Our 12-Step Interior Prep Process

We ask which rooms you need finished first, since some people need a nursery or home office back in service before anything else. Then we confirm every color, product, and sheen in writing. Sheen matters more than most people expect: flat hides wall imperfections but cannot be scrubbed, and a kitchen or hallway in flat will disappoint you within a year.

Large pieces come off the walls and get centered and covered. We ask you to unplug electronics and take breakables, glassware, and books out of anything we are moving. We set up a staging area and run drop cloths from the door to the work area, so foot traffic through your home stays on a clean path.

Floors get papered or covered and furniture gets sheeted. We walk this with you before we start, because you know which things you care most about and it takes two minutes to point them out.

Every plate comes off so there is no paint line around them. We mask light fixtures rather than take them down, because pulling fixtures means reconnecting your wiring, and we would rather protect them in place than hand you an electrical problem that started as a paint job.

They come down and go somewhere safe. This is also the natural moment to have curtains cleaned, since they are already off the rod.

Cracks and nail holes get filled and smoothed. Bathrooms and any wall that has had moisture get checked for mildew, which is treated and removed, since painting over live mildew just gives it a fresh surface to grow through. If we find drywall damage bigger than normal patching, we show you and price it before we touch it.

Kitchens, entry doors, and anything around a stove carry a film of cooking oil that is invisible and completely fatal to adhesion. It gets cleaned off properly. On cabinet work this is the step that separates a finish lasting ten years from one chipping in six months.

Doors, casings, and baseboards get a full sand so the new coat has a mechanical bond. Walls get a lighter pass to knock down high spots, roller stipple, and debris, leaving a smooth surface to work on.

Sanding makes dust, and paint over dust is paint over dust. Everything gets wiped and vacuumed down before priming.

Water stains and fresh patches get a stain-blocking primer so they do not ghost through your finish weeks later. We also test for old oil-based paint on trim and doors, since latex will not bond to it without a bonding primer first, and that failure shows up as peeling trim a year down the road.

Gaps between trim and wall get caulked so the lines read clean and sharp. Door handles and hinges get masked. We do not take doors off unless you have arranged that with your estimator ahead of time.

Working surfaces get cleaned at the end of each day so you have your rooms back at night. When the job is done, all plastic, paper, and debris goes with us and your house should be as clean as we found it. Leftover paint stays with you for touch-ups, and if a product got used up entirely we leave you a fresh quart.