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I finally figured out why my paint kept peeling off the kitchen trim
For the longest time, I'd get so mad when the paint on my window sills and door frames would chip or peel after just a year. I thought it was cheap paint, so I kept buying more expensive stuff, which was a total waste of money. The real problem, which I only learned after talking to an old painter at the hardware store in Tacoma, was that I wasn't cleaning the surface well enough before I started. He said, 'Kid, you can't just dust it off. That trim has years of cooking grease and dust you can't even see.' He was right. I started wiping everything down with a mix of warm water and a little TSP substitute, letting it dry fully, and then painting. The last coat I did that way has held up perfectly for over two years now. Has anyone else found a simple prep step they were missing that made a huge difference?
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charles72010d ago
You know what, it's crazy how many problems come down to not cleaning stuff first. I had the same kind of lightbulb moment trying to get a new shower curtain liner to stick to the tub. The adhesive strips would not hold at all and I was ready to throw the whole thing out. Turns out I needed to scrub the tub edge with rubbing alcohol to get rid of the old soap film. It's like we skip the boring step because we just want to see the new paint or the new liner up, right? But that one wipe-down makes all the difference.
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carter.mila10d ago
Scuff the surface with sandpaper after you clean it. The paint needs something rough to grab onto, otherwise it just sits on top.
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