How to Prepare Your Home for Painting

If your home in Rockville has to be updated, a fresh coat of exterior paint is a quick, inexpensive option to improve its curb appeal. So if your house is looking worn down or if you are just ready for a change, consider repainting the outside of your home yourself or hire a local painter to do the job for you.

Painting a home is a huge project, but it isn’t an unreasonable job for some homeowners. You need to do your research to understand how to prep the exterior surface by scheduling residential pressure washing, as well as what brushes and paints to use.

You can also team up with a professional painter by completing all of the prep work on your own, but then having their team come over and do the actual painting with their tools, safety equipment and professionally selected paint.

Whichever choice is best for you, you will still need to know how to prepare your home for painting. Here are the most important things to remember.

6 House Painting Preparation Tips

1. Decide which parts to paint, gather the ladders and all other safety equipment. If you are preparing to do the painting by yourself, you’ll thank yourself later. Having a plan will help to make the actual painting go a lot faster once you begin. Gathering your tools ahead of time ensures that once you begin painting, you shouldn’t have to stop and look for needed supplies, meaning you’ll have to maintain a wet brush edge the whole time you are painting.
2. Choose good paint and brushes. The most fun part of painting your house is choosing the color or color combo. You will also need to choose the right paint finishes for each part of the home. Latex is a lot better than oil-based paint for home exteriors. It is a lot less messy and much easier to clean. The flat surfaces require more of a flat, or matte, finish, versus semi-gloss. You’ll need synthetic fiber brushes for latex paint. Rollers and sprayers are also efficient options.
3. Pressure wash. Finally, it is time to begin prepping the surface of the home for its beautiful new paint! Invest time into pressure washing your home (or hiring a local pressure washing service) to loosen any cracked or peeling paint. The high pressure water is the best way to remove peeling paint, and it also cleans the outside of your home. Some sections of paint may peel off as soon as you spray over them. That’s a sure sign that the paint was deteriorating and needed to be replaced!
4. Remove peeling paint. Now that the old paint has been loosened, scrape it off the house with a metal or plastic straight edge, being careful not to dig into the wood surface. Then sand bumpy surfaces for a smooth finish. It isn’t important to sand each surface down to the bare wood. Any areas where the paint is still adhered need to be tended to and have the edges sanded so the new coat of paint goes on smooth.
5. Prime. Don’t skip priming! Primer is an important step because it covers up any prior paint (especially important with dark paint colors), results in an even color for your new coat, and a smooth surface with minimal imperfections throughout. Let the primer dry according to the directions so that the original layer of paint doesn’t mix with it or produce a rough patch on the surface.
6. Plan to paint on the best day. A professional painter can look at the forecast and find the most opportune day for applying exterior paint. That’s why they’re experts! If you want to do the painting yourself, wait for a day that is between 75 and 85 degrees, and with low humidity. This will lead to the best adhesion.

Why Painting Your Home is a Good Idea

Not only can a brand new paint job make your home look several years newer, it also provides a layer of protection for the overall structure of your home.

Paint will help prevent pests from eating or boring into your home’s exterior. It also stops wear and tear from inclement weather. Good quality paint prevents wood from rotting and dirt won’t adhere to paint the way it does to wood.

Peeling paint is an obvious signal that it needs to be replaced. If paint is peeling on your home, you really need to go ahead and have it repainted to protect the wood surface.

Aging paint really takes a toll on your home’s exterior. If you’re worried about curb appeal, painting your home is one of the best things you can do.

Painting is also a good idea if your home doesn’t seem to “fit in” in the neighborhood. If your home’s exterior color makes it stand out, or if it is the opposite and you really want it to stand out, a different paint color can completely update its look.

Hiring a Local Professional Painter in Rockville

After prepping is over, you have the option to turn the work off to a professional painter in Rockville (if you hadn’t already chosen that from the start!). Hiring a painter is cost effective. It also ensures that the results will exceed expectations with minimal effort from you.

Hiring a local painter to paint your home has several obvious benefits:

• A professional painter will know the best way to do the job, meaning the paint will look much better and the project will go a lot faster.
• Pros don’t typically make a mess. Their results will be much neater, with no extra paint splattered or spilled on your home.
• Because of their skill and experience, your new exterior paint will last a lot longer than if you did the job by yourself.
• A professional painter will have the safety equipment required to paint surfaces higher than ground level.

Based on your DIY capabilities and desires, you can trust your painter to do all the pre-painting preparation, too. Most services are fully prepared to take care of each part of the project, from eliminating old paint and cleaning the exterior to actually applying the paint.