Interior Painting Preparation: The Full Checklist

Preparation is the majority of the labour on an interior repaint and almost all of the difference between two quotes that look similar. This is the sequence we follow, written out so you can hold any bid, including ours, against it.

1. Protection, before anything opens

• Furniture moved to the centre of the room and wrapped, not just draped.
• Floors covered wall to wall with paper or protective sheeting, taped at the edges.
• Switch plates, outlet covers and vent covers removed rather than masked around.
• Light fixtures, ceiling fans and wall-mounted TVs removed or fully bagged.
• Doorways to the rest of the house sealed, so sanding dust stays in the work area.
• A protected route from the work area to the exterior door.

2. Cleaning and de-glossing

Kitchen and bathroom walls carry cooking residue and product overspray, and nothing bonds through either. Those surfaces get degreased before anything else happens.

Existing glossy trim and doors get scuffed to give the new coat a mechanical key. Skipping this is the most common cause of trim paint that peels off in sheets a year later.

3. Repairs, and the step most bids omit

Nail pops, hairline cracks, anchor holes, doorknob damage and dents get filled, sanded flush and feathered.

Then the step that separates a repaired wall from a patched one: texture matching. Almost every Valley home has knockdown or orange-peel walls, and a smooth patch on a textured wall is visible from across the room in any raking light. The patch has to be retextured to match before it's primed.

If a quote you're comparing doesn't mention texture matching, ask about it directly. It's the single most reliable way to tell how the work will actually look.

4. Caulking

Trim-to-wall joints, baseboard tops, casing mitres and any gap that would otherwise be filled with paint get caulked first. Paint bridged across a gap cracks; caulk moves with the joint.

It's a slow, unglamorous step, and it's the difference between crisp lines and lines that look approximately right.

5. Priming

• Spot-prime every repair, so the patch doesn't flash through the topcoat as a dull area.
• Prime stains such as water marks, smoke and marker with a product that will actually block them rather than hoping two topcoats cover it.
• Full-prime where the colour change is dramatic, where you're going over glossy or unknown coatings, or where the substrate is bare.

6. Only then, finish

Ceilings first, then walls, then trim and doors, with edges cut in by hand where the surfaces meet. Sheens selected per surface: flat or matte on ceilings and low-traffic walls, a wipeable sheen in living areas and hallways, semi-gloss on trim, bathrooms and laundry.

The work zone gets swept and staged at the end of every working day, not at the end of the job.

How to use this checklist

When you collect quotes, ask each contractor which of these steps their number includes. You'll usually find the price differences resolve themselves immediately. The cheaper bid is normally cheaper because it stops at step one and step six.

Our interior painting page sets out the same sequence with the surfaces we handle, and the drywall repair page covers the texture-matching work in more depth if that's the main issue in your house.