach the guys that this is wasted time, back and forth from the bucket to the wall. For you, you might be painting your bedroom and you don't want to take all weekend to do it. So let's take the room like a typical bedroom and do the the brushwork and get the brushwork done in maybe two hours instead of two days.
Speaker 2:
That's awesome. Thank you so much for the tip, Shawn. If people don't want to do it themselves and want to hire a professional, how do they get a hold of you?
Shawn Toliver:
Please give me a call at 660-831-5134.
How to fix nail holes the right way
Speaker 1:
Okay, we're live here with Shawn from Toliver's Painting. Sean, you're going to show us some tips.
Shawn:
Today we're going to talk about the pictures have been moved and you've got those annoying holes in the wall. More often than not somebody will get a brush out and try to touch that and then you see this annoying spot that just doesn't match the rest of the wall. Today we're going to talk about how to do that right ...
Speaker 1:
Great.
Shawn:
... so that you don't have those annoying patches in the wall. The first thing you want to do is take some spackling and just patch the nail hole and wipe it smooth.
Speaker 1:
What spackling do you use?
Shawn:
This is just a spackling paste. It dries in about 30 minutes. Okay? Now when that dries, I've got one over here that I've already prepared that is dry, the next step is to sand it. However, if we get a sanding block out and we start sanding on this wall, we're going to leave a real smooth spot on this wall and your wall has a texture to it from the old paint that was rolled on there.
So what I'm going to do is I've got a damp rag here, I'm going to wipe it around this, lay it across this sanding block so that I have something smooth but still flat. We're going to wipe across this wall until the wall is smooth and we haven't damaged the texture of the paint around it.
The next thing we need to work on is putting paint on there without having nasty brushstrokes, and I don't have my brush. It's in the other room. I'll be right back. I thought I was prepared.
Speaker 1:
That's okay. That's what live is all about.
Shawn:
Two techniques you can use. First off, get your old paint, make sure you're using the exact same paint that was put on the wall the first time. Take a little bit of paint and dab it on the spot, okay? That obviously stands out as it is right now, but what I've got here are mini-rollers. They will be able to match the exact same texture from the original roller and I picked up a dozen of them for like $18. They're real cheap, throwaway. You just take a dry roller and see how I'm blending that?
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shawn:
I want to add a little bit more paint because I want to blend that a little bit further. See how that immediately changes the texture?
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shawn:
Now I'm taking this dry roller and feathering it into the rest of the wall.
Speaker 1:
You lose the brushstrokes.
Shawn:
You lose the brushstrokes and there you have it. That will dry and you won't be able to see the hole.
Speaker 1:
Okay, what if I've already done it the wrong way?
Shawn:
You might need to take the sanding block and you've got a spot on the wall where you've over-sanded it and you've got a smooth spot or you've got brushstrokes that you need to sand out.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Shawn:
Then you can take the exact same technique to get rid of that smooth spot.
Speaker 1:
I see you're doing that in different ...
Shawn:
I'm just putting it on the wall.
Speaker 1:
You're just doing it in different strokes.
Shawn:
I'm making sure that it's good and heavy where the area is that I would like to cover and then I'm starting in the paint.
Speaker 1:
It doesn't look like you're applying very hard. It looks like it's very light.
Shawn:
No, very softly and I'm feathering. I'm applying a lot of pressure to this side and hardly nothing over there.
Speaker 1:
Okay. Nice.
Shawn:
There you have it. It's gone.
Speaker 1:
Awesome.
Shawn:
If you've got pencil marks or the kids have gone through and written on the wall in crayon and you need to cover over that, just dab those spots and with the dry mini-roller you can make those spots disappear.
Speaker 1:
That's awesome.
Shawn:
So that's the correct way to touch-up a wall and leave you with a flawless finish when you're done.
Speaker 1:
Great. Now, if someone needs their home painted or any jobs like this inside or out, how would you recommend they get ahold of you? They want to hire a professional.
Shawn:
You can give us a call at the office at 660-831-5134.
Speaker 1:
All right. Thanks Shawn.
Shawn:
Thank you.
How to choose the right brush for edging and painting corners
(This will save you LOADS of time!)
Shawn:
Hello, I'm Shawn with Toliver Painting. Today we're gonna look at two different types of paintbrushes and exactly what they're used for and proper techniques for how to use them.
I've got in front of me a 2.5 angle sash paintbrush. The angle brush is great for working in corners. Now when I say corners, this is a corner. This is not a corner. This is a straight edge. Your corner is right there and with the angled sash brush, you can reach right in the corner and roll that tip right where it needs to go and get that paint right in the crack of the corner.
Another type of brush is the flat sash brush which is great for moving quickly along the straight edges. A great way to know exactly how much paint to put on a brush is to hold your hand across the brush, bend the bristles over, and slowly move your fingers towards the end of the brush. When those first hairs start popping up like that, that's how much paint is supposed to be put on the brush. So this particular brush is designed to operate with about an inch worth of paint on the end of it.
Your angle sash brush ... which is more of a detail brush ... is a little bit less.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. I can see that. So I don't need to dip it into the entire can.
Shawn:
No, you don't want to put paint any higher on the brush ... than right there.
Speaker 2:
Awesome. And what kind of brushes are those.
Shawn:
These are brushes by Purdy. I prefer Purdy or Wooster; both of them are very good quality brushes. A typical brush will last me about six months painting every day.
Speaker 2:
Is it important to get a good quality brush?
Shawn:
It is. There's absolutely no substitute for good tools. You can get a very cheap brush and the problem I find with cheaper brushes is that the hairs and the bristles, they start falling out. And there's nothing more frustrating that trying to paint your bedroom and you're spending half of the time picking hairs out of the paint. So there's no substitute for very good tools. If you want your room to look nice, do it with good quality.
You can give our office a call and speak to me at 660-831-5134.
Speaker 2:
Okay. Thank you Shawn.
Shawn:
Thank you!
How to touch up a wall without leaving shiny paint spots
Shawn Tolliver:
Hi. I'm Shawn with Toliver Painting. Today we're going to talk about touch ups on the wall and one of your biggest enemies when touching up a wall, natural light. When natural light shines through a window and across a wall, very often we see where the paint color matches but the shine is different. There's an obvious circle in the wall right here that is shinier than the rest of the wall and then a dull spot where somebody patched this and didn't get enough paint over it. It's soaked in and it's not as shiny.
The way to take care of this is to come back and put a second coat on. Put it heavy over this dull spot and then feather the paint out. When you've got this much natural light shining across the wall, instead of just this little circle that is feathered, I would bring this circle out quite a bit bigger to where there's just barely any paint on the wall, out here to where it's a good thick coat of paint right here, maintaining the same texture as the wall. Then when the light shines in, you won't see the circle on the wall.
Speaker 2:
Good. That's good. Thank you Shawn.
Shawn Tolliver:
Thank you.
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