How To Perform Painting Touch-ups
The goal of touch-up is to add a small amount of paint to a larger surface to form an even, unbroken film of the same color. If not done well, it can highlight a blemish rather than correct it. Here are some touch-up tips to help you do the job right.
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How To Perform Painting Touch-ups
Touch-Up Technique
Why do we need to do touch-ups?
To cover small blemishes after painting a wall.
To correct issues like picture-framing around doors.
Using lower quality paints may require more touching up. Higher quality paints create a more uniform paint film, with less likelihood of the need for touch-up.
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How To Perform Painting Touch-ups
Touch-Up Technique
Gloss/Sheen Level
The gloss/sheen level of a paint will play a key role in any paint touch-up.
Flat paints tend to touch up and blend more easily in both alkyds and latex paints.
Alkyd paints are shinier and may take from a week to a month after touch-up to blend with the original paint coat.
Latex paints touch up easier, regardless of the gloss level, but can still take several days to blend with the original color.
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How To Perform Painting Touch-ups
Touch-Up Technique
Application Process
Ideally, use the original paint, or a higher quality paint, and match the existing paint color and sheen as closely as possible.
When performing a touch-up, it’s important to use the same application tool that was used on the original application of the paint, that is, paint sprayer, roller, or brush.
If more than one gallon of paint of the same color is being used, it’s a good practice to “box” them, that is, combine all the paint together in the same container. This will help to eliminate any variance in the paint color.
It’s also a good practice to keep any leftover paint so that you can eliminate any differences in the paint color when a touch-up is needed.