So you have a new home and everything looks fantastic.
One day, late in the afternoon, you are late to meet a friend.
You hurriedly throw your coat on and start toward the door.
Coming down the long hallway you notice that the sun is setting and the light is coming through the window which makes you so glad you have such a nice home, but you also notice something that you haven't noticed before; the walls look rougher and uneven in some areas.
On your way home you start to think about what you had noticed as you were leaving for your meeting, and you want to take a closer look at it when you get back.
As you arrive home and look for the rough sections of wall that you had noticed, to your amazement, you can't find them.
Were you imagining things? Not really; these are issues that newer homes have now.
With the newer larger windows located sometimes from floor to ceiling, and more and brighter lighting, the chances of this happening is much greater.
Welcome to the world of drywall finishing and critical lighting issues.
A designer may develop a wall or ceiling surface for a particular design effect, or just by coincidence you may find sections of your home or office that fall into what is called severe critical lighting areas.
These areas are located in areas such as a long corridor, a lobby wall, or smooth ceiling where the light from any source comes streaming across the face of the wall or ceiling at just the right angle.
The combination of any type of gloss paint and smooth walls will make these imperfections even more exaggerated.
This may make the perceived appearance unacceptable to the user, or homeowner, even after the best workmanship.
Light source, texture of wall, and sheen of paint are key factors affecting the appearance of drywall and surface.
As with any structure man builds, with a quality installation and proper painting procedures the end result usually turns out fine, but let's think about this.
The whole nature of drywall installation is crude at best.
Four foot wide sections of drywall are butted together over the wood framing members, then nailed and screwed to the framing, and then drywall mud is applied to fill in all the nails and joints.
All this and the walls are supposed to end up looking like one continuous smooth wall sections, free from visual defects.
As we stated earlier, in most cases you will not see defects, but we are talking about critical lighting areas, in which case you will see some defects, even from the best drywall finish work.
So now we know that walls are not perfectly straight, and there is really no way we can make them perfect in some lighting situations.
What can we do to make them look as smooth and flat as we can? 1.
Move any lights located in the ceiling at least three feet away from any intersecting walls.
2.
Walls and ceiling in critical light areas should have a small amount of texture on the surface such as orange peel, or brocade.
This will break up the reflection of light into many different directions, allowing the walls to look smoother and straighter.
3.
Walls should never be painted with any type of gloss paint, not even velvet, or eggshell sheen.
4.
Add curtains that can limit, or change the direction of light coming in from large windows.
5.
Use plants to break up long walls.
6.
Use a warm off-white flat sheen paint on ceilings.
Paint manufactures make specifically designed flat sheen paints for ceilings.
7.
Use light sources from many areas in the room to counteract one large light source.
These are only a few suggestions.
You will have to play around with how to breakup the lighting in these rooms.
Remember many sources of light in a room will be better that one source.
John Howell House Painting Vancouver,WA
One day, late in the afternoon, you are late to meet a friend.
You hurriedly throw your coat on and start toward the door.
Coming down the long hallway you notice that the sun is setting and the light is coming through the window which makes you so glad you have such a nice home, but you also notice something that you haven't noticed before; the walls look rougher and uneven in some areas.
On your way home you start to think about what you had noticed as you were leaving for your meeting, and you want to take a closer look at it when you get back.
As you arrive home and look for the rough sections of wall that you had noticed, to your amazement, you can't find them.
Were you imagining things? Not really; these are issues that newer homes have now.
With the newer larger windows located sometimes from floor to ceiling, and more and brighter lighting, the chances of this happening is much greater.
Welcome to the world of drywall finishing and critical lighting issues.
A designer may develop a wall or ceiling surface for a particular design effect, or just by coincidence you may find sections of your home or office that fall into what is called severe critical lighting areas.
These areas are located in areas such as a long corridor, a lobby wall, or smooth ceiling where the light from any source comes streaming across the face of the wall or ceiling at just the right angle.
The combination of any type of gloss paint and smooth walls will make these imperfections even more exaggerated.
This may make the perceived appearance unacceptable to the user, or homeowner, even after the best workmanship.
Light source, texture of wall, and sheen of paint are key factors affecting the appearance of drywall and surface.
As with any structure man builds, with a quality installation and proper painting procedures the end result usually turns out fine, but let's think about this.
The whole nature of drywall installation is crude at best.
Four foot wide sections of drywall are butted together over the wood framing members, then nailed and screwed to the framing, and then drywall mud is applied to fill in all the nails and joints.
All this and the walls are supposed to end up looking like one continuous smooth wall sections, free from visual defects.
As we stated earlier, in most cases you will not see defects, but we are talking about critical lighting areas, in which case you will see some defects, even from the best drywall finish work.
So now we know that walls are not perfectly straight, and there is really no way we can make them perfect in some lighting situations.
What can we do to make them look as smooth and flat as we can? 1.
Move any lights located in the ceiling at least three feet away from any intersecting walls.
2.
Walls and ceiling in critical light areas should have a small amount of texture on the surface such as orange peel, or brocade.
This will break up the reflection of light into many different directions, allowing the walls to look smoother and straighter.
3.
Walls should never be painted with any type of gloss paint, not even velvet, or eggshell sheen.
4.
Add curtains that can limit, or change the direction of light coming in from large windows.
5.
Use plants to break up long walls.
6.
Use a warm off-white flat sheen paint on ceilings.
Paint manufactures make specifically designed flat sheen paints for ceilings.
7.
Use light sources from many areas in the room to counteract one large light source.
These are only a few suggestions.
You will have to play around with how to breakup the lighting in these rooms.
Remember many sources of light in a room will be better that one source.
John Howell House Painting Vancouver,WA
SHARE
