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How to Clean Walls – Preparing Walls for Painting

A fresh coat of paint must be applied on a clean surface. You’ll notice that on all painting products the instructions clearly state to apply on a clean surface. Want to learn how to clean walls? Awesome, today I’m showing you how we do it.

How to clean walls before starting to paint. Washing walls prior to applying paint is extremely important. Learn how to wash walls without using harsh chemicals.

Our living room has had the same coat of paint since we bought the house in 2006.

After eleven years, we decided that it was time to revamp this central part of our house.

We started off by preparing walls for painting before we cleaned the walls. 

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Knowing the importance of applying paint to clean walls, we washed the walls before applying new paint.

We heard about wall cleaners like TSP, but we wanted something that is more in our DIY way of doing things, and something not as harsh for our health and the environment.

Ready to see how to wash walls without using harsh chemicals?

How to Clean Walls

Supplies:

How to clean walls without using harsh chemicals

Instructions:

In one bucket, we mixed 4 litres of warm water, ½ cup of vinegar, and ¼ cup of baking soda. We used this mixture to wash the walls.

In the other bucket, we put warm water only. We used it to rinse the walls.

DIY wall cleaner mixture

The technique is simple. We started at the top and finished at the bottom of the walls.

How to clean walls before applying paint

We washed with the vinegar mixture. We immediately rinsed with a little bit of water so our mixture wouldn’t leave residue on the walls.

We found that washing the walls in a circular motion was the way to go. Going straight from top to bottom in a linear motion left streaks on the walls.

Changing the water frequently is extremely important in order to make sure dirt isn’t been spread back onto the walls.

We tested each washing methods on two different walls.

We had better results on the walls where we used the circular technique.

When done, we waited a little to be sure that that walls were dry.

And we started painting.

Painting walls with a roller

Our method of using vinegar, baking soda, and water worked perfectly for our living room walls.

However if the walls were extremely dirty perhaps like kitchen walls, we may have opted for another cleaning method. We’d probably look into a wall cleaner made for washing walls.

How to clean walls before starting to paint. Washing walls prior to applying paint is extremely important. Learn how to wash walls without using harsh chemicals.

Cleaning walls is pretty simple right?

The process is a little long, but it’s worth it!

If your paint doesn’t stick because the walls weren’t clean, the process is even longer and you’ll be kicking yourself for skipping this crucial step.

Have a BEAUTIFUL day!

P.S. I’ll be linking to these Parties.

Tori

Sunday 19th of August 2018

Worked like a charm! Thank you for testing that out.

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