You love your home. Yet you’ve become bored with how the exterior looks. The siding has faded from the bright sun and the paint has started to peel along the trim around the windows. It’s about time to change the complete look to something more colorful that suits your tastes.
While you could spend tons of money replacing the siding, a more cost-effective way to change the appearance of your home is to repaint the surface. Hiring handyman services will give the exterior an even coat while you won’t have to climb a ladder to reach the high places. Before you start thinking of all the painter’s tools you’ll need for the job, you first need to make the right preparations.
Things To Do Before Painting The Home’s Exterior
Check when your home was built: If your home was built before 1978 and nobody has scraped off the old paint since then, you have to be careful. The old paint on your home may contain lead. You can either hire someone to scrape the lead off, or you can do it yourself while wearing the appropriate face protection.
Power washing the surface: Some people buy a can of paint and start slapping it on the surface. Yet you should clean off the surface first so that the paint adheres properly without a splotchy appearance. You can use a power washer to do the job quickly. Just make sure the nozzle stream isn’t too powerful that it damages wood and windows, or causes water to seep underneath the lapping of the siding. If you don’t like using a power washer, your regular garden hose and scrub brush will work just as well.
Make repairs before you paint: You might find loose siding nails, old caulk peeling from around windows and door trims, peeling paint, and slight damages to the siding. You should make all the repairs before you paint so that the exterior surface is sealed completely and the old paint is removed. If the repairs you need to make are high up on the house, or you don’t feel comfortable doing the repairs yourself because you want the job done right, you can hire handymen from Handyman Connection to perform the repairs for you.
Protect your shrubs and flower beds: Painting can be a messy job. Keep your flowers, bushes and lawn protected by laying down drop cloths. Use twine to tie the drop cloths to shrubs. To prevent the drop cloths from blowing off your lawn by a strong breeze, use cinder blocks or other heavy objects as you place the blocks at the corners of the drop cloths.
Mix paint batches: It will take more than one can of paint to do the entire exterior of your home. Since each can of paint may have a slightly different shade of color from the rest, you will want to mix all the paint together in large buckets so that the paint is one consistent shade. Whatever paint is leftover can be poured back into the cans and sealed to use for touch-up jobs later.
Painting the exterior of your home does not have to be a daunting task. With proper preparation, you can ensure the task runs smoothly so you have a gorgeous paint job to your siding.
Bryan Grayson writes about painting, handyman services, and more.
