Wall Painting in Vancouver

Walls only: what gets masked

The masking is the job. Trim, the ceiling line, switch and socket plates, window and door casings, and the top of any skirting all need protecting, plus floors and whatever furniture stays in the room. On a walls-only repaint the masking regularly takes longer than the painting.

Switch and socket plates come off rather than being taped around, which is both faster and produces a far better result — a plate taped in place always leaves a slight ridge of paint at its edge. Where a room has a lot of built-in shelving or a fireplace surround, expect the setup to take a good part of the first visit.

Cutting to an existing ceiling line

A ceiling line is cut freehand with a good brush, not taped. Tape on a textured or previously painted ceiling lifts flakes when removed and leaves a worse edge than a steady hand produces. It also cannot follow a ceiling that is not straight, which in most older homes it is not.

Where the wall meets the ceiling on a wavy line, the eye reads the paint edge as the boundary rather than the actual junction, so a consistent line slightly below the true corner looks straighter than one that follows every undulation. That judgement is the skill in this job.

Patching before repaint

Nail holes, wall-plug holes, dents and hairline cracks all get filled, sanded flush and spot-primed before any colour goes on. Filler left unprimed absorbs paint at a different rate from the surrounding wall and dries as a visible flat patch — obvious in raking light, and impossible to fix without recoating the whole wall.

Larger repairs need proper cure time before painting, and that time is not negotiable. Where a wall has significant damage we will tell you whether it means a second visit, rather than painting over a patch that is still shrinking.

Sheen matching to existing paint

If you are painting some walls and leaving others, sheen matters more than colour. Two walls in the identical colour at different sheens look like a mistake. Find the original tin if you can — the sheen name is on the label and the manufacturer's names are not interchangeable between brands.

On colour: a shop can scan a sample and get very close, but paint on a wall has faded and yellowed since it went on, so a scan matches the aged colour rather than the original. For a whole-wall repaint that is fine. For patching into an existing wall, the honest answer is that a perfect invisible match is rarely achievable and painting corner to corner is the reliable route.

What this costs

$950–$2,400 a room · $7,500–$22,000 whole-home interior

Prep is the variable, not the paint. A sound room in good condition sits near $950; heavy filling, stripping or three-coat colour changes push it up. Exterior repaints run $12,000–$38,000 depending on cladding and access.

Materials are always separate from labour and passed on at cost. Quotes are free and written, and the full rate card is published rather than given out on request.