How to Prepare Your Home for Painting

If your home in Saint Cloud has to be updated, a new coat of exterior paint is an easy, affordable way to improve its curb appeal. So if your home is looking shabby or if you’re just ready for something different, consider repainting the outside of your house yourself or enlist a professional painter to do it for you.

Painting a home is a huge project, but it isn’t an impossible job for most homeowners. You have to do your research to know how to prepare the exterior surface by scheduling residential pressure washing, as well as what type of brushes and paints you need to use.

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

Whichever choice is right for you, you’ll still want to know exactly 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, collect the ladders and other safety equipment. If you’re planning to complete the painting by yourself, you’ll be glad you did. Having a plan will help to make the actual painting go much faster as soon as you get started. Collecting your materials ahead of time ensures that once you start painting, you shouldn’t have to stop and search for needed supplies, meaning you’ll have to maintain a wet brush edge the whole time you are painting.
2. Choose the right paint and brushes. The best part of painting your home’s exterior is deciding the color or color combination. You will also want to pick 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 need 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’s time to start prepping the surface of your house for its beautiful new paint! Put time into power washing your house (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 house. Some of the areas of paint may peel off as you spray over them. That’s a sure sign that the paint was deteriorating and had to be replaced!
4. Remove peeling paint. Now that the old paint has been loosened, get more of it off with a plastic or metal straight edge, being careful not to dig deep into the wood. Then sand bumpy 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 need to be tended to and have the edges sanded so the new paint goes on smoothly.
5. Prime. Don’t skip priming! Primer is a very important step because it covers up any previous paint (especially with dark colors), results in an even color for your new paint, and a smoother surface with minimal imperfections throughout. Let the primer dry based on the directions so that the original layer of paint doesn’t blend into it or result in 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 determine the most opportune day for painting a house. That’s why they’re experts! If you want to do the painting on your own, wait for a day that is somewhere between 75 and 85 degrees, with very low humidity. This will result in the best adhesion.

Why Painting Your Home is a Good Idea

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

Paint will help prevent insects from eating or clawing into your home’s exterior. It also reduces wear and tear from inclement weather. Good quality paint prevents wood from rotting and dirt doesn’t adhere to paint the way it does to bare wood.

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

Aging paint takes a toll on your home’s appearance. If you’re worried about curb appeal, painting your house is one of the easiest 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 the opposite is true and you want it to stand out, a different color can totally change its look.

Hiring a Local Professional Painter in Saint Cloud

After the prepping is finished, you can turn the work over to a professional painter in Saint Cloud (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 little effort from you.

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

• A professional painter knows the optimal way to complete the job, meaning the paint will look a lot better and the project will go a lot faster.
• Pros don’t typically make a big mess. Their results will be much neater, with no excess paint splattered or spilled around home.
• Due to 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 needed to paint surfaces higher than ground level.

Depending on your DIY abilities and interests, you can trust your painter to complete all the pre-painting preparation, too. Most companies are prepared to handle each part of the project, from removing old paint and pressure washing the exterior to actually applying the new paint.