A house isn’t complete without an appealing exterior paint colour that represents the entire environment and portrays your personality and preferences. It doesn’t have to be a new building. The need to refresh the exterior of your house arises for various reasons.
Painting external surfaces are something that nearly all adults can do, even without professional skills. This blog will take you through how to paint the exterior of a house, among other crucial details about the subject.
Painting Materials
Before proceeding to the matter of the day, it would be best if you grasped which materials are required to paint a house’s exterior. The most obvious is the exterior outdoor paint, accompanied by a pressure washer, paintbrush, paint sprayer, ladder, painter’s tape, drop cloths, paint scraper, a caulk gun, plastic sheeting, spackle knife, and epoxy filler.
Other essentials include paint rollers, roller screen &tray, trim brush, a bucket, and painting clothes. You can dive into the painting exercise on your house’s exteriors with all or a more significant part of the above materials.
House Preparation
Painting the exterior of a house goes beyond just dipping a brush into the paint and smearing it on the wall. You should first prepare the walls for painting by washing away the pre-existing dirt and dust to help the paint connect to the surfaces better.
A simple wash with a scrub brush, pump sprayer, and hose pipe works perfectly. You can also go for professional wall cleaning if your walls are dusty. The washing phase is followed by scrapping off any flakes or blisters of the previous paint.
After scraping, sand the area you intend to paint to achieve a smoother surface free from lumps and bumps. If you encounter any holes in the walls, the preparation phase is the best time to patch and fill them before painting. If working close to a window, you should caulk and seal it to prevent water and air from entering the house.
House Painting
Having prepared the walls for painting, you can confidently proceed to the actual action using suitable exterior paint and a high-quality paintbrush. You should only use paint sprayers if you have the ideal skills. Otherwise, things might get messy. As highlighted earlier, the colour goes beyond rubbing your paint-filled brush up and down, left and right, the wall.
It would help to start from the top of the wall heading down. The trick prevents you from damaging painted surfaces with a ladder since you only move it downwards. Again, you don’t have to worry about falling due to leaning the ladder on a slippery wall.
With the up-down trick, you can quickly identify missed or inappropriate areas and act accordingly. Regarding side painting, you should begin from the left to the right side as you are more likely to realize missed areas in this style.
Painting Techniques
After successfully working on the wall, the windows and trims should be your next destination. Most professional painters recommend using a small paintbrush on these surfaces as the large one can be messy sometimes.
A painter’s tape lets you stay in line and avoid painting the wood or glass. The exact process applies when painting the trims. When you’re done, close the windows partially or leave them open to inhibit sticking.
Sigh! The job is almost done. Your house’s exterior foundation should be painted last as you approach the cleaning phase. You don’t need the ladder since a simple bend-over can do the work. After successful paintwork, leave the surfaces to dry as you clean the used materials.
Cleaning
Cleaning paintwork materials after painting prepares them for their next duty and increases their lifespan. Choose the proper solvent depending on the type of paint you’ve used on your walls, and clean soon after use to prevent sticking. For example, a blend of warm water and odourless mineral spirits would work well for oil-based paint materials.
You should store the cleaned materials in their original covers. If you lost the shelters along the way, you could make your own with cardboard and duct tape, according to the size of the material you wish to store.
Other Painting Tips
Painting is easy and even more enjoyable with various tips and techniques. For the best results possible, go for high-quality exterior paints and painting materials, and work alongside a weather forecast while planning a forthcoming paint day.
In addition, cleaning before painting is crucial if you want your paint to last longer than imagined. If the house you intend to paint is quite old, you should look for possible rotten wood or siding and act accordingly, as the paint doesn’t adhere well to them.
Most importantly, your safety remains a top priority. Remember to put on relevant PPEs and stand firmly on the ladder to reduce the chances of falling, no matter how long you’ve lasted in the painting game.
