Do you have questions about painting your house or your business? Are you painting your interior or exterior? Don't know when to use a primer and when not to? Or what kind of primer to even use?

Doing your deck? Thinking about Concrete stains? Painting Garage or Basement Floors?

Ask all you painting questions here!

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TalkPa.net - Pennsylvania's Forum

I have a metal front door that faces the hot afternoon sun. A couple of bubbles appeared and now the paint is cracking thanks to the winter cold. How do I repaint those parts of the door where the bubbles were? I think I have to sand the paint down to the metal to remove the cracks. I don't want to do the whole door. Should I prime the sanded parts and what should I use? The door is painted with a weather resistant paint.

Thanks GL.

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First of all, never paint a door, metal, wood or otherwise that faces hot afternoon sun in the hot afternoon sun. Remove the door and paint it inside away from the sun until it dries and even then keep the door out of the direct sunlight as long as possible until the paint cures. Latex paints take 14 days to cure.

You can scrape the bubbles and lightly sand (220 Grit paper to sand) to feather out the spots where you scraped. You will need to spot prime those areas where you scraped and sanded with a bonding primer. Insulx makes one called Aqualock, Zinnser make one called 1-2-3 as well as your Sherwin Williams/Duron/MAB and Benjamin Moore dealers.

Doors that face all day sun are always a challange. Always use a latex paint. These expand and contract better than oils. Also, in this situation, the better the paint (read more expensive) the better it will hold up under these extreme conditions.

Cutting in question.

Is cutting in between the walls and ceiling just a steady hand or are there tricks to maintaining a straight line.

I've tried tape, straight edges and even fine beads of caulk. I just suck at painting!!! My office needs painting, but I'm skeered to cut in because it'll look like crap....

Great ideas by the way, doing the ask the expert thing!!!

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www.Chesapeakebaybratwurst.com "The Original Crab Seasoned Bratwurst" by Kirby and Holloway Provisions Harrington DE

Steady Hands are a must if you are not using tape or an edger. Personally, I don't use tape or an edger. I use a Wooster Lindbeck 2 1/2" angle sash brush for cutting. When wet it has a nice straight, thin tip that is excellent for cutting in.

Also with tape or edgers it is only as straight as the walls and ceiling is. I have never come across a room that was perfectly square between a wall and ceiling. Even new construction is never square. But the tools that are out there are made on the assumption that they are.

If you tape, us small strips of tape, not one long continuous strip. Smaller strips of tape will get you closer to appearing square than one long strip which is difficult work with and get close to square.

If you use edgers, remember to wipe them often of excess paint on both sides.

Cutting in sucks. No doubt about that.

Good Luck

What do you think of the new paint that is primer/paint in one?

Right now the best one out there that I am really impressed with is the Benjamin Moore Aura or Ben paints. No one out there right now even comes colse to these. I have seen deep reds go on bare drywall and still cover in 2 coats. SW and ICI have not been able to come close to the performance, low odor and coverage as Ben Moore's

Thanks. My husband loves BM paints and I was hoping to get him away from them because they are so expensive!! LOL Guess that's not happening!!

in all my 15 + years, BM is one of the best

My question has to do with matching a patched area on a wall. The previous owners of my house had pictures on the wall, and they patched the holes and repainted. The paint color matches exactly, but where they patched the holes they sanded the spackling smooth and from any angle but straight on these areas look very glossy compared to the rest of the wall. I think the problem is that the color matched but the texture does not - drywall has a bit of a rough texture whereas where they spackled is now perfectly smooth. Can I do anything to get the appearance to match?

Thank you,

Fellow Delawarian Mike D.

First off mdiebold, let me welcome you to TalkDelaware. Glad to have you here.

What you are describing is what is known as flashing. The cause or reason that this happened is that the spackled and sanded surface was not primed. This is a common homeowner mistake. Patched areas is one place where priming is really necessary and not shortcutted.

Now, how do you fix it?

1- Hang a new picture over that spot and no one will ever see it.

2 - Repaint the entire wall. Make sure you sand, clean the sanded area to remove sanding dust, spot prime those areas where it was patched and then repaint. By doing the entire wall you get uniformity.

3- Sand, clean the sanded area to remove sanding dust, spot prime those areas where it was patched and a little beyond and then repaint those spots.

Good Luck