How to Prepare Your Wall Surface Before Painting it for a Projector Surface

Preparing the surface of a wall before painting it for a projector surface is done to fix wall with imperfections. When a projector projects images on a wall that has not had this preparation the images can be distorted. The main distortions are caused if a wall is uneven. Uneven walls can cast shadows in areas of the images being portrayed, diminishing the quality. Fixing these imperfections is a dusty job, so projector equipment should not be installed until after the wall has been painted.

• 1

  Cover the floor of the room with painter's plastic. Set a contractor's light at the base of the wall and shine it up on the wall surface so it casts shadows on all imperfections in the workmanship. Look for bumps along wall where the screw or nail heads have popped or separated from the underlying wall studs. Take a 4-inch putty knife and scrape these bumps off the wall to expose the heads of the screws or nails holding the wall board to the studs.

• 2

  Hammer or screw in these fasteners all the way to the stud. Put a new screw or nail through the wall board and into the stud 3 inches from the popped screw or nail on both sides using a hammer or electric screwdriver. Press on the wallboard with your hand to see if the new fasteners are adequately attaching the wallboard back to the studs.

• 3

  Fill all of the holes with drywall mud and let them dry completely. Fill them again afterward to fill in where the dried mud has shrunk. Sand these spots with a pole sander using 120-grit sandpaper. Fill a 10-inch drywall mud tray with premixed mud. Take a 10-inch drywall mud knife and skim coat the entire wall to make the highs and lows evenly flush with each other.

• 4

  Let the skim coat dry completely and then sand it again with the pole sander. Inspect the flatness of the wall using a yardstick. Lay the yardstick on the wall and look to see if the wall is touching the entire length of the stick. Slide the yardstick around the wall to ensure the wall is perfectly flat. Apply another skim coat if the wall is still uneven. Sand it and inspect it again for flatness. Dust the wall using a dust brush after the sanding is completed.