You can easily upgrade your curb appeal with a fresh coat of exterior house paint. Use this helpful how-to guide to learn about priming the outside of your home, application techniques and problem-solving.
Materials You’ll Need:
- Power washer or garden hose
- Buckets for cleanup
- Cleaning solution and bleach
- Safety goggles
- Respirator
- Rags
- Wire brush
- Spray shield
- Ladder
- Primer
- Exterior wall paint and stir sticks
- Trim paint
- Pressure washer
- Paint sprayer, rollers, and brushes
- Painter’s tape
- Drop cloths and plastic sheeting
- Ladder
- Paint scraper
- Wood filler
- Sander
- Medium-grit sanding block
- Spackle knife
- Exterior caulk
- Caulk gun
- Trash bags
- Plastic wrap or plastic bags
- N100 respirator, mask with HEPA cartridges, and a protective suit for lead paint removal
How to prepare a house for exterior painting: Planning and Lead Paint Awareness
Exterior paint prep can be a daunting task to tackle. Depending on the size of the project and your experience level, you might not even know where to begin. Like everything, the best way to start is with a good plan. Identify what parts of the project can be broken into sections and what parts need to be done together. Look for areas that will cause you trouble, so that you can approach them with your eyes open. The planning stage is also the best time to consider testing for lead paint. If you have a house that was built prior to 1979, it’s always a good idea to know what you’re getting into. This is especially important because it’s likely that you’ll need to sand or scrape your existing exterior paint during the course of your project.
Prepare and Clean the Area for the exterior painting
Remove items near the house such as patio furniture, grills, and trash bins and place them away from the wall of your home. Tape and cover outlet boxes and fixtures with drop cloths and painter’s tape.
Trim trees and shrubs and cover landscaping with a drop cloth. (You don’t want paint on your blooming geraniums!)
Wash the Exterior an Sand
Washing the entire exterior of your home allows the paint to adhere to the surface. Use a pressure washer with a cleaning solution or a hose and scrub brush if you don’t have a great deal of peeling and flaking paint.
For homes with mildew, use one part of chlorine bleach to three parts water or a mildewcide. Work in sections and rinse the surface well.
If your home has softwood shingles or siding, hand wash it with detergent and water. Sand where necessary: areas that are peeling off or where the wood is too rough.
Caulk Gaps, Patch Holes, and Replace Wood Rot
When sanding is complete, replace any siding or trim that you can’t salvage. Use epoxy to repair rotting wood or replace the wood. Fill gaps around doors, windows, and trim with exterior caulk in a caulk gun. You may want to prime first since primer safeguards wood.
Prime Stains and Bare Spots
Prime any stains or exposed areas with a stain-blocking primer using a paintbrush. Primer will penetrate and seal the area so paint bonds to the surface.
If you’re changing the paint color more than a few shades, apply a coat of primer to the home to ensure even coverage. Spray the heads of screws and nails with metal primer to prevent rust from bleeding through the paint.
It’s Time to Paint
It’s finally time to make your home shine. Before you paint, cover your mailbox, lighting fixtures, doors, and trim with plastic sheeting using painter’s tape. Pour your preferred color of eggshell latex or flat paint into your sprayer. Working from top to bottom, apply one or two coats as needed to the entire home.
If you are paint stucco use a backrolling technique with two painters will cut your time in half. One person sprays the house while another follows with a roller smoothing out the sprayed paint.
At Priceless Painting we prefer to use rollers and brushes to paint the exterior of houses. That way we apply more paint on the surfaces, a thick, nice coat of paint that you do not get when you just spray the paint.
Need Help with interior o exterior painting?
Our belief is to deliver quality service and take the time and effort to achieve the results expected.
Choose the color you want on your interior or exterior surfaces and leave the rest to us. Priceless Painting performs the best interior and exterior painting services that bring life to any surface. Contact us today to schedule your painting appointment and get your free estimate.
