How To Paint the Exterior of Your House

When you paint your home’s exterior, you have to take into account that the exterior is exposed to the worst that nature has to offer. If you paint your outside house walls and window trim with cheap paint, or if you don’t adequately prepare the surfaces in a way that ensures that the paint sticks, you’ll have problems and the paint job won’t last very long. This project is very time consuming and you can easily rack up a large bill, so make sure you do it right to begin with.

 

First, you’ll need to remove any flaking, cracking or other damage to the existing paint. You can removed problem areas with a paint scraper or power sander. Be sure to wear a breathing mask when you do this, as most older paint contains lead, which does bad things to your lungs. What you’re aiming for is to get a nice smooth surface to paint on, with no bubbles, cracks or flakes which will sow through your lovely new paint. For windowsills and trim, you can use coarse sandpaper which you can fix to a sanding block for ease of use. Make sure you get any rough old paint off.

 

As you may have guessed, this is a very time-consuming and messy project. Be sure to allot yourself a couple of days for preparation before you begin to actually paint your house exteriors. This ensures that the paint is going onto a surface where it will stick and where there won’t be problems with bubbling, flaking or peeling.

 

When you set out to finally paint your exterior house surfaces, start from the top down. This will minimize drips and color running. Make sure that you mask off areas that will be a different color. Window trim and fascia should be covered with blue painting tape and plastic, whichever does a better job of covering the surface in question. The best way to paint house exteriors is with a good quality brush. Most professionals use a four-inch brush for this project as it provides good coverage, but still has adequate precision to avoid painting surfaces that are masked off. Use a roller on a long handle for larger or textured surfaces, and be sure to work on a ladder that is tied or weighted down securely as when you paint, you’ll be pushing yourself slightly away from the wall – not a good idea to do when trying to balance on a ladder! Always wear a hard hat if you’re using a ladder.

 

If you have a particularly tall (more than one story) house, it might be worth paying a local decorating firm to set up some rented scaffolding along each side of your house. This will give you a stable, large surface to stand on when you’re painting, and you’ll be able to bing large buckets of paint up there with you to avoid constant trips up and down the ladder to refill your paint tray.

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