Spot painting

Various walls in our townhouse has scuffs, stains from spills, etc. and we are looking to sell in the next couple of months, so I am wanting to paint/cover these marks up. The original paint is cheap flat paint (Duron Antique White), so when attemptig to remove the scuffs, you are sometimes successful, but usually leave a light mark behind, so it still doesn't look great. I guess I have a couple of questions:

1. Do I have to prime over the scuff marks? I figure the spill stains need priming, as well as some areas I have to use spackle, but not sure on where there are black scuff marks.

2. Can I just spot paint the areas with a roller? The original owners left about a quart and a half of the original paint (7 years old by now), which might be enough. If I had to re-paint the entire wall where there are scuff marks, I would end up painting half the walls in the house, so I would like to avoid if possible.

Just looking for the best way to get the walls looking nice while trying to do the job correctly.

Thanks,
Neil

 

I'd use a decent stain blocking primer on all forms of stains,spots and repaired areas of your walls.

That said your 7 year old paint will not match for a variety of reasons.

If there is any of the exisiting paint peeling somewhere or that can be used as a matching sample then I'd have paint mixed to match that before I'd use 7 year old paint that once was a match to your walls.

Paint,both on the walls and in a can,ages and will change color especially with a time element like 7 years.

 

spdavid,
I have some Zinsser BIN primer, so I think that should do a good job of stain blocking. I think I could find a place where I could get a paint sample from the wall, which like you said might be a better match. That would also work well because I would like to get a low or zero VOC paint since I have a 1 year old in the house now .

Thanks,
Neil

 

IMO you would have better luck with the old paint than try to get new paint [especially another brand] to touch up, but........ a cheap paint job, 7 yrs old is prime for a repaint.

 

As much as I would love to do a re-paint, I don't have the money for someone else to do it, or the time for me to do it unfortunately.

I will probably try the old paint since I already have it anyway. If it doesn't look good, then I might go and get some color match to a sample from the wall.

This was cheap contractor grade paint probably. If you rub your finger hard enough, you can discolor it and tell where you rubbed!! I think thy must have thinned real good and sprayed it, but that is just a guess.

-Neil

 

It is quite possible the original paint job was sprayed. I kind of doubt that they thinned it - most builder grade paints are already a little on the thin side I have yet to see any that were very washable - especially if the primer was skipped.

If you do try to have paint mixed for touch up, be sure to have it made out of the same brand/type of paint. A different paint will be very difficult to touch up with, differences in sheen, mil thickness and the chemical make up - all will make it harder for a different paint to touch up properly.

IMO it would be better to buy a better grade of paint and repaint a wall/room at a time as you get the time.

 

We are putting the house up for sale in January after the holidays, so I don't think I will have the time in the next month to re-paint as much as I think needs re-painting (at least to me, but I am a perfectionist). I know the brand (Duron), so if I need more I could get some. Hopefully the touching up will work. In the house we are having built we decided to upgrade the paint after dealing with the paint in this house.

On a side note, do they make a clear coat for interior paint? I deal a lot with cars, which have the base color coat and then a clear coat for protection. Has anything ever been made for interior paint that is similar? It would be nice to have a flat paint, and then if you want a glossy clear, you could add it later, and provide protection to the base coat. just a thought (or maybe a future invention?!).

-Neil

 

No rockford33, no clear coats over paints. They do this sometimes over glazed work from Ben Moore. Only because the coating is so weak.

Here is what I would do for your situation. If you are sure this is the paint, test leftover paint on wall. As long as this 7 years is smoke free and not too badly used rooms. You should be able to touch up with the Duron. This paint is factory mixed. Go buy another gallon if you think you need it and compare it to the original by anding a drop to the old gallon and see. Get a 3/4 inch LAMBS WOOL roller to make the job less messy for yourself and start rolling out the areas you want to clean up. The one thing you have going for you is this paint and all builders paint are designed for touchups. After all the rolling out, wait to dry and see what you get. If there are stains bleeding through then you deal with that using a stain primer. But I would think new gallons of this shelve paint should work if you lightly feather it in. Of course you can't expect perfection for a quick fix but these CBP (crap builders paints) paints do touch up wonderful. Just don't touch this paint while you live with it.

 

7 years smoke free and not real badly used.

Any particular reason to use a 3/4 inch lambs wool roller? I was actually looking at using a foam trim roller for ultra smooth finish. Most of the areas are small (just a lot of them), so I was thinking my 4" trim roller would be easier to control and do a better job.

-Neil

 

Personally I detest using any roller cover that isn't lambs wool...... but most any roller cover should work ok.

 

If you are touching up, it will be noticeable
If it will be passable...that would be up to you
I would bet no

The on-the-wall paint has seasoned for seven years
A new paint mixed to match will never touch up well
The old stuff in the can won't touch up well either, not having been on a wall for 7 years, but at least there's a better chance of it blending OK

More likely you will end up with what is essentially a spotty paint job anyway, which if it happens, will look worse than the scuff marks

I'd recommend a quick and easy repaint
If you are putting the house up for sale, you may want to consider the investment (time/money)
A "spotty" paint job will scare more potential buyers more than a "needs a..." paint job

 

The lambswool holds a lot of paint and has the least fallout not to mention easy to clean.

You do not want to touch up little spot here and little spot there. Use this large roller and do 2 foot X 2 foot, 4 foot X 4 foot or 6 foot X 6 foot at a time. don't just hit every 3inch X 3inch or less spot, this is too obvious. Just roll out an entire large area that is affected and feather it out. This is the proper way to touch up so it blends in and does not look like you touched up. This method though may require more then one gallon.

Just moments ago I repaired water damage on a ceiling. I did this entire house exactly 6 years ago. I bought Sherwin Williams Promar 200 Dover White (same color) and painted the foyer ceiling (water damage) 6' X 10' the entire area but blended it in the living room where the ceiling continued. My customer was thrilled!! But had I just did the water damage in this foyer instead of the whole foyer ceiling, with the lighting I bet she would not have been as thrilled. Moral of the story: You need to touch up all around the dirt and scuffs not just the dirt and scuffs. Feather this paint JUST up to where the paint job has not been touched by human hands.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

I do have one dumb question: how do you feather it out with a roller?

I think I am going to end up completely re-painting some of the half-walls which are scuffed, and maybe one or two of the shorter length walls. A couple of the wall are the entire length of my townhouse, so it would be a good bit of painting to redo for only a small portion of scuffs.

I guess the quart and a half that I have is not going to be enough I'll be hitting the Duron store for more paint this weekend.

Thanks,
Neil

 

When I sold my previous home, I had neither the time nor the energy to repaint. I talked to my realtor, and offered the prospective homeowner a "rebate" on the house (about $500) for remodeling.

In this fashion the new homeowner got the color they want for less money than they had planned.

Unless you are a mind reader, most new homeowners are going to repaint at least a portion of their new home. So why not give them a discount, and save yourself the trouble?

Of course this is assuming there is no damage to the walls, just dirty paint. On a side not for the dirt, try the "Mr Clean Magic Eraser". It does WONDERS for dirt marks. Don't scrub the heck out of the walls, but it usually doesn't leave marks.

 

Feathering is rolling out gently to the very clean part of the walls. Not stopping suddenly. ease up pressure to almost 0 PSI as you roll to the clean parts. Don't overdue though. paint wants to dry within seconds doing this.

 

I think I am going to end up re-painting some walls. We have quite a few half-walls that would be easy to re-paint. Some of the longer, taller walls will get touch up and feathering. I am not going to be able to get everything, but at least it will look a lot better when I am done.

Thanks,
Neil