Don’t Cry Over Spilled Paint: Three Handy Tips for Dealing with Spilled Paint

img4Spilled paint, particularly on the carpet, can always seem like a bit of a disaster; your first thought is that you’ll have to replace the carpet. But what if you can’t find any that will match the existing carpet in your house? You’ll have to replace all the carpets! Oh the cost! And all because you wanted a red feature wall in the lounge room! Cue the tears. Big, loud sobs of despair.

Then, maybe you’ll progress to the next stage of grief: a little game of passing the blame. But before you rip up your native flora-coloured 100% wool carpet in a semi-hysterical frenzy, dry those tears and try these tips first:

The first thing you need to do with a paint spill is try and contain it as best you can: soak up as much as possible while it’s wet using old rags-work from the outside of the spill inwards as this helps to contain it. You could also try kitty litter, which is also good for soaking up paint due to it being so absorbent.

Wet Paint on Carpet: most acrylic house paints can be washed out of carpet as long as you start cleaning it as soon as possible and, preferably, while the paint is still wet.

Use water to wet the area continually and then soak up the pain with a sponge-rinse and clean the paint out of the sponge regularly for the best results. Detergent will help to clean the carpet and will also stop the paint from drying.

Oil-based paints like all-purpose undercoats or high-gloss enamels are a little harder to clean up; you’ll also need to use plenty of solvents to remove this paint from carpets.
Using a mineral turpentine to thin the paint first, you can then wash the paint out of the carpet with water and detergents as you would with an acrylic paint, however, make sure you test this with a small area of carpet first.

Some solvents like turps can damage some materials like carpet by changing the colour of the carpet or softening the glue that holds the carpet down, which can leave the carpet looking warped.

Dried Paint: dried paint on surfaces like timber floors or glass is quite easily removed. Use a paint scraper, razor blade or window scraper (with a blade) to remove the dried paint from the surface.

For older stains that are difficult to remove, try using a small amount of mentholated spirits and an old rag to loosen the paint, then scrape or wipe the remaining paint off.

Once again, oil-based paints are harder to remove. Try using some mineral turps-for both new and old paint spots—to loosen the paint. In the unlikely circumstance that you’re still not able to shift it, you could also try using some paint stripper.

See, we told you there was no point crying over spilled paint! For more helpful tips and information like this visit www.qpaint.com.au.
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