House Painting Tips

While homeowners often hope they can put off repainting their homes just one more year, such procrastination can end up being a costly decision in the end. An excessively wet winter, for instance, will increase paint failure, damage to siding, and internal water damage, that can require far more expensive repairs in the long run. In that respect, it's best to tackle this common home improvement job as soon as you sense the need.

House Painting Tips: Siding
Perhaps the first thing to do, if you suspect painting a house might be in your immediate future, is to take a walk around your property and examine your siding. Look for areas where your siding is no longer protected by paint, and where wood rot, or clear evidence of water damage and expansion in fiberglass siding, is present. If these issues are obvious, the best thing you can do is to act as quickly as possible to head off larger problems.

House Painting Tips: The Touch Up
Always begin with an evaluation of the general state of the total exterior paint job of your home. If there is significant chipping, flaking, or other areas where the paint is failing, it's probably time to paint the entire home. Talk to a painting contractor who has experience in painting a house about getting your paint job scheduled right away. If the rest of your exterior paint job looks like it's holding up okay, however, you may just need to perform some touch up work to get things up to code. Cookie cutter style houses are notorious for having their paint fail locally in short periods of time.

If that seems to be your problem, purchase one bucket of good primer and another bucket of exterior finish paint that matches your home's current color. Then set aside a few days and address your problem areas. Scrape and clean the affected areas first, then slop on a layer of primer to provide protection. Once that has dried, touch up the primered spots with the finish coat to match the rest of your home. Performing these simple tasks can put off a whole house paint job by several years if you're lucky.

House Painting Tips: Trim
Besides your siding, the trim is probably the next most common area where the need for a new paint job rears its ugly head. If the paint on your trim is showing tell tale signs of wear, and if the trim is showing signs of water damage, it's time to take evasive action. Damaged trim is evidence of water seeping into areas where it shouldn't have access, most likely because the house was not properly caulked, sealed, and primed before painting. If water is getting behind the trim, it's likely that it's also making its way into other areas of your home, which can result in more serious problems, such as structural damage and the development of mold and mildew. Assess the damage, and then repair and replace the trim as soon as possible. Make certain you set the trim properly, and take care to ensure that everything is thoroughly caulked, sealed, and primed when you fix the problem.

House Painting Tips: Hiring a Painting Contractor
While spot fixes are preferred from a homeowner standpoint, eventually every home is going to need a new exterior paint job. When that time comes, hiring an experienced painting contractor is the best thing you can do for your home. Proper preparation, the right choice of paint, and proper application, are the only sure-fire ways to ensure that your new paint job will last for years to come. Hiring a reputable painting contractor, one with good references and a good track record, is the only way to be sure you won't have to hire out someone else to re-paint your house in the near future.