Preventative Care for Painted Walls

As homeowners, we vacuum our rugs, sweep the floors, clean the bathrooms and kitchens as well as complete any number of cleaning tasks on a daily basis. These tasks seem straightforward and make sense for the appearance and cleanliness of any home. 

Cleaning the walls of your home may not make the top ten list of places you plan to clean weekly, but they should make the list for annual cleaning, especially in the spring and fall. If cleaning your wall surfaces was not on your radar, let us explain why it should be a preventative care method for your wall surfaces and the paint that is adhered to them. 

Why Clean Your Walls? 

You may be wondering why your walls need cleaning. After all, it’s not like your dog sits on them, or your kids eat dinner on them. They seem like they should be a fairly clean area of your home with gravity acting as a type of shield for most things. 

Unfortunately, our walls actually see lots of action. From dirty fingers putting the light switch on and off to scuff marks along the trim where we have kicked our shoes off and marked the walls. Oh, and don’t forget those rooms with chair rails where furniture has hit the walls causing chips or other marks along the center of the surface. 

For families with children, there will always be a little Piccaso who likes to draw on the vertical surface as a giant canvas for their art. Or there may be splatters from food in the kitchen or arts and crafts in the playroom. There are a million little ways that a wall surface can get dirty. 

Another aspect that many consider especially during the spring months is the amount of pollen that can get inside and adhere to the walls. This accumulation of allergens could be enough to kick your allergies into overdrive. 

Preventative Maintenance 

There are several steps that homeowners may want to consider when cleaning their walls including dusting, wiping down, and scrubbing. 

Dusting the walls of your home can remove those pesky allergens as well as the cobwebs and dust that have accumulated over the years. A long handled duster with a cloth that will grab debris and dust should do the trick as you try to make your walls look fresh and new again. 

Wiping down the walls with warm water and a bit of soap will take more effort. This should help you remove accidental marks, scuffs, or stains that have found their way to your wall’s surface. 

Scrubbing should not need to be done to all walls but to the areas that show signs of food stains that have dried on or dirt and grime that needs a little extra elbow grease. Be sure to scrub only as hard as needed as you do not want to take the paint or the finish off the surface. 

Categorised in: How-Tos, Interior painting, Jerry Enos