3 Reasons To Avoid DIY Painting in Your Calgary Home

Relatively speaking, painting your home, whether the interior or the exterior, is one of the most affordable and least complicated upgrades you can do. It doesn’t require any demolition and, depending on the size of the area you intend to paint, it can be completed within a few hours or a few days. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that painting is easy. It is still a big job that requires a lot of work. Here are some reasons you should hire painting services in Calgary rather than attempting the job yourself.

1. Quality

Painting seems easy, especially when you can look up tutorials on the internet to show you how to do it correctly. However, because painting appears to be easy, it can lull you into a false sense of security that makes it easier to make mistakes, and the mistakes you make while painting can last for a long time.

For example, imagine that you put a little too much paint on your brush before applying it to the wall. The excess paint could drip down the surface. When the drips dry, they become hard, and they could stand out like that for a long time. Even painting over the surface with another colour would not eliminate the drips. You have to scrape them off by hand.

If you make a mistake when covering the trim with tape, you may end up with paint spots. This can really stand out and may be difficult, if not impossible, to remove. Hiring professionals to paint your house can help you avoid errors such as this.

2. Colour

One of the most frustrating things about DIY painting is that the color you think you have may look completely different when you actually get it on the walls. Even if it is the same paint used to paint the room originally, it may look different when you do touch-ups because age can affect paint in ways you may not expect.

New paint can also look different when you bring it home compared to how it looked in the store. The time of day and the type of lighting, e.g., artificial versus natural light, can make a big difference. Part of painting services in Calgary involves helping you choose to paint with the colours you actually want.

3. Safety and Health

Painting may not seem dangerous, and it isn’t really if you know what you’re doing. Nevertheless, there are risks involved. For example, if you have to climb up on a ladder to reach the areas near the ceiling, you are putting yourself at risk for a fall. This puts you at risk for musculoskeletal injuries, such as broken bones or sprains. If you hit the back of your head, you could sustain a brain injury, which could be serious and potentially life-threatening. You may think that you can reduce your fall risk by using an extender pole, and this could be effective. On the other hand, if you have an unusually high ceiling, the pole may not be long enough to reach.

Even if you can mitigate the fall risk, there are other hazards involved in painting that could negatively affect your health. For example, when using a paint sprayer, you need to wear goggles to protect your eyes and wear a mask to avoid breathing in the paint fumes. Painting is also a repetitive physical activity that could cause muscle strain. This is typically mild and resolves within a day or two, but why subject yourself to that if you don’t have to?

Handyman Connection provides painting services in Calgary for both the interior and exterior of your home. We take care of all the steps in the process, starting with the preparation and ending with the cleanup. Find out more about our painting specialties.