What does a Residential Painter do?

A residential painter is a person who paints the interiors, exteriors, or both interiors and exteriors of private homes. Although there are many people who paint their own houses, some people prefer to hire a painter to do this work for them. Not only is it often safer to have a professional do this work because they are trained and practiced to work on ladders and roofs, but the result is often more even and professional looking. One of the benefits of hiring a residential painter is that they are often skilled in managing a number of kinds of projects and may know how to create unique finishes and textures in the paint.

There are a number of companies that can provide homeowners or renters with a residential painter to complete their projects. In some cases a team of painters will be brought in to complete large-scale projects. Typically, just one residential painter might be hired for a job that only required one room to be painted, though it is likely that a team of painters would be hired to paint the entire exterior of a house or one whole level of a house.

In addition to applying paint to the interior or exterior of a home, a residential painter is also often skilled in a number of tasks that are sometimes necessary to prep a surface for paint. These tasks may include sanding, priming, filling in cracks or holes with spackling paste, and preparing walls that have previously been covered in wallpaper for paint. A residential painter also may be trained in how to create texture in walls with plaster that will then be covered with paint.

It is common for a residential painter to work in warm weather months for two reasons. One is that there is often better weather for working and painting outdoors in the late spring, summer, and early fall. Another reason is that, when it comes to completing painting projects on the inside of a house, it is important to have the house well ventilated. Breathing in paint fumes is unhealthy and, so it is important to have windows open to both draw out the paint fumes and to help the paint dry. This is difficult to do when the temperatures outside are chilly. As such, a residential painter might either take time off in the cold weather months or work another type of job during that time period.