I know you’ve heard that phrase before.  It’s applicable to almost anything.  It’s especially important in the painting world.  Many times customers ask, “If I paint this defect it will make it look better, right?”  My answer is always, without hesitation, “No ma’am. It will actually make it look worse.”  A good percentage of our repaints have been- believe it or not- painting over the dreaded flat paint on walls.  A flat on the walls will hide defects because it doesn’t reflect light and doesn’t have a sheen (or shine).  99% of our customers paint walls in an eggshell.  It will reflect more and, in turn, show more.  So, to make a great experience for our customers we do the following to make your walls look smooth and new.

1. The first thing we do is put down tape, paper, and drop cloths. We don’t use tape to cut a straight line.  We do, however, use it to protect from drips and splatters.  If we are painting the baseboards, we tape and paper the floor.  If we are NOT painting the baseboards, we put tape/paper over them.  This allows us to concentrate on the actual painting (and not worry about a mess).  Once the area we are painting is protected, we start on the walls.

2. There are likely more defects in your walls than you think.  Sure, you have the picture holes that will need to be filled.  What you likely haven’t seen is pesky little dents in the wall, slight tape seams (that have come loose due to settling), and other knicks/cracks.  We take drywall mud and go through the entire area before painting.  We get the drywall to what is called a level 4 finish.  That is a smooth, defect free finish that you should expect when buying a new home (and we deliver that to you whenever we provide painting services). 

3. We sand before each coat of paint. We use triangle sanders that look like oversized pieces of pizza.  This helps us cover a lot of ground and get into every nook/crack of the wall. Sanding does two things: 1. It helps the paint adhere better than if no sanding is done.  It opens up the previous surface and just gives it a little more bite.  2. The paint will only look as good as the surface it’s put on (so we want that surface smooth before every coat).

4. Before we load up our 18” rollers and 3” brushes with paint we de-lint the rollers and strain the paint.  Think of roller covers like owning a golden retriever.  They shed (and can shed) a lot. Wrapping them in tape or rolling them over tape pulls the excess fibers off the roller and- in turn- keeps them from coming off while painting.  Lastly we strain the paint.  Buckets of paint sit in warehouses and storehouses for weeks or months before they get shipped to a dealer. During that time the paint will accumulate globs or boogers in it that will stick to the wall.  Running the paint through a strainer and into our buckets squeezes out all these globs and ensures you get the best finish.

There you have it!  That’s what we do at RollTheLex to make sure you get the best experience and best finish on your walls. Is it more work than “just painting?”  Sure.  But you’re more than “just a customer” to us.