Drywall contractors, Painters, Interior Painting, Atlanta, Chamblee, Alpharetta, Roswell, Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody

How to Patch Small Holes in Drywall

When you are around professional painters everyday, you become jaded to how difficult painting and drywall repair can be.  These trades require skills and knowledge that can be learned only through experience.

Oftentimes, clients call us to finish projects that they started and realized that painting and drywall repair isn’t as easy as it looks.  I see many things that homeowners attempted that were done extremely poorly.

Today, I’m going to go over one of the most simple processes that I see done incorrectly.

Repairing small holes and minor damage on drywall.

When I saw “small holes”, I mean holes from pictures and other damage that does not go entirely through the drywall.  If you can put you finger or more through the hole and feel the other side of the drywall, then this isn’t the right how to for you.

The most common mistake I see people make when patching minor drywall damage is using too much finishing compound.

I speculate that the following are reasons for this:

  • Impatience
  • Lack of understanding the process.

First off, YOU WANT TO USE ONLY ENOUGH DRYWALL COMPOUND TO FILL THE VOID.

I can’t emphasize this enough.  This about it, any excess compound is going to create a new profile on the drywall.  It may look and feel smooth, but you will quickly see to what I am referring once you paint it.

The mindset is “I need to fill this hole and dammit I’m going to fill this hole.”  Unfortunately, this mindset will cause a bad finish.

The key to flawless drywall repair is using the right tools and understanding of how to apply the drywall compound.

Here are the tools that you need for flawless drywall repair:

  • Drywall finishing knife
  • Mud pan
  • Appropriate type of finishing compound (i.e. 20 min, 45 min, 90 min, or pre-mixed.
  • Sanding Sponge

Here is how to do it:

  1. Cover the associated work area because you are going to make some dust.
  2. Mix your joint compound if applicable
  3. Using your finishing knife, fill the holes with drywall compound.  After the hole appears full, scrape all excess mud off of the wall.  Don’t be scared to use some force.  Remember, the more compound you leave, the more sanding you will do or you will be able to see the repair.
  4. Wait for compound to dry.  A blow dryer can expedite this process.
  5. Sand the repair after the mud dries.  The goal here is remove all compound except where the damage is.  You don’t want to leave any compound on good parts of the wall.
  6. Feel the hole or damage.  If it is smooth, then you are ready to spot prime the repair and paint it.
  7. If you can still see or feel the damage after one coat of drywall repair compound, apply another thin coat as described in steps 3-5.
  8. Now that you have a smooth wall, you need to spot prime the repair.  This is necessary because the compound has a different porosity than does paint and applying one coat of paint to compound will cause the repair to “flash.”  If you don’t have primer, most paints can serve as primer for this application.

Now that I’ve given away our secrets, I hope that clients will still have a need for GreenWave Solutions’ professional drywall finishing and painting services 😉

Enjoy!

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Residential interior painting, Residential exterior painter, Atlanta, Sandy Springs, Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Buckhead, Roswell, Alpharetta

New GreenWave Solutions Residential Painting Services

Residential house painting is GreenWave Solutions’ specialty.

Residential painting requires the most skilled and professional painters available for a myriad of reasons.  Here are some of them:

  • You must have professional and trustworthy painters because you are inside people’s homes and around their families.
  • The painters must be clean and careful because they work around furniture, decoration and other valuable property.
  • Painters must be skilled at using high-end coatings, professional finishing and painting straight lines.
  • Painters must be polite and respectful as they typically work in close proximity to women and children.

The above stated characteristics of residential painting contractors are equally important because ignoring any one can cause huge problems.

GreenWave Solutions carefully interviews and screens all of our painters because we understand the importance of employing high-caliber people to represent us.  We know that our fantastic reputation is what separates us from the competition and strive to provide our clients with the best service possible.

We train our painters about how to use high-end specialty coatings, as well as the importance of demonstrating professionalism to all of our clients.

As we prepare to grow GreenWave Solutions for 2014, we are offering residential house painting promotions.  One of the most exciting promotions we have is 15% off all residential house painting in the Atlanta Metro area.

This includes:

  • Atlanta
  • Buckhead
  • Brookhaven
  • Dunwoody
  • Chamblee
  • Sandy Springs
  • Alpharetta
  • Roswell
  • Vinings
  • Virginia Highlands
  • Grant Park
  • Inman Park
  • Candler Park
  • Marietta (some exclusions apply)
  • Milton
  • Northside
  • Morningside
  • And more – Call us at 404-549-7776 to see if we serve your area

GreenWave Solutions residential house painting services include:

  • Interior painting
  • Exterior painting
  • Deck staining and sealing
  • Cabinet painting and cabinet lacquers
  • Decorative concrete staining
  • Concrete polishing
  • Popcorn ceiling removal
  • Stipple texture ceiling smoothing
  • Wallpaper removal
  • Lead paint removal, lead paint abatement
  • Color consultation
  • Carpentry
  • Drywall Repair and drywall installation
  • And more!

Call us today to schedule your free residential painting estimate!

404-549-7776

Painter Sandy Springs, Exterior painting Sandy Springs, Exterior painting Atlanta

Atlanta Exterior House Painting Company

A building’s exterior is the first impression guests get when visiting somewhere.

Think about the first time you go to a doctor’s office, restaurant or hair salon.  If you pull up to a building that is unkempt, messy or dirty, you may think twice about using this businesses services.

Now think about if you are taking your child to a new friend’s sleepover and pull up to a poorly maintained house with old, peeling paint and plants growing out of the gutters.  Many parents may feel uneasy about leaving their child at this house and think to themselves, “Hmm.  If these people don’t even take care of their home, how are they going to take care of my child?”

We all know the old adage, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”  And while it may be unfair to judge people based upon how they maintain their home, we still do.

Anyone that owns a home knows that keeping up with a house can be time consuming and expensive, however, it’s a responsibility that comes with home ownership.

One of the least expensive and easiest ways to make your house look new and clean is with fresh exterior house painting.

GreenWave Solutions has been performing high quality exterior house painting in Atlanta for nearly 10 years.  We’ve painting hundreds of Metro Atlanta homes over years and have it down to a science.

Here’s how we do professional exterior house painting:

  • Pressure wash the home’s entire exterior
  • Perform all necessary carpentry.  We replace rotten wood around windows, doors, trim, soffit, and fascia.
  • Extensive prep work.  We remove old, dried caulk and recaulk around doors, windows, trim and cornice.  This creates a seamless finish.  We scrape all peeling paint and spot prime bare areas.  If there is rust on handrails, we scrape and prime it, too.
  • After the house is clean and thoroughly prepared, we begin painting.
  • We use Sherwin Williams’ best coatings.  We spray siding and cornice to make sure that we get a think, smooth paint finish that will look great for years.  We paint doors, windows and other detailed work by hand.
  • Once we finish painting, we do a quality inspection walk through, perform touch ups and clean up the job site to pre-project conditions.

Of course each all houses are different so sometimes the preparation changes according to the condition of home and from what it is built.

GreenWave Solutions is offering 15% off all exterior house painting projects this Fall.

Call us today to schedule your free estimate 404-549-7776

Painter Sandy Springs Exterior House

Fall House Painting Specials

Is that football I hear?

Yes it is!  And football means that Fall is here.

We didn’t have a typical Atlanta summer this year.  It was one of the coolest and rainiest summers in recorded history.  It was good for interior painting, however, many Atlanta residents postponed their exterior painting projects due to the constant rain.  I’m not a weatherman, but I’m right about the weather about the same percent of the time and I hope that we have an unseasonably dry and warm Fall.

Typically, Fall is good season for exterior painting.  The lower temperature and relative humidity allow the paint to dry at near perfect conditions (manufacturers rate most coatings at around 70 degrees at 60% humidity).  Also, there is no pollen or surprise thunder showers like in Spring and Summer.

GreenWave Solutions is offering 15% off exterior house painting in Atlanta to help our neighbors that didn’t get to take advantage of our Summer specials.

Our 15% off Fall house painting special includes:

  • Exterior Painting

  • Interior Painting

  • Deck Staining and Sealing

  • House Painting

  • Cabinet Finishing

  • Wallpaper Removal

  • Popcorn Ceiling Texture Removal

  • Stipple Texture Ceiling Smoothing

These are only some of the many services that our skilled painters, carpenters and craftsmen do to make your home a more beautiful place.

Call us today to learn more about GreenWave Solutions’ services and specials.  Our professional interior and exterior painters serve Atlanta, Alpharetta, Roswell, Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Buckhead, Midtown, Grant Park, Inman Park, Decatur, Chamblee and other affluent Metro Atlanta suburbs.

Call GreenWave Solutions for your free estimate at 404-549-7776