The quality of the paint on your interior walls can differ depending on dozens of different factors. The quality of the paint used for repainting interior walls is probably the most important factor. How often you need to repaint is determined by the splatter, the volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and the paint durability. If you have quality paint that was applied by a professional team, you probably won’t have to reapply it very often. A professional-quality paint job will last for about seven to ten years. However, if you did not have a professional job done or if you have some other factors, it might be more often. The things that harm a paint job are very common.
What Harms Paint
Harming your interior paint job is actually very easy. Cigarette smoke is very damaging to a paint job. The nicotine in cigarette smoke stains walls fairly quickly. Also, it is a water-soluble chemical so it is often able to bypass latex paint and soak into the wood or drywall. If someone has regularly been smoking in your home, you will probably need to repaint more often than every seven to ten years. Fireplaces are also a threat to the health of your paint job. If your fireplace is in good working order, it won’t release much smoke into your home and that’s not a consideration. Most fireplaces release at least a small amount of smoke into a room.
In addition to smoke, you should be concerned about rapid changes in humidity or temperature. Changes in humidity or temperature affect the viscosity of the paint as well as change the conditions of the walls. So, if you’re wondering how often to repaint your kitchen walls, you should probably repaint them about twice as often as you paint the walls in your living room.
How to Determine
Determining when to paint your walls can sometimes be difficult. Your wall paint does not change very rapidly so it can sometimes be difficult to realize how much your paint has changed. Looking at protected paint is a great way to determine how much your paint has changed and whether you need to repaint. You can look behind picture frames or behind furniture that hasn’t moved in years. Your furniture serves to protect your paint from smoke, heat, and sunlight.
When you move your picture frames or furniture, you can see the original color of your paint. That original color will show how much your paint has changed.
How to Protect Your Paint
If you want to paint your walls less often, you should take a few steps. You should make sure that you put a good primer on your walls before painting. The primer will protect the paint and the wall. As stated earlier, nicotine and other chemicals can actually bypass latex paint and absorb into the wall. That can change the quality of the wall, which affects the paint. However, a layer of a primer can protect your wall from some of those chemicals. Furthermore, you should limit the presence of damaging chemicals.
Here are some paints we recommend for repainting interior walls.
http://www.ppgporterpaints.com/products/interior-paints