It’s totally understandable that you would be excited about the idea of giving the outside of your home a facelift. But, before you get too excited, Arrowhead Painting believes it is very important to know that exterior painting can be quite hard and there’s a lot of prep work that needs to be done before you even can get started. When you take the time to prepare your home properly for its exterior painting, you will not only get a beautiful new look for your home, it could end up saving you a lot of money.
Before you rush over to your local paint store or home improvement store to pick out your paint colors and supplies, you need to make sure that you do all the preparation first. This way it’s going to save you time and effort in the end and it’s going to make your paint job more efficient and less frustrating.
It’s important to note that there’s much more to painting the outside of your home than just picking out the color and then painting it. Truth be known, most of the work is in the preparation, not the painting of your home.
First Thing to Do: Wash Your House
Before even thinking of picking up a paint brush or roller, it’s very important that you make sure that the outside of your house is cleand from top to bottom and all around everywhere. The easiest way to wash most of your home is with a pressure-washer and if you don’t have one, you might want to invest in one or you can just rent one. For most of your home, you should only have to use plain water with the pressure-washer. Now, if you come across any mold or other difficult substance to remove, you will need to add a little bit of cleaner in order to get troubled areas cleanded off.
Let House Dry and Then Scrape
After you’ve washed your home completely it’s very important that you allow it to dry completely. The best way to ensure that it’s totally dry is to let it dry overnight. When you are sure that it’s dry you then should inspect your hope all around and look for any areas that might have some paint that’s peeling. Take a scraper and then scrape off any of the peeling and chipping paint that you can prior to any painting.
Before Painting Do Caulking Where Needed
After you are done with the scraping you should find any cracks in your home between any vertical junctions or clapboards. Take some caulk and fill in any cracks and vertical junctions to overflowing and then smooth down and wipe away any of the extra caulk. Once you’ve done that take a hand sander or just some sandpaper and sand the caulk smooth.
Take Care of Any Needed Repairs
This step is very important. Make a walk around you home and see if there are any repairs that need to be done. If they are repairs that you feel confident in repairing yourself, do so. However, if you aren’t sure that you can make the repair you might want to hire a handyman or a professional to do the work for you.
Primer Your Home
It’s important that before you actually apply the paint that you put primer on your house before you do so. Primer is important for any areas of your home that be bare or exposed on the outside. It’s best to use one that is an exterior grade and oil-based. This will create an air tight and moisture tight barrier for your home.
Final Step: Trim Plants and Trees Around Home
The final step before you paint your home is to make sure that all of the landscaping that’s near your home. You want to do this so that it’s easier for you to get around and paint as well as keeping the plants away from the wet paint.
Any type of home improvement is a very important step for the homeowner to not only create a home to be proud of, but to also increase the value of their home. However, if the work is not done properly it’s not going to look professional and often when steps are skipped can end up costing you a lot more because you may have to end up re-doing the entire project. This can be disappointing, frustrating, and costly.
So, remember, always do the proper prep work, don’t skip a thing. Then once you’ve accomplished this, go out, pick out your colors, supplies, and paint your home and be proud of your finished product.