The Top Five Questions To Ask Your Kitchen Painter

Tags: kitchen cabinet painting, Kitchen Cabinets, Kitchen Painting, painters, Painting

So you think you have found the kitchen painter of your choice, hold your horses and check them out. We have put together the top five questions to ask your kitchen painter or handyman before trusting him with your kitchen remodel. This quick and innocent checklist can save you thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars. Ensure your long desired kitchen dream does not turn into a nightmare.

Do you have to dismantle my kitchen?

We know it is a nightmare if you have to re-arrange your kitchen. Open cupboards show all the stuff that is normally hidden away. Messy drawers, overfilled pot drawers, not to mention your pantry open to the world and worst the kids. Nevertheless, if you are planning to re-model your kitchen and someone promises you to “do it all without even taking your kitchen apart!” it should set your alarm bells ringing. There is only so much that can be masked off. You will end up with painted hinges and paint runs all over your doors and tiles and worst of all, the paint will crack.

Will you take my cabinets away?

It’s not rocket science, if someone doesn’t even take your kitchen cabinets away; the job will be done quicker, won’t it? What seems awesome is actually asking for trouble and we are not talking about the hassle of having tradies and their apprentices walking in and out your property for a few days. It’s the actual workmanship that is the main concern. Unless your kitchen is a fully enclosed and climate controlled spray booth, you cannot properly re-paint kitchen cabinets in your kitchen.

Spray painting is a highly qualified trade and requires a professional environment. Fumes need to be ventilated off, the temperature need to be consistent and the air must be clean and filtered to ensure no dust, sand or other particles set in your paint while it is drying. So ask your handyman if he will take your cabinets away and if he replies “no I do it right here!” send him packing.

What paint do you use?

If you meet with a kitchen renovation expert, don’t forget to ask him, what paint he is using. Beware if they suggest a classic oil-based paint. It takes long to dry, very long and if it is not applied in a climate-controlled and dust free environment you’ll end up with unwanted memories in your kitchen cabinet surfaces. Fingerprints, flies and mosquitos are a few to stick around. And we are talking about lasting memories: When using oil-based paint on indoor furniture like kitchen cabinets you’ll be stuck with paint fumes in your house for quite a while, some of which are toxic.

A seemingly better alternative is 1K paint, sometimes called single-pac paint. Single-pac has the advantage of drying fairly fast, making it the preferred choice of so called kitchen remodel experts. Unfortunately it is not scratch resistant and thus not recommended in high use areas.

At Dianella Polishing we only use and recommend 2-pac paint. It does take longer to dry. However it is hard-wearing, scratch resistant, heat resistant and water resistant – making it the ideal choice for every kitchen.

How do you apply the paint?

If we got a dollar for every door we saw with brush strokes…. Seriously it is quite hard to believe how often we get the desperate phone calls of clients who just had a kitchen make-over and are now left with a streaky and patchy paint job. The mind boggles as to why someone would take a paint brush to a kitchen cabinet. You wouldn’t get the paint bucket and a couple of brushes out to give your car a make-over would you? So why would someone do that to their kitchen? Yes, of course you ‘save’ thousands. But it will sure as hell look cheap as chips as well.

We spray paint kitchen cabinets for a reason. If you want a professional and durable finish there is no choice but to spray paint kitchen cabinets. Spray painting is the only painting method that guarantees you a smooth and even finish that will last.

How long does it take?

One of the biggest selling points of many so-called painters on the market is their quick turn-around time. “We are in and out of your house in a couple of days”, they say. Others promise: “In as little as a few days!” Of course, that sounds amazing. But you know the old adage: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Knowing the top five questions to ask your kitchen painter, means knowing the steps involved in professional painting. Here are the minimum steps needed to re-paint a kitchen:

1. Mark and sort the doors and hinges, drawers and closures.
2. Dismantle them (still marked and sorted).
3. Sand back the old paint and prepare the substrate for a new life.
4. Spray-paint the kitchen.
5. Let it dry thoroughly.
6. Give it a light sand back.
7. Apply another layer of 2-pac paint.
8. Let it again dry thoroughly.
9. Deliver the doors back to you.
10. Finally we re-assemble your kitchen cabinets exactly the way they were put together before.

Ao now that you know, the top five questions to ask your kitchen painter, read on to learn about which mistakes to avoid when renovating your kitchen? Click here: https://www.dianellapolishing.com.au/blog/5-mistakes-when-painting-kitchen-cabinets/ or here  https://www.dianellapolishing.com.au/blog/5-more-kitchen-painting-mistakes/.

Got a question? Comment below or simply give us a call on (08) 9303 2176 and book an obligation-free quote appointment.