How to Prepare Your Home for Painting

If your house in Newton has to be refreshed, a fresh coat of exterior paint is a fast, affordable option to improve its curb appeal. So if your home is looking worn down or if you’re simply ready for a change, consider repainting the outside of your house yourself or hire a local painter to do the job for you.

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

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

Whichever option is best for you, you will still want to know how to prepare your home for painting. Here are some of the most important things to remember.

6 House Painting Preparation Tips

1. Choose which parts to paint, gather the ladders and other necessary safety equipment. If you are preparing to do the painting yourself, you’ll thank yourself later. Having a plan will help to make the actual painting go much faster as soon as you begin. Gathering your tools beforehand guarantees that once you start painting, you won’t have to stop and search for needed supplies, meaning that you’ll be able to maintain a wet edge the whole time you are painting.
2. Choose good paint and brushes. The fun part of painting your home’s exterior is choosing the color or color combo. You will also want to choose the right paint finishes for each part 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 up. The flat surfaces require more of a flat, or matte, finish, versus semi-gloss. You’ll want synthetic fiber brushes for latex paint. Rollers and sprayers are efficient options.
3. Pressure wash. Finally, it is time to start prepping the exterior of your house for its beautiful new paint! Put time into power washing your house (or hiring a local pressure washing service) to remove any cracked or peeling paint. The extreme pressure water is the recommended way to remove peeling paint, and it simultaneously cleans the outside of your house. Some of the areas of paint should peel off as soon as you spray over them. That’s a sign that the paint was aging and had to be replaced!
4. Remove peeling paint. Now that the original paint has been loosened, get more of it off the house with a metal or plastic straight edge, being careful not to dig into the wood surface. Then sand surfaces for a smooth finish. It isn’t important to sand every 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 the home smooth.
5. Prime. Do not skip priming! Primer is an important step because it covers up any previous paint (especially with dark colors), results in even color for your new coat, and a smooth exterior with minimal imperfections throughout. Let the primer dry based on the directions so that the first layer of paint won’t blend into it or leave behind a rough patch on the surface.
6. Plan to paint on the best day. A professional painter is able to look at the forecast and find the most opportune day for painting a house. That’s why they’re experts! If you plan to do the painting on your own, wait for a day that is between 75 and 85 degrees, with very 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 house look several years newer, it also creates a layer of protection to the overall structure of your house.

Paint will help prevent pests from eating or clawing into your home’s exterior. It also stops wear and tear from inclement weather. High quality paint stops wood from rotting and dirt cannot adhere to paint the same way it does to bare wood.

Peeling paint is an obvious sign that it needs to be replaced. If your paint is peeling, 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 easiest things you can do.

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

Hiring a Local Professional Painter in Newton

After the prepping is finished, you can turn the work off to a professional painter in Newton (if you hadn’t already chosen that from the start!). Hiring a painter is affordable. It also guarantees that the results will exceed your expectations with little effort on your part.

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

• A professional painter will know the optimal way to do the job, meaning the paint will look much better and the project will be done a lot quicker.
• Pros don’t typically make a big mess. Their results will be much neater, without excess paint splattered or spilled on your home.
• Because of their skill and experience, your new exterior paint will probably last a lot longer than if you painted yourself.
• A professional painter will already have the safety equipment required to paint surfaces higher than ground level.

Depending on your DIY capabilities and interests, you can trust your painter to do all the pre-painting preparation, too. Most companies are fully prepared to handle every part of the job, from eliminating old paint and pressure washing the exterior to actually applying the paint.