How to Prepare for a New Interior Paint Job When You Have Young Kids
Having young kids at home can put a halt on home renovations. With so much of your time and energy spent on taking care of the kids, it’s difficult to find time to plan an interior painting project, let alone execute it. However, putting off your painting project may just make things more difficult for you in the future. At some point, you might decide it’s time to break through the excuses and get into gear. If that time is now, here’s how you can prepare for a new interior paint job while contending with young kids.
How to Keep Kids Safe During a Paint Job
Plan to Keep Kids Away from the Work Zone
If small children are near the work area, any number of things can go wrong. They might ingest paint particles, inhale fumes, smudge and smear wet paint, grab and hide small materials and tools, slip on spilled paint -- the list goes on. For the sake of their safety, your sanity, and your project’s success, you want to keep them as far away from the painted surfaces as possible. Well before painting begins, make sure your kids have a designated area to hang out while you or your Raleigh painting professionals work. You might move their toys and books to a single room to keep them occupied, have them play outside for most of the day, bring them to a friend’s or relative’s home for the day, etc. When the painting is complete, keep the area sealed off to ensure proper drying.
Make Sure the Space is Clear and Surfaces are Covered
As is the case with any other interior paint job, you’ll want to remove any furniture and moveable items from the room before painting. You should also cover any fixed objects that you don’t plan on painting. Not only will these measures facilitate a cleaner paint job -- they’ll also protect your young kids from potentially harmful paint that you might otherwise have missed. Ultimately, you want the paint to only land on surfaces you wish to coat and nowhere else.
Be Mindful of the Interior Paints You Choose
Generally speaking, modern paint products are much safer and more eco-friendly than they were in the not-so-distant past. This isn’t to say that all paints are created equal, however. On the contrary, some paint products contain more toxic substances and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) than others. In some cases, these fumes can trigger allergic responses, headaches, nausea, and more (especially in young children). In order to promote the safety of your children and everyone else in your home, it’s important to opt for products with low to no VOCs and other harmful chemicals. Your local painting professionals can help you select the best interior paint for your upcoming project.
Ensure Proper Ventilation in Your Home
Regardless of your interior paint’s toxicity level, airing out your home before, during, and after the project is a good way to minimize any potential negative effects caused by paint fumes. If you’re tackling residential interior painting on a day with moderate outdoor conditions and temperatures, feel free to open doors and windows to allow fresh air circulation (doing so will also speed up the drying process). If, on the other hand, it’s too cold, hot, windy, or rainy outdoors, you’ll have to rely on your HVAC system to properly ventilate your home. It’s important to make sure these systems are in proper working order before painting indoors -- otherwise, harmful fumes may linger inside your home for a while.
Planning and completing an interior paint job can be challenging enough -- adding small kids into the mix adds another level of difficulty altogether. If you need help at any stage of this process, the experts at Anderson Painting are here for you. To learn more about us and all we do, call today at 919-610-1855 or email us at info@andersonpaintingnc.com!
