What Surface Prep Is Required Before Interior Painting in Boston?

Cleaning: The First Step That Gets Overlooked

Walls in Boston homes accumulate grease near kitchens, fingerprints along hallways and stairways, and general grime on high-traffic surfaces. Paint applied over dirty surfaces bonds poorly and can peel or fail to adhere within months. We clean surfaces with a degreaser solution before doing anything else — particularly in kitchens, along stairways, and in entry areas where hand contact with walls is constant. On older Boston homes that have been occupied for decades, this cleaning step is often visually surprising — the clean water runs brown. Benjamin Moore surface prep guide →

Patching: The Most Time-Consuming Step

Every hole, crack, and dent gets filled with joint compound before sanding smooth. This takes time to do correctly — compound shrinks as it dries, so larger repairs need multiple coats with full drying time between each. Rushing this step leaves visible depressions after painting that are nearly impossible to fix without repainting. On older Boston homes where tenants have hung heavy items, moved furniture repeatedly against walls, and lived hard, the patching step can take significantly longer than the actual painting. We don't skip it or rush it. Zinsser repair and primer products →

Sanding: The Step Most Painters Skip on Repaints

After patching dries, everything gets sanded — patches feathered smooth, existing glossy surfaces scuffed to improve adhesion, and any rough texture leveled. Many painters skip sanding on repaint work because the walls "look fine." But paint doesn't stick well to glossy surfaces, and unsanded patches show as bumps under the new coat. We sand. Every time. On older Boston homes with plaster walls and original hardwood floors, we use dust shrouds on sanders and take care with floor protection to contain sanding dust. Sherwin-Williams interior prep guide →

Priming: Where Most Interior Paint Failures Begin

Primer is the most skipped step in interior repainting. On new drywall, bare wood, or patched areas, primer seals the surface and provides a uniform base for the finish coat. Without primer on bare or repaired areas, paint absorbs unevenly — patches and bare spots show through, sometimes requiring three or four finish coats to cover what two coats over primer would have solved in the first place. Specific primers for specific problems: PVA primer for new drywall, shellac-based primer for water stains and tannin bleed, bonding primer for glossy surfaces that can't be sanded. NACHI interior painting standards →