Eight Home Problems That Can Be Solved With a Fresh Paint Job
As a homeowner, paint is an incredibly powerful tool. It’s a cheap and effective fix in a can, a fun way to add personality to your home, and a project that can be completed in a weekend. Best of all, if you screw up the paint job, you can simply paint over your mistakes.
But the power of paint goes far beyond aesthetics. Paint can be formulated in a variety of ways, with different effects, making it an easy, inexpensive solution to a variety of problems you may be experiencing in your home—and I’m not talking about hiding them and pretending they’re not there. Choosing the right kind of paint can often be the most affordable solution, and it’s worth considering before you start taking out home equity loans to pay for a more invasive, disruptive solution. Here are eight problems you can solve with the right paint.
Slippery floors and stairs
When I first moved into my current home, I slipped on our narrow, steep old staircase . I wasn’t seriously injured, except for the humiliation and emotional damage, but I could easily imagine a different outcome. Since changing the rise of the stairs was out of the question, and my wife and I didn’t like carpet, we decided to paint them with anti-slip paint .
It worked perfectly. Not only did the paint job turn out great, but it made the stairs look like new, and the slight graininess the paint added to the surface meant I haven’t slipped on those steps in years. Anti-slip paint can be used indoors or outdoors (like on slippery deck boards) and on just about any surface—companies even make additives that can be mixed into any exterior or interior paint to turn it into anti-slip paint. If there are areas in your home where you’re constantly worried about slipping and falling, a coat of anti-slip paint can take care of them.
Cosmetic flaws
You might think that hiding imperfections like small scratches, stains, or that ugly green paint the previous owner used is the whole point of paint, and you’d be right. But if the wall in question is particularly problematic and you want to avoid redoing the drywall or plaster or the tedious work of applying a skim coat, you can hide these imperfections with high-coverage commercial paint. Commercial paint is a professional formula of paint that is designed to be thicker and more opaque, while providing better coverage and durability (you may see it referred to as “wash paint,” especially outside the US). Paint you buy at the store is retail paint, and it’s usually designed to keep costs down. Commercial paint is meant for professionals, and it costs more, but it will do a much better job of hiding imperfections on your walls due to its thickness, matte finish, and opacity.
Noise
If noise is a problem in your home, whether from inconsiderate neighbors or the roommate from hell, soundproofing acoustic paint will definitely help. These paints are designed to be thick and spongy when they harden, absorbing sound and reducing echoes—no need to attach all sorts of foam screens to every surface.
Soundproofing paint won’t block all sound, especially if it’s only applied to one side of a wall. But it will reduce the amount of noise that gets through it, and if you apply it thick enough to both sides of common walls (usually at least three coats are required for maximum effectiveness), it will make a noticeable difference acoustically.
Risk of fire
Your burned-out home definitely falls under the “home problems” category. Believe it or not, paint can help with that. Choosing fire-resistant paint for your next interior painting project can turn your walls into firebreaks that will slow down a house fire. When these paints come into contact with fire, they quickly char , creating a protective layer that resists the flames. This won’t stop a fire from spreading in your home entirely, but it will give you time to get your family to safety and call the fire department, and with a house fire, time is of the essence.
High utility bills
If your home is insanely expensive to heat or cool (or, if you’re very lucky, insanely expensive to heat and cool), you can improve things a little with paint in two ways:
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Paint the roof . Painting a flat roof with the right roofing coating can not only extend its life, but also help reflect the sun’s rays, lowering the temperature of the roof and, as a result, reducing the amount of heat transferred into your home. (Choosing white paint for this job will be the most effective for cooling.)
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Use insulating interior paint . Insulating paint is designed to boost the existing insulation in your home—you can’t just slap a coat of it on an uninsulated wall or ceiling and call it a day. But it can help reduce temperature transfer and fluctuations inside your home if applied correctly and in multiple coats (the more coats, the better). If you’ve tried everything else to control your utility bills, applying insulating paint to your walls can help.
Rooms too small
It happens: you buy a house with a ton of charm, and once you live in it, you realize that the rooms are actually small and dark because the people who built it were short and afraid of the sun. Or something like that. If this is your problem, you can try a bunch of different strategies to get more natural light into the room (or fake it ), and one trick you can try is paint: by choosing the right color intensity, saturation, and finish for your walls and ceilings, you can turn a small, dark space into a lighter one that will at least seem bigger. No, paint won’t suddenly make that huge closet fit into your tiny bedroom, but it will at least make it seem like it could.
Moisture and mold
If you are concerned about indoor dampness and mold, or if your bathroom is poorly ventilated and prone to mold infestation, paint can help you in two ways:
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A waterproof paint or primer can help prevent moisture from seeping into a room in the first place. It’s not magic—it won’t stop running water, and if you don’t take steps to mitigate flooding or poor drainage in or around your home, no amount of waterproof paint will help. But it can be very effective at reducing moisture in a room if applied correctly.
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Mold-resistant paint in damp areas like bathrooms, basements, or any room where humidity is a concern can help prevent mold. These paints have antimicrobial properties, so if you start with a mold-free room and take steps to reduce humidity, using mold-resistant paint will make a huge difference in the future.