Home Exterior Painting Preparation

by HomeRepairExpert.com
?Although most people realize that painting the exterior of your home is a big job no matter whether you use a brush, roller or spray equipment.  However one thing many people forget is that the most important and difficult part of exterior house painting is preparing the surface prior to painting. It is simply not possible to end up with a good paint job without making sure the surfaces you’ll paint are clean and dry in order to give the paint a good surface to bond to. Painting the exterior of your house over a dirty and poorly prepared surface is guaranteed to produce less than desirable results and it certainly will not be durable at all. Once you've thoroughly cleaned the exterior with thorough paint preparation job your paint job will last many years.

Getting started with prep means removing all of the old the loose paint. One way many people remove the dirt and old paint is with the use of a power washer that increases the water pressure in the wand of the power washer to about 3,000 psi. Although a power washer will definitely get the job done, it may damage your surface because the high pressure water will remove the loose paint but can also remove any good paint underneath and the water jet can actually score wood and brick surfaces and blast the mortar from between the joints. It may be fast, but power washing is not as good as hand scraping and sanding the surfaces slowly.

It is better to remove the old paint when the surfaces are completely dry using common hand tools like a paint scraper, putty knife, sandpaper and sanding blocks. After the old loose paint is scraped away you’ll need to sand the surfaces where paint has been removed to minimize any hard edges visible where paint has been removed and the spots where it still remains. Prior to final sanding, you’ll need to fill in any cracks and holes with wood filler and even replace the wood in areas with major damage. Once you start hand sanding use 80 grit sandpaper followed by 120 grit sandpaper, and you can use a sanding block to make things easier when trying to eliminate all hard edges. After the surface is scraped and sanded clean you’ll need to wash the entire house again to ensure the surface free of dirt and flaking paint to allow the new paint to adhere properly. After the entire surface has been washed and cleaned, it is very important to let the whole house dry completely. You may have to wait several days depending on your local climate. After the house is clean and dry, you can apply new paint with the confidence that you have done everything necessary to make sure your new paint job turns out correctly.



Copyright © 2024 HomeRepairExpert.com