How to Prepare Your Home for Painting

If your home in Folsom has to be refreshed, a fresh coat of exterior paint is an easy, affordable way to improve its appearance. So if your home exterior is starting to look shabby or if you’re simply ready for a change, consider repainting the outside of your home yourself or enlist a professional painter to do it for you.

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

You can team up with a painter by completing all of the prep work by yourself, but then having their crew come over and do the 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 the most important things to remember.

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 thank yourself later. Having a plan will help to make the painting go much faster as soon as you get started. Gathering your equipment beforehand ensures that once you start painting, you won’t have to stop and look for needed supplies, meaning 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 house is choosing the color or color combination. You’ll also want to pick the right paint finishes for all parts of the home. Latex is better than oil-based paint for home exteriors. It’s less messy and easier to clean. The flat surfaces require more of a flat, or matte, finish, versus semi-gloss. You’ll want to us synthetic fiber brushes for latex paint. Rollers and sprayers are efficient options.
3. Pressure wash. Finally, it’s time to start prepping the exterior of your home for its beautiful new paint! Invest time into power washing your home (or hiring a local pressure washing service) to wash off any cracked or peeling paint. The extreme pressure is the most effective way to remove old paint, and it cleans the outside of your home. Some of the areas of paint may peel off as soon as you spray them. That’s a 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 plastic or metal straight edge, being diligent not to dig into the wood. Then sand surfaces for a smooth finish. It isn’t important to sand every surface down to the bare wood. Any sections where the paint is still adhered need to be cleaned and have the edges sanded so the new paint goes on smooth.
5. Prime. Don’t skip the primer! Primer is a very important step because it covers up any previous paint (especially with dark paint colors), results in an even color for your new paint, and a smoother exterior with less imperfections throughout. Let the primer dry according to the directions so that the original layer of paint doesn’t blend into it or result in 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 home. That’s why they’re professionals! If you want to do the painting on your own, wait for a day that is between 75 and 85 degrees, and with 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 structure of your home.

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

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

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

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

Hiring a Local Professional Painter in Folsom

After the prepping is finished, you might want to hand the job over to a professional painter in Folsom (if you hadn’t already chosen that from the beginning!). Hiring a painter is cost effective. It also ensures that the results will exceed expectations with less effort from you.

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

• A professional painter knows the most efficient way to do the job, meaning the paint will look much better and the project will be a lot quicker.
• Companies don’t make a mess. Their results will be neater, with no excess paint splattered or spilled around home.
• Due to their skill and experience, your new exterior paint will likely last longer than if you did the job by yourself.
• A professional painter will already have the safety equipment needed to paint surfaces above ground level.

Based on your DIY abilities and interests, you can trust your painter to do all the pre-painting preparation, too. Most services are fully prepared to handle every part of the project, from removing old paint and cleaning the exterior to actually applying the new paint.