How to Prepare Your Home for Painting

If your home in Garden Grove has to be refreshed, a fresh coat of exterior paint is a fast, inexpensive way to improve its appearance. So if your home exterior is looking shabby or if you are simply ready for a change, consider painting the exterior of your house yourself or pay a professional painter to do it for you.

Painting a home is a big job, but it isn’t an unreasonable job for some homeowners. You just have to do your research to know how to prep the exterior surface by scheduling residential pressure washing, as well as what type of brushes and paints to use.

You can even team up with a professional painter by completing all of the prep work by yourself, but then letting their crew come to your home and do the actual painting with their best tools, safety equipment and professionally selected paint.

Whichever choice is best for you, you’ll still want to know how to prepare your home for painting. Here are some of the most important things to consider.

6 House Painting Preparation Tips

1. Choose which parts to paint, collect the ladders and all other necessary safety equipment. If you are preparing to do the painting by yourself, you’ll be glad you did. Having a plan will make the actual painting go much faster once you begin. Organizing your tools beforehand ensures that when you begin painting, you won’t have to stop and look for all of the supplies, meaning you’ll be able to maintain a wet brush edge the whole time you are painting.
2. Choose good paint and brushes. The best part of painting your home’s exterior is choosing the color or color combo. You will also want to pick the right paint finishes for all parts of the house. Latex is a lot better than oil-based paint for home exteriors. It’s a lot less messy and much easier to clean. The flat surfaces require more of a flat, or matte, finish, versus semi-gloss for the trim. You’ll want synthetic fiber brushes for latex paint. Rollers and sprayers are also time-saving options if possible.
3. Pressure wash. Finally, it is time to begin prepping the surface of your house for its beautiful new paint! Invest time into pressure washing your house (or hiring a local pressure washing service) to wash off any cracked or peeling paint. The high pressure is the recommended way to remove peeling paint, and it also cleans the exterior of your house. Some of the areas of paint will peel right off as soon as you spray 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 diligent not to dig deep into the wood surface. Then sand surfaces for a smooth finish. It isn’t important to sand each surface down to the bare wood. Any sections where the paint is still adhered just need to be tended to and have the edges sanded so the new paint goes on smoothly.
5. Prime. Don’t skip the primer! Primer is an important part of preparation because it covers up any previous paint (especially important with dark colors), results in even color for your new paint, and a smoother surface with less imperfections throughout. Let the primer dry based on the directions so that the first layer of paint doesn’t mix with it or produce a rough patch.
6. Plan to paint on the best day. A professional painter is able to look at the weather forecast and tell you the most opportune day for painting a house. That’s why they’re experts! If you plan to do the painting yourself, wait for a day that is between 75 and 85 degrees, and with very little humidity. This will result in the best adhesion.

Why Painting Your Home is a Good Idea

Not only does a brand new paint job make your home look years newer, it also adds a layer of protection to the overall exterior of your house.

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

Peeling paint is an obvious sign that it needs to be replaced. If paint is peeling on your home, you need to have it repainted in order to protect the wood beneath.

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

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

Hiring a Local Professional Painter in Garden Grove

After the prepping is finished, you might want to turn the work over to a professional painter in Garden Grove (if you hadn’t already decided 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 a lot better and the project will go a lot quicker.
• Companies don’t make a mess. Their results will be much neater, without extra paint splattered or spilled around home.
• Because of their skill and knowledge, your new exterior paint will last a lot longer than if you did the job by yourself.
• A professional painter will already have the safety equipment needed to paint surfaces higher than ground level.

Depending on your DIY skills and desires, you can trust your painter to do all the pre-painting preparation, too. Most companies are fully prepared to take care of each part of the job, from eliminating old paint and pressure washing the exterior to applying the paint.