touching up walls

[Dave Payne]

Hi,

I recently purchased a new house and naturally have already gotten a few dings here and there in the walls. I'm having a devil of a time touching the walls up though and making it look decent. After I touch up the spot, you can still see it when it dries. I've tried a brush, a small paint roller, a foam brush, and even a q-tip, but nothing seems to work. My guess is that it's because the walls were painted with a sprayer and it's about impossible to get that same texture when touching up.

I'm using Duron paint (Mushroom basket) in case that matters.

Just wondered if anyone had any tips.

Thanks.

[Dano]

unfortunately touching up walls only works if the paint is about a week old, the elements within our homes changes the new look of paint, curing time is also a factor so wait about a week and see if it still looks as bad...my experience has been unless your ready to paint the walls, don't touch up unless the paint is less than a couple weeks old.. 3 cans of the same color paint can yield different shades, that's why you should mix all the paint together for a consistent paint job on big areas...good luck, if the areas are extremely small, try a sponge or terry cloth rag to "dab" it on!

[donald girod]

Or, just don't be so fussy. If the touchup looks, on balance, better than the ding, go with it. If worse, then don't.

[MaryL]

I have had pretty good results (using the same color mix of paint, even on paint several years old) if I use a very small amount of paint on a DAMP sponge, then dab lightly on the wall. This works best for small areas and the think watered-down application seems to permit the two "ages" of paint to blend together. I even had good results on one place where someone had permitted black rubber to mar the wall. I first sprayed the black residue with hair spray (a trick I was taught years ago by a painter -- it coats the surface so it won't bleed through the new paint).

MaryL

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

I've had excellent results touching up paint that was in some cases several years old.

I use a "dry roller" technique. Put very little paint on a roller, start on the ding, and roll away from it in all directions. The goal is to barely put any paint on, and have it taper to nothing a few feet from the ding.

In about 4 of 10 cases where the touch up is still noticeable, I've allowed the new paint a few weeks to dry, then scrubbbed down the wall with a sponge and mild detergent. The scrubbing seems to blend things better.

In some cases, nothing works, but this has worked well in about 9 of

10 places I've tried it.

Barry

[Dave Payne]

Thanks for all the responses folks. I actually ended up pouring a small amount of paint into a cup and then watering it down and using a foam brush to kind of blend it all in. It worked pretty well. I think watering it down was the key, because I think when they sprayed it on originally, they have to water it down so the paint will flow through the sprayer.

I'll have to try the sponge/cloth technique next time.

Thanks again for the advice!

[Cliff Hartle]

The painters probably didn't use water. They would have used a product called flowtrol (sp?)

Its for thinning down paint for spraying and it will also give you a smoother almost spray like finish when you use a roller.

A small foam roller and a light touch when you get to the end of your roll will blend it in.