Get matched with top exterior painters in Hickman, NE

Matching new paint with an old, faded color can be tricky. First, you’ll need to determine whether the paint on your house is latex-based or oil-based. Lightly scrub an inconspicuous area of your home with rubbing alcohol—if the alcohol scrubs away the paint, it’s latex-based. If not, the paint is oil-based. 

Once you have that settled, bring a paint chip or photo of the color to a paint professional and have them mix you a matching paint in the same base (latex or oil). Then paint another inconspicuous part of your house to see if it’s a match.

Yes, painter’s tape is a great tool when painting trim and walls for a number of reasons. Firstly, it protects the areas you’re not painting. Both brushes and rollers can splatter. Nobody’s hands are perfect, so covering the areas you don’t want paint to get on keeps them clean. Painters tape can also help you get nice sharp lines between paint colors or surfaces, preventing paint from bleeding into other areas. It can also save you time in the long run by reducing the need for touchups. It’s much easier to get clean, even lines the first time when using painter’s tape.

While paint drying smoothly on a wall is ideal, a can full of dry paint is not. To open a can of dry paint, you’ll need a tool with a sharp edge, such as a utility knife or a box cutter. Take your tool and score the area where the lid meets the can to break through the dried-up paint. Then, use a paint can opener or a flathead screwdriver to pry the lid open and check the state of the contents. For smaller cans with plastic lids, you can run the top under hot water to loosen the lid. 

Paint sprayers come with a few disadvantages, with the most notable being the up-front cost. You’ll spend a few hundred dollars on a paint sprayer in most cases, while a roller and brushes will typically cost under $40. Sprayers also require more preparation to cover the areas you don’t want to paint, and they require more technique to get your paint applied without drips or bubbles from applying too much paint at once.