Interior Painting Step 5: Touch Up and Clean Up 

Thanks!

@@howtopaintahouse ......DITTO!

Me too :)

*your steps.

+Nicole Tod Thank you!

Great instructional video

Thanks, glad to hear it!

+cacsoccer101 If you put the blue tape on, do the touch up, and pull it off immediately, as I do in the video, you are not likely to pull up the recently dried paint underneath. But to be on the safe side I'd give it a few days.

These are great questions and my answer is kind of long, but the bottom line is there really is no way to make a touch-up blend in 100%, especially at an angle, simply because the sheen of the additional coat will be shinier than the sheen of the previous coat. (It's the sheen difference you are seeing when viewing at an angle.) This is because the additional coat absorbs into the painted surface (drywall, for example) at a different rate. With custom colors (especially dark ones) there can actually be a slight difference in the shade of the color, especially if ALL the paint wasn't boxed (mixed) together properly at the start of the job. Just the slightest difference in coloration will stand out, even when viewed straight-on. With stock colors this usually isn't an issue, and that's one reason to go with a stock color, especially in a commercial setting but even at home. So what's the best way to touch-up? You can re-roll the entire wall quickly (without cutting in) if you want to eliminate the problem. Sometimes you can re-roll just a small section of the wall if you are able to cut it off at logical break points that will be less noticeable (for example at the edge of a large window when painting inside, or if painting outside, you could just roll the one piece of siding from one joint to another joint). If you don't want to re-roll large sections, you can be as surgical as possible about the touch up if the spots are small (the more surgical, the less noticeable it will be). Try to mimic the roller stipple by either dabbing the paint, or use a mini-roller and feather it out as best as possible. Feathering out any touch-up work is always very important. The questions everybody needs to ask themselves is how picky do you want to be? Is anybody except you really going to notice this touch-up? Certainly in a commercial setting it's unlikely people will scrutinize the paint job at an angle, so painters can get away with touch-up that usually doesn't involved re-rolling entire walls (which isn't even practical on a commercial job because they always require a lot of touch-up due to all the other trades banging around doing their own jobs). It's also worth noting that over time the shinier sheen of a touched-up area will lessen and it will blend in better. This is a good thing to tell customers to appease them until the time when they simply forget about it. In fact, one of my former bosses used to outright tell picky customers, "Stop looking at it." He was sort of kidding, but sometimes that's the best solution.

howtopaintahouse Thanks for the great, detailed response -- kind of what I had figured, but great to hear confirmed by a pro. My wife keeps telling me, "Stop looking at it!" -- so it must be true! Next time, I'll have someone else do my touch-ups. We always seem to be the most critical of our own work... Thanks again for taking the time to reply at length. Regards!

kicknotes haha. you are a perfectionist type man :)

Hi--I don't think there is any defined professional standard. My personal standard is much lower on a commercial job than on a residential job. You cannot afford to be repainting walls on a commercial job just for the sake of touch up. But if a residential customer is unhappy with a spot of touch up showing, you can either reroll the wall to make them happy, or tell them that the "shine" will fade in a few weeks. This is true, plus after a few weeks they will forget about it and stop looking at it. :) It really just depends on the situation. It always pays to remember that most people don't look at a paint job nearly as closely as a painter does. So wait for the customer to say something before you worry about it.

totally agreed. anyway, thanks again for the info you bring to us. it's very helpful.