A fresh coat ofexterior paintcan transmute even the most run - down " fixer - upper " into a stylish " classic , " dramatically boosting bridle appeal and adding K of dollars to your home ’s resale time value . Even if you ’re not trying to deal your house , a professional - gradeexterior paintjob can protect it from the elements — winding , rainfall , mold and mildew — or at the very least , make your neighbors green-eyed .
Let ’s not deceive ourselves , though . Painting over the outside of your habitation can be a huge investiture of both time and money . pay a professional can go into the 10 of thousands of dollars . you may do it yourself for a fraction of that cost , but devise to spend long days on high ladders scraping away at stubborn paint and inhaling primer fumes .
If you ’re up to the DIY challenge though , we ’ve assembled10 essential tricksfor making your house - painting project go smoothly and face gravid . With any hazard , it will last 25 years , at which level it ’s the next owner ’s job .
Let ’s protrude with an unusual picture consideration : the calendar .
10: Check the Weather
Moisture is a mountain lion ’s worst enemy . Waterlogged wood turnout or concrete foundations will stimulate rouge to bubble and crack only months after a fresh applications programme . keep open yourself the frustration ( and price ) of repaint by wait until all surfaces are moisture - free .
If you subsist in a part with long , snowy winters and wet spring , waitress until at least June before start an exterior paint project . If you live in a hot and humid area , project on the cooler , ironic weather of fall . Professional painters carry moisture meters and wo n’t consist a brush on a piece of Sir Henry Wood with moisture content higher than 12 pct [ seed : Lernley ] .
you may buy ameterfor as picayune as $ 20 — or just keep check on the weather . waitress until theforecastcalls for clear skies and warm nights for at least the next week . Rain can wash forth fresh rubber-base paint pigment , and temperatures below 50 degree Fahrenheit ( 10 degrees Celsius ) can make it heavy for paint to adhere to the surface and therapeutic decent [ seed : Benjamin Moore ] .
9: Look Out for Lead
The first step in an exterior painting project is toremove all cracked , eruct and otherwise nasty sure-enough blusher . If your house was built before 1978 , there ’s a very secure chance that at least one of its many blusher layers containslead , a knownneurotoxinthat can severely impair brainpower affair and development , especially in tike .
To test your paint for lead , confer with thislist of EPA - approved labsand call the nearest one to find out how to mail in a sample . If it come in back electropositive , you ’ll need to take special precautions when scraping off the old , discredited paint . The best solution is to rent a product call thePaintShaver — a mechanise grinder that quickly strips paint from wood airfoil and lactate the dust and debris straight into a seal vacuum bag [ source : Hurst - Wajszczuk ] .
Even if you are n’t get by with lead paint , you ’ll still require to denigrate mess and avoid inhale paint dust . Buy yourself a nicepainting respiratorso you’re able to breathe easy . Then invest in some sail drop cloth like the pros use . Unlike the gaudy plastic versions , they do n’t rip and you’re able to reprocess them over and over . place the dip cloths below your work area and drape them over shrubs and other landscape gardening to protect landscaping from falling pigment chips [ author : Hurst - Wajszczuk ] .
8: Patch Those Cracks
Painting the exterior of your house can be a painstakingly slow physical process , but it give you an chance to scrutinise your home up close . While you ’re scrape up away at the trimming for hours , pay aid to the state of wood clapboards , window shelf and shutters . If you find any fall in , cracked or decompose sections , fix them now so they wo n’t come back to ghost you by and by .
If a piece of forest is rotted through , it needs to be removed and supersede . But if there are just a few pass or holes , piece themusing a professional - grade exteriorpatching compound . No mixing is necessary ; just spackle the malleable putty mightily into the trouble area ; smoothen it in the paired counseling , let it dry out , and then sand the surface smooth . Rough sanding the edges of the hole itself will help the compound to adhere [ origin : Barhnart et al . ] .
To ensure a perfectly still finish , consider sanding down all wood surface . We know it ’s a huge pain , but at least you may rip or take up a superpower sander to cover more Earth’s surface area in less prison term . Pay finical attention to the place where bare Grant Wood meets exist paint . Use a fine 50- or 80 - guts paper to really make those transitions seamless [ source : Hurst - Wajszczuk ] .
7: Give It a Bath
call back when we say you that it ’s critically important to paint on a moisture - free airfoil ? Forget that for a instant . Once you ’ve stripped off old paint and patched up busted siding , you involve to assault another unsightly plague of old houses : mould and mould . And the good agency to do that is with an old - fashioned scrub and rinse .
Mold , mildew and other fungican embed themselves deep in forest fibers far beyond the reach of a scraper or sander . The best arm is to mix in up a diluted result of 1 cup ( 236 milliliters ) each of bleach and trisodium phosphate to 2 gal ( 7.5 liters ) of body of water [ source : Lernley ] . apply a sprayer bottle to spritz job area and bush profoundly with a stiff - bristly brush .
Let the bleach solution do its body of work for a few time of day before giving the entire firm a gentle rinse to slay dust and paint debris . It ’s tempting to use a big businessman washing machine , but that public convenience can come up at a price — high - power streams of water can gouge soft woods . When in dubiety , try a regulargarden hose[source : Hurst - Wajszczuk ] .
OK , now you could remember our moisture advice . Wait a few cheery days after rinsing before continue with the painting project .
6: Prime for Action
On a bountiful painting labor , laying down a coat of primer can feel exhaustingly unnecessary . But primer will probably be the difference between a 5 - year exterior rouge task and a 25 - year one . Primerserves two principal functions : It seal in any remaining moisture ( which prevents mould ) and provides a smooth , clean surface so the topcoat of paint will vex like glue . If you are prosperous enough to start with a utterly smooth and clean paint open , priming is n’t necessary , but few of us are so prosperous [ source : Paint Quality Institute ] .
Before you put on primer , you require to mask windows , gutter and any other unpainted surfaces withblue painter ’s mag tape . Then , go around the fuse on with a sprayer or roller and be up with a thicket to mould it into hard - to - progress to corner [ source : Lernley ] . We ’ll peach more later about the pros and cons of using brushes , rollers and sprayers .
What about oil - base versus latex primer ? Professional painter preferlatex primersand paints because they are water - based and clean up easy [ reference : Dawson ] . But some choose crude - based primers that profoundly penetrate wood surfaces [ author : Lernley ] .
Do you need two pelage of primer ? Again , the smoother the painting surface , the better - looking the final paint Book of Job , but you need to consider how much time and money you want to invest in this project . Primer is cheaper than paint , but it ’s not free . A 5 - gallon ( 19 - litre ) bucket of exterior fusee starts at $ 60 to $ 70 and goes way up from there .
5: Get Out Your Gun
Caulking is one of those professional whoremaster that can really boost the seniority of your exterior painting project . Caulkis a glue - like substance that seals cracks and line , like those between the turnout and window , or the turnout and trim of your house . The enemy , as common , is body of water , which can seep into those seams and get your marque - new paint job to snap and bubble . Caulking is different from patch , because you will need to calk even undamaged areas where water might ooze through .
Caulk should be applied after the priming stage of an exterior painting labor . The experts recommend using a siliconized acrylic caulk because paint will adhere to it [ source : Hurst - Wajszczuk ] . If you are calk an area between two different type of surface — wood and concrete , or concrete and alloy — look for caulking that ’s compatible with both textile . Do n’t endeavor to caulk cracks between weatherboarding , though . dampish melodic line from inside the theatre need a agency to escape [ reference : Barhnart et al . ] .
To apply caulking , you require acaulking gun , which is an inexpensive metal applier . Apply a thick logical argument of caulking over the wrinkle and work back over it with your index finger to make a smooth , monotone seal . If the line is really wide , you might want to buy some backer rod , a foam - like metro that you insert into the seam before applying the caulking [ source : Truini ] .
4: Treat Yourself to Good Paint
As a consumer , it ’s not always exculpated if a more expensive product is necessarily a better product . Brand figure generally cost more than generic , even though they may contain precisely the same element .
However , withpaint , the experts agree that you get what you pay for : More expensive key have more pigments , giving them a deeper , richer , and longer - lasting colour than cheaper alternatives . When you budget out your exterior painting project , plan on buying the best quality you may [ source : Truini ] .
Acryliclatex paintis almost always a expert choice than oil . Latex does n’t emit loads of volatile constituent compounds ( VOCs ) , which are spoilt for the environment and hard on the nose . It stays pliant and pliable over time , which means less cracking thanoil - based key , and dries quicker too . you could houseclean up with scoop and pee instead of paint slight . And ultimately , you could paint latex paint over any case of primer or existing blusher , something oil ca n’t plow [ rootage : Hurst - Wajszczuk ] .
There are two specific painting situation where vegetable oil wins over latex :
3: Choose Your Weapon Wisely
After 24-hour interval — even weeks ! — of prep work , you are finally ready to get down to business . You ’ve choose the double-dyed color , spent way too much money on gallons and gallons of quality paint , and now the only question that remains is : how do you get this stuff on the walls ? Do you brush , roll or spray ?
For the pro , the answer is " all of the above . " Each paint software method acting has its pros and cons :
If you feel confident with a paint sprayer , use the sprayer first to blast a large area , then play along with a brush — called " back brush " — to control smooth and even coverage [ seed : Benjamin Moore ] .
2: Made in the Shade
painter are like farmers : They love the sunniness unless they take rainfall , and they love the rain unless they need cheer . gay , strong atmospheric condition is great for evaporate moisture out of Sir Henry Wood , but too much sun work havoc with an in - procession pigment job .
Here ’s the problem . When you ’re paint a large surface , like the exterior bulwark of a theater , you have to work in sections , moving the ladder and send away cloths as you go . If the Lord’s Day is glower straight off down on the wall , then the paint will dry faster than you may move your equipment . When you implement soaked paint over juiceless key , it ends up creating darklap markswhere the sections overlap [ source : Benjamin Moore ] . The effect is uneven and splotchy color .
Ideally , you should clock your pigment job so that you are always actively paint on the shady side of the house . If that ’s not possible , seek to paint on a cloudy day — but not a showery one !
1: Work on Your Brushstrokes
There ’s more to house painting than just slap the color on the wall . Like most things , a certain technique is involved . First , start out your exterior paint job from the top of the family and cultivate your way down ( it ’s harder to drip up , after all ) .
If you ’re using a brushing , dip about 2 inches ( 5 centimeter ) of bristles into the can and rock off the overindulgence by slap the brush against the sides of the container . Lay the paint on stocky , quickly going back and forth about two or three times . Reload your paint and replicate until you ’ve cover about 3 or 4 straight substructure ( 0.3 to 0.4 straight meters ) . ultimately , smooth out your study with your brush ( this time , without adding any additional rouge ) . apply long strokes and work from the unpainted area to the paint area [ source : The Family Handyman ] .
If you ’re painting overlap siding , paint the " butt " or bottom boundary before working on the wide surface [ source : Truini ] . To minimize lap mug , paint a surgical incision of four or five boards all the way across before the paint has a chance to dry out [ beginning : Benjamin Moore ] .
Lots More Information
I will never paint the exterior of my house for one reason : I am scared of mount ladders . I ’m not afraid of peak — it ’s the tumble that suffer me . My youngster make merriment of me relentlessly , head out each meter my neighbour ascends a ladder to scavenge out his gutters or animate some Al siding . In my defense , my fears are perfectly ground . tumble from ladder are the run cause of injury and expiry among construction workers — 605 worker were killed in 2009 alone and more than 200,000 were seriously injured by falls from ladder [ beginning : CDC ] . And I ’ve meet enough slapstick funniness to get it on that when the Church Father climb a tall ladder , painful glee ensues . Which get me to the 2nd reason I will never paint the exterior of my planetary house : It ’s brick .
