Our Answers to All Your Painting Questions

Drywall damage falls into two categories, and knowing which one you have tells you what kind of fix it needs. Small holes, dents, nail holes, and minor cracks — generally 6 inches to a foot — are a patch: fill with joint compound or lightweight spackle, sand smooth, spot prime, and paint. Anything larger than about 12 inches, water damage, a failing tape joint, or cracking from settling is a repair: the damaged section gets cut out, backed with new material, taped at the seams, built up with several coats of joint compound, texture-matched, primed, and painted. The patch is a same-day job with a putty knife; the repair takes longer and is worth having a professional handle, since a poor texture match is the most common way a drywall repair ends up visible after painting.

Start by clearing the room: take down any pictures, artwork, or wall decor, and move furniture to the center of the room so it can be covered rather than pushed against walls that are about to be painted. Anything left in place should be covered with a drop cloth.
While the walls are clear, it’s a good time to check for nail holes, picture-hanger holes, or small dings and fill them with a lightweight spackle before painting — patched spots take paint the same as the rest of the wall once they’re sanded smooth, so it’s easier to handle before rollers are out rather than as an afterthought.

Walls are almost always the darker element in a room — trim, ceilings, and doors are typically a bright white, and the walls carry the color. For walls, satin is the usual finish: enough sheen to wipe down, not so much that it reads as glossy or reflects light like semi-gloss does.
If you’re trying to make a living room feel bigger and brighter, off-whites are the safest starting point rather than a true bright white — colors like Sherwin-Williams Greek Villa, Shoji White, White Duck, or Alabaster read as light without feeling sterile. Ceilings, doors, and trim usually match each other; Sherwin-Williams Pure White is a common choice for that trio.
Beyond that, the “best” color is genuinely a personal call — but one practical thing worth knowing before you pick a swatch: your existing wall color affects how many coats it takes to cover. Grays, medium browns, and olive greens cover well under most new colors in two coats. Strong colors — yellow, pink, red, bright green — often bleed through even two coats of a lighter color, which can turn a two-coat quote into a three-coat job. That’s worth mentioning to your painter before you fall in love with a color that’s a drastic change from what’s on the wall now.

Choosing the right finish comes down to a trade-off between durability and forgiveness. A flat finish has no shine, and while it’s harder to wipe clean, it’s the easiest finish to touch up — you won’t see where you painted over a scuff years later. Anything with sheen wipes clean more easily, but a touch-up will show unless you repaint corner to corner.
Most people choose eggshell or satin for walls. Trim and doors are almost always semi-gloss, since it dries harder and holds up to daily contact. Semi-gloss is also standard in bathrooms and kitchens, since higher-sheen finishes are more moisture- and mold-resistant than flat paint.

Exterior painting starts with a thorough pressure wash to remove dirt, chalk, and mildew, followed by scraping and sanding any chipping or peeling paint. Any bare wood or heavily sanded spots get spot primed, and any rotten wood is repaired or replaced before priming. Cracks and gaps, particularly around the fascia, doors, and garage doors, are caulked. Bubbling or missing stucco gets patched and primed with a masonry primer. Once prep is done, we apply two coats of a premium 100% acrylic exterior paint in a better-to-best grade product, such as Sherwin-Williams Duration or Dunn-Edwards Evershield. Done this way, an exterior paint job should last 12 to 15 years. An average job from an average painting contractor using low- to mid-grade paint typically gets 6 to 7.

If you’re painting your front door yourself, start by protecting the hardware — mask the hinges, handle, and lock plate carefully with tape, trimming the edges cleanly so you don’t get a ragged paint line. If you’re comfortable with a screwdriver, removing the hardware entirely gives you a cleaner result and is often easier than masking around it tightly. Give the door a light scuff sand to help the new paint adhere, especially if it currently has a glossy finish. Wipe away the dust before you start painting. For the paint itself, a fine-nap roller (¼″ is standard for doors) gets you close to a sprayed look without the overspray risk and masking hassle of renting an airless sprayer for a single door. Apply in thin, even coats — two coats of a semi-gloss or gloss enamel is typical for exterior doors, since the higher sheen holds up better to daily hand contact and weather.

Protect anything you don’t want paint on. For baseboards, run rosin paper along the floor to catch drips and splatter, and use painter’s tape and painter’s paper to keep wall-color overspray off the baseboards themselves. Give the trim a light scuff sand first — this helps the new paint grip, especially over existing gloss or semi-gloss. Cut in tight corners and edges with a brush, and use a roller with a thinner nap (⅜″ is a common choice for trim) to lay down a smooth coat on the flat faces without leaving heavy texture. Most painters use a brush-and-roller combination on trim rather than a sprayer, since spraying requires masking off the entire surrounding room and isn’t practical for a single-room DIY job. Two coats will give you the most even, durable finish, especially if you’re changing colors.

The most reliable way to get a streak-free ceiling is to spray it rather than roll it, if the room is empty and you’re comfortable with a sprayer — spraying eliminates roller lines entirely. If you’re rolling by hand, use a flat ceiling paint; the more sheen a paint has, the more visible any roller lines or lap marks will be. Work in manageable sections and keep a wet edge — always overlap into paint that’s still wet, rather than rolling back over paint that’s started to dry, which is what actually causes visible lap marks.

Peeling or cracked paint on wood, trim, or other painted surfaces usually means the old paint has failed and needs to come off before repainting. Scrape away all loose, chipping, or peeling paint, sand the edges and any remaining ridges smooth (typically 80–100 grit), then spot-prime anything sanded down to bare wood or bare material. Once primed, two coats finishes the job.
This is the general process for wood trim, siding, fascia, and most painted surfaces. Stucco is the exception: cracked or missing stucco isn’t scraped and re-primed the same way — it’s patched or rebuilt with stucco material, a different repair process entirely.

For interior rooms, plan on roughly 2 gallons of wall paint per standard bedroom, 3 gallons for a larger room like a living room or family room, and 1 gallon for a bathroom or closet — enough for 2 coats. A gallon of enamel covers about 10 doors.

Press down firmly on about half the width of the tape, and leave the other half unstuck. That gives you a flap you can slide masking paper behind, rather than trying to butt paper up against tape that’s already fully sealed down. Once the paper is tucked in, smooth the loose half of the tape down over it with your finger. Working this way is significantly faster than fully taping a line and separately trying to attach paper afterward, and gives a cleaner, tighter seal at the paint line.

The key step is priming with a stain-blocking, alcohol-based primer before you paint — a plain latex primer isn’t enough, since seams, adhesive residue, and paper texture will telegraph through and can eventually bubble or peel. Give the primer a full dry before recoating; check the can, since dry times vary by product and humidity.
One thing worth knowing first: paint does not remove wallpaper, and painting over paper that’s already lifting or loose at the seams just seals in a problem that gets worse over time. If the paper is fully adhered and in good shape, priming over it is a legitimate option. If it’s peeling anywhere, that has to be dealt with first.

Dry time depends on the specific paint, so the most reliable answer is always on the back of the can under “dry time” — check that before planning a second coat. As a general guide, latex paint is typically dry to the touch within an hour and safe to recoat in a few hours; oil-based paint takes longer, often not ready for a second coat until the next day.
Heat and direct sunlight speed drying — sometimes too much. On hot, sunny exterior jobs we paint the side of the house currently in shade rather than direct sun, and use a paint additive that slightly slows drying so the paint has time to bond properly instead of skinning over too fast. After rain, we typically give a house at least 24 hours to dry before painting or recoating.

Start by protecting what you’re not painting. Move furniture to the center of the room and cover it completely with plastic sheeting — taped down so it can’t shift or let paint through — rather than a canvas drop cloth, which is harder to seal at the edges. Roll rosin paper across the floor and tape it down with a tape that won’t pull up your flooring’s finish (test a small area first if you’re unsure). Mask the baseboards with painter’s tape and paper so wall-color splatter doesn’t land on them. Remove outlet and switch plate covers so you’re not painting around them and leaving visible brush marks. Fill any nail holes or small dents with a lightweight spackle, let it dry, and sand it smooth before you prime or paint over it. Cut in with a brush anywhere a roller can’t reach cleanly, then roll the open wall areas. Two coats will give you the most even coverage and the best durability, especially over a color change.
The process is the same as any interior room, with one difference: use a semi-gloss finish in bathrooms and kitchens specifically, because semi-gloss contains a vapor barrier that makes it more mold-resistant.

There’s no single number, because exterior cost comes down to labor hours plus materials, and both of those depend on your specific house. A few things move the price more than people expect:

• Condition. How much chipping and peeling paint needs to be scraped and sanded, how much caulking is needed, whether there’s bare wood to prime or rotten wood to replace before painting even starts.
• Access. A one-story house with solid footing all around goes faster than a multi-story home needing tall or awkward ladder placement.
• Masking. Houses with a lot of windows, light fixtures, cameras, and landscaping close to the walls take more prep time to protect than a simple, open house.
• Number of colors and where they’re placed. If the eaves match the body color, that’s one less line to cut and mask. Every additional color adds time.
• Paint grade. Within any manufacturer’s lineup there’s a “good, better, best” spread, and that line matters more than which brand you pick.
• Whether the stucco has ever been painted. Bare, never-painted stucco is porous and absorbs far more paint than stucco that’s already sealed.

Because of all that, the only reliable way to get an actual number for your house is a walk-through estimate — but now you know what an estimator is actually looking at, and what to ask about if a bid seems unusually low.

Cabinet pricing isn’t driven by your kitchen’s square footage — it’s driven by how many doors and drawers have to come off, get prepped, primed, sprayed, and rehung. Count your doors and drawers before you call anyone; that number tells an estimator more than a room measurement does, and it lets you compare quotes on the same basis.
Once you have that count, here is the bracket our own cabinet work in San Diego falls into:

• Small to standard kitchens — from around 10 doors and 10 drawers up to around 20 doors and 10 drawers — typically run $4,500 to $6,250.
• Large kitchens — 40 or more doors and 20 or more drawers — typically run $6,250 to $9,000.

A kitchen that falls between those two brackets lands between the two ranges. None of it is a quote — the real number depends on the condition of your cabinets, your layout, and what an estimator finds walking your kitchen. It’s a range to plan around before anyone comes out, not a price.
One thing worth knowing before you compare bids: a proper cabinet job means the doors and hardware come off, the surfaces get degreased (this step gets skipped most often, and it’s the one that decides whether the finish holds), sanded, primed with an alcohol-based primer, and sprayed — not brushed — for a factory-like finish. If a bid is noticeably cheaper than the others, ask specifically whether the doors are coming off and what primer they’re using. Those two shortcuts are the most common way a cabinet quote gets artificially cheap.

Wallpaper removal cost varies enough by paper type, number of layers, and wall condition that the most reliable number comes from a walk-through quote — get bids from a couple of licensed contractors and compare. One thing worth knowing: most painters know how to remove wallpaper, but most do not install it.

Start with the gentlest method and work up. For fresh or light paint splatter, warm water and a wet rag is often enough. If that doesn’t fully lift it, add a little dish soap to the water. If it still won’t budge, step up to a dedicated paint-and-grime cleaner like Krud Kutter, or a citrus-based all-purpose cleaner such as 409 — both strong enough to break down dried latex paint but still safe on most finished surfaces. Acetone is the last resort: it dissolves cured paint nothing else touches, but test it on a small hidden area first. On masonry or concrete, a wire brush paired with one of these cleaners works well, since there’s no finish to worry about damaging.
Always test any cleaner on a small, inconspicuous spot first, and start weaker than you think you need — it’s easier to move up to a stronger product than to undo damage from starting too aggressive.

For exterior projects, take the square footage of your house and divide by 200 — that’s about the number of gallons needed for one coat on the body of the house. For windows, assume 1 gallon covers 1 coat for 30 windows. For doors, assume 1 gallon covers 10 doors. For trim like fascia and eaves, plan on about 4-5 gallons for one coat. To estimate gallons needed for 2 coats, multiply the one-coat number by 1.7.

Beyond how many years a company has been in business, a few things are worth actually checking:

• License status, not just a license number. Look up the Contractors State License Board license check, enter the company name or number, and you can see whether the license is active or suspended, which classifications it covers, whether the contractor is bonded, and the status of their workers’ compensation coverage. General liability is separate — it isn’t part of what the state lookup displays for most contractors, so ask for a certificate of insurance directly.
• What each of those actually protects. Workers’ compensation matters if someone is injured on your property — responsibility for the medical bills gets complicated, and homeowners have been drawn into it. General liability covers property damage caused by the work: a ladder through a window, overspray on a car. The bond exists as recourse if the finished work isn’t acceptable.
• A deposit at or under the legal cap. On a home improvement contract in California, the deposit cannot exceed 10 percent of the contract price or $1,000, whichever of the two is less. A painter asking for meaningfully more than that before work starts is asking for something the state doesn’t permit on that kind of contract, and that’s a reason to stop rather than negotiate.
• A specific quote, not a vague one. A line item that says nothing more than ‘paint house’ isn’t a scope of work. A real estimate lists exactly what’s being painted, what prep is included, and the actual product line going on — not just the manufacturer. Two contractors can name the same brand while one is quoting the top of its lineup and the other the cheapest product it sells.
• The fine print on the paperwork. Expect language identifying the document as a home improvement contract, and expect your right to cancel to be spelled out. If neither appears anywhere on it, ask why before you sign.
• Recent, consistent reviews across more than one platform — Google, Yelp, Nextdoor — not just a high star average. A company can have been excellent five years ago and slipped since.
• How long the estimate itself takes. More than about five days to get a written estimate back tells you something about how the rest of the job will be run.

The fastest way to separate a strong contractor from a weak one is to ask a couple of specific technical questions — what primer they use on bare wood, whether they back-roll stucco, how many coats are included — and see whether you get a specific answer or a vague one.

Cabinet painting means removing the doors and drawer fronts, degreasing and sanding every surface, priming with an alcohol-based (not water-based) primer, and spraying — not brushing — two coats of a cabinet-grade enamel. Done properly, it can produce a factory-like finish, and most people don’t realize that’s achievable with paint rather than replacement.
The real decision most homeowners are actually weighing is paint versus reface versus replace, and they’re not the same choice:

• Paint if you like your cabinet doors’ style and layout and just want a different color, and the boxes are structurally sound. This is the best value of the three options.
• Reface — replacing the doors and drawer fronts but keeping the boxes — if you want a different door style. Refacing costs meaningfully more than painting.
• Replace entirely if you want a different kitchen layout, or the cabinet boxes themselves are no longer sound.

One thing worth knowing if you’re comparing quotes: whether the doors actually come off the hinges to be painted, or whether a painter brushes around the hardware to save time, makes a visible difference in the finished result.

Stucco damage almost always shows up in the same place — the first two feet of wall above the ground, all the way around a house. Bubbling stucco means water damage: the stucco has absorbed moisture, it’s gotten behind the surface, and it’s deteriorating from the back side. Missing chunks of stucco are the same problem further along. Common causes are sprinklers hitting the wall directly, stucco running straight into soil instead of stopping a few inches above it, and shrubs or hedges planted tight against the house that trap moisture against the surface.
There’s an important distinction between a stucco patch and a stucco repair, and it’s worth knowing which one your situation actually needs. A patch is a surface-level fix — filling the damaged area with stucco mix and feathering it to blend with the surrounding texture — that restores appearance but doesn’t address what’s happening behind the wall. A repair is far more involved: cutting out the damaged stucco, inspecting the building materials underneath, replacing the waterproof building paper and the metal lath, and rebuilding with the traditional three-coat stucco system.
One diagnostic worth checking yourself: get down and look up at the bottom edge of your stucco wall. You should see a horizontal metal strip with small drainage holes in it — this is called a weep screed, and its job is to let moisture that gets behind the stucco drain back out. If it’s rusted, missing sections, or you don’t see one at all where there’s deteriorating stucco nearby, that’s a sign worth asking a contractor about specifically.