How to Clean Walls Before Painting: A Step-by-Step Guide

Colorado is known for its dry climate, which can cause dust and debris to accumulate more readily on surfaces, including your home's walls. So, if you're planning to paint the walls of your Colorado home, it's especially critical to ensure they are clean and free of dust, dirt, and mildew to achieve the best possible result.

Having clean walls is one of the most critical aspects of the process. When the walls are clean and dry, dust won’t get trapped in the new paint. Washed walls are also easier for the paint to adhere to, which ensures you get the best results.

Knowing how to clean walls before painting is a crucial task for the road ahead. The good news is that some companies that do home wall painting will take care of it for you. However, that isn’t the case with every painting business. Sometimes, you’ll be in charge of washing the walls before painting.

If you’re ready to have interior painting done, you might need guidance on how to wash walls before painting. This article will provide you with all the details so you can move forward with confidence.

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Always Wash Your Walls Before Painting

Learning how to wash a wall before painting is important since this is not a step you should skip. Getting rid of cobwebs, removing dirt and dust, and eliminating crayon or grease marks is essential. It ensures the paint bonds with the wall and provides the best results. 

The good news is that washing your walls is simple and we’ll share all the steps.

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How to Clean Your Walls Before Painting

There are a few steps involved in how to clean the walls before painting. It starts with removing dust and culminates in letting the walls dry. If you follow all six steps, your walls will be pristine and ready for a new coat of paint from a professional company.

Step 1: Remove Dust

If you live in the Denver area (or Colorado in general) you’ve probably had your fair share of frustrations with the amount of dust that can accumulate both inside and outside of your home. So, before you start the actual washing, you need to do a bit of dusting. This ensures no dust, dirt, or cobwebs are on the surface of your walls. We recommend using a long-handled duster or a dust mop to make this as simple and quick as possible.

As you remove dust, start at the top of the room and work your way down. Doing it the other way could result in needing to dust more than once.

Step 2: Wash With Soap and Water

Now we can get into the details about how to clean walls before painting. For this, all you need is warm water and dish soap. The best cleaner for walls before painting is likely already residing in your kitchen, so there’s no need to spend money on specialty products.

Wipe the walls down with soap and water using a circular motion. You don’t want to use too much water since you’ll be drying the walls later. Only use the amount needed to get things clean and shining.

Step 3: Remove Grease Stains

In many cases, washing the walls with mild dish soap is all you need to get them ready for painting. However, some rooms, such as the kitchen, might have accumulated oil or grease. Kids’ bedrooms might have crayon marks that need to be removed. Trisodium phosphate, or something similar, is needed for those things.

Many phosphates have been banned since they’re bad for the environment so a phosphate-free (TSP) product can also be used. Rinse-free products are available but if you don’t use one, make sure you don’t skip the next step.

Step 4: Rinse

As mentioned, rinsing is needed in most cases. This is a simple process, and it ensures the wall is in great shape for the paint to stick to it well. Use a fresh clean cloth or other cleaning tool and clean water to rinse off any of the cleansers you applied.

This is also the right time to handle any streaks you might notice from the cleaning process.

Step 5: Let It Dry

Step six is easy but it takes more time than the others combined if you want to do things right. The walls need to be entirely dry before anyone adds paint to them. Curious how long to wait after washing walls before painting. Experts agree that 24 hours is best. 

Not letting the walls dry can result in issues like peeling or bubbling paint.

The Best Cleaner for Walls Before Painting

What do you wash walls with before painting? In most situations, the best wall cleaner before painting is nothing more than dish soap and water. Trisodium phosphate (TSP) may be needed in areas with build-up on the walls. Generally, these are the only cleaning items required for the process.

Will Dawn Dish Soap Work to Wash Walls Before Painting?

You might wonder, “Can I use Dawn to wash walls before painting?” The simple answer here is yes, you can. Any kind of dishwashing soap is a great option for cleaning walls, so Dawn is fine to use in this situation.

Let Singletrack Painting Transform Your Colorado Home

After you understand how to clean walls before painting and have gone through the process, the last step is to choose a company that offers professional painting services. You can reach out to Singletrack Painting to learn more and request a quote. Singletrack can be trusted and has tons of interior, exterior, and residential painting experience.

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