Depending on how big your house is, painting its exterior could take a long time or a medium amount of time. Most people don’t think painting a simple exterior wall will take them that long, but the truth is, if you want to do it right and properly protect your home’s exterior while giving it a beautiful color, you’ll have to set aside at least a few hours to do it right. As Fort Collins residential painting experts, we know what a huge task it can be.
The work itself is not too difficult if you know what you’re doing. Here are five basic steps for painting the outside of your home:
1. Prepare the surface
Most houses that need paint jobs have peeling paint, exposed wood or siding, and/or mildew. Before you waste your paint going over all of these faults, scrape off any flaking paint and kill off any mildew. The idea is to rid the exterior of any surface that might prevent the new paint from adhering to the house the way it’s supposed to.
2. Prime the surface
Next, prime all bare surfaces with a basic primer. This will help the paint stick better to the house and enhance its color. You should also seal up any holes or gaps with caulk. If you’re dealing with stucco, patch any cracks or chips with new stucco material and allow it time to cure before you slather it with the final coat.
3. Get a good exterior paint
Before you go any further, make sure you have the right paint for your exterior. A good exterior paint will have a label boasting 100% acrylic latex. The ingredients in this type of paint, including binders, solvents, and pigments, will help the paint cover the surface well and won’t fade as fast as other paints.
4. Spray and roll
If you’ve ever tried to use a hand brush to paint an entire exterior wall, you know how tedious it is and how long it takes. Plus, hand brushing large areas can show your brushstrokes and your inevitably uneven lines after the paint dries. When painting the entire exterior of a house, it’s best to invest in paint rollers or a sprayer, both which cover larger areas at a time with paint and leave no brushstrokes. Note: When using these efficient paint tools, it’s important to tape and cover any areas that you don’t want to paint, such as your hedge or the trim around your windows—we’ll cover that next.
5. Put on the finishing touches
Now that most of the house is painted, it’s time to touch things up and add the trim. Since the trim around your windows and doors are small areas, you can do this with a brush. Select an appropriately sized brush for the surface you’re painting and carefully smooth the paint over back and forth until you get a good coverage. Try to brush in one direction to hide your brushstrokes.
Painting a house the right way takes time. If you invest the time into getting good coverage on large walls and beautiful brushwork on your trim areas, you’ll have a sharp, well-protected home.
