Interior Paint: How Often Should You Add a New Coat?
How often should you paint your house interior? It’s actually recommended that you paint your house’s interior every 5 to 10 years. This way, you’ll protect and prevent your home from damage, improve air quality, reduce the risks of infections, and beautify your living space.
However, interior painting can be tricky and tedious, especially when you have to paint the interior of your whole house. That’s why homeowners usually hire professional services to freshen up the inside of their houses with their favorite color palettes.
Here, you’ll learn everything there’s to know about the recommended frequency of interior painting and the main signs, like chipped walls!
How Often Should You Paint Your House Interior?
Experts rarely agree on the most appropriate timeframe for interior repainting. For example, some say that homeowners should add a new coat every 3 to 5 years, while others advise that painting should be done every 5 to 10 years, depending on the circumstances.
Nevertheless, this period can differ depending on the room’s purpose, the type of coat, the finishing, and the colors. To illustrate, your ceilings need the least repainting (10 to 15 years), and your kitchen 3 to 4 years.
Generally, experts agree on the signs reminding you to add a new coat to your house’s interior. The first one is fading. When the paint on your walls starts to fade, it’s time to start planning the recoating process. Another sign is the bubbling and cracking. Nobody wants to stay in a living space surrounded by cracks and bubbles caused by mold or rot.
There are also some other signs, like peeling, chalking, aging, morphing, and damaged walls. On top of that, there are two instances when you should paint the interior of your house even if it’s not immediately needed: when you’ve just moved in or are about to sell.
These are only some signs and situations when you should start considering a recoating. Therefore, there are many answers to your “how often should you repaint the interior of your house” dilemma. It depends on the severity of the bubbles, cracks, peelings, and other visible damages.
Signs It’s Time to Repaint the Interior
The most common signs suggesting that it’s time to repaint the interior of your house are: bubbling, crackling, morphing, aging, peeling, chalking, and others. However, other signs are tied exquisitely to your state of mind and personal preferences.
For instance, you may like to add a new coat to the interior of your house when you’re moving in. Previous homeowners may have preferred colors and coating solutions entirely out of your scope of taste. Additionally, when you want to sell your house, you’d recoat it to make it more appealing to the potential buyer.
Many other signs may prompt you to repaint the interior of your house. Following are some of the most frequent and the most visible ones:
Fading Paint
The fading of the walls’ paint is the ultimate sign your house is in dire need of a recoating session! Wall paint fades over time, and you should replace it with a fresh new coat.
There are many reasons for accelerated paint fading, and the most common ones are:
- Frequent and intense sun exposure
- Low-quality paint
- Improper and low-quality painting techniques
- Application of chemical agents.
It usually takes the paint several years to fade out. Eventually, fading paint will result in a less comfy living atmosphere and less vibrant walls. Faded paint is another clue to your question, “how often should you paint the inside of your house”?
Cracking, Bubbling, and Morphing
Numerous reasons can cause the cracking, bubbling, or morphing of wall paint. For example, improper and poor surface preparations, extreme temperature changes, and aging can cause wall paint to crack.
The poor and unappealing appearance isn’t the only reason you should start painting your interior after noticing the cracking. Cracking paint can also provide entry points for mold, pests, and insects you wouldn’t want thriving in your house.
Another sign that you should apply a new coat to your house’s interior is the bubbling. Don’t see these bubbles as something amusing or harmless because they usually rot and mold. Paint bubbles are an immediate sign to repaint your interior because they can increase the chances of respiratory infections, asthma, and allergic attacks.
Morphing, on the other hand, is when the paint completely changes color, leading to patches. Morphing isn’t that dangerous, but it can entirely change the looks of your interior and compel you to consider a recoating.
Damaged Walls
Damaged walls are a signal that the painting job is nearing its end. Your walls can be damaged because of multiple reasons, such as mold growth, extreme weather changes, sun and water exposure, poor design, improper coating, etc.
You can consider all the holes, chips, cracks, missing paint, and scuff marks as signs for recoating. Additionally, before you decide to repaint the interior of your house, you must repair the damaged or replace the walls.
Also, leakages and similar plumbing problems can cause your walls to remain wet. Subsequently, these leakages and plumbing issues can damage your walls and make them soft, weak, and prone to mold. If you don’t start the recoating process as soon as possible, these problems can cost you a lot of time and money, especially if you have drywall in your interior.
So, how often should you paint the interior of your house when there’s evident damage? Right away is the best course of action.
Moving In
If you’re planning to buy a new house and move in, one of the first things you should consider is the recoating of your new home’s interior. In most cases, previous owners don’t have the same preferences and a definition of coziness. Furthermore, if you plan to build a new house, applying protective layers and inside painting are mandatory.
What’s more, the house you’re buying may have old and entirely different paint from the one you’d choose. And let’s not forget that, when you move in, you usually bring in your furniture. That’s why you should, in some cases, entirely alter the interior paint to match the design and decor preferences.
Another sign that you should recoat your house’s interior is when you move into a house that has wholly or partially wooden interior walls. They can sometimes be rotten or pale due to the mismanagement of the previous owners. In these cases, you’d want to change, replace, and repaint them from the tip to the toe.
Moving Out
Selling your house and moving out – a sign for recoating that’ll poke your eyes out! It’s not only a question of increasing the chances and the price of your house but also an ethical one. You don’t want to leave an impression as an irresponsible or reckless owner.
Experts often suggest that we apply a neutral paint before we try to sell our houses. It increases the overall interest of the potential buyers. Also, it guarantees a fresh, clean, and appealing look. Adding a new coat before moving out of the house can also highlight specific features and add value to your offer.
How Often Should You Paint Inside Your House? It Might Be a Tough Decision
Are you still pondering the dilemma of “how often should you paint your house interior”? Specialists advise that we paint the inside of our houses every 5 to 10 years.
However, different areas and rooms can demand a different recoating approach. It depends on the sun and water exposure, temperature changes, room purpose, etc.
So, how often should you paint inside your house when considering specific house areas? Experts recommend that we paint our kitchens, bedrooms, and bathrooms every 3 to 4 years. On the other hand, they say that we can recoat our living and dining rooms every 5 to 7 years.
Nonetheless, most homeowners do the inside recoating all at once. It can unquestionably be a complex, challenging, and stressful process.
That’s why you can always hire professionals to do this for you. Don’t hesitate to add a new and fresh coat that’ll change your living area – our interior painting services at AA Brite will save you effort, time, and money while delivering the freshest and more exquisite coat of paint to your walls!
FAQ
How long does interior paint last on the wall?
There’s a general rule that the interior paint will last you somewhere between 5 and 10 years. Still, the longevity of your interior paint depends on a series of factors, such as the type of paint, type of paint finishes, wall condition, purpose of the room, and the number of coats.
How often should you paint the ceiling?
The ceiling is the part of your interior that needs the least repainting over the years. In general, you should repaint your ceiling every 10 to 15 years. Keep in mind that overhead interiors usually require a minimum of two coats of paint.
Can I paint the wall without removing the old paint?
Yes, you can paint the inside walls of your house without removing the old coat of paint. You can put a new coat of paint over the old one when there are only small spots and stains and there isn’t a huge difference between the old and the current paint. However, this isn’t recommended when there’s wall damage, crackling, bubbling, and severe peelings.
