These Tips Can Make The Difference Between Having A Difficult Or Easy Time Painting Your Boston Home.
You can make painting your house exterior less of a pain. These exterior house painting tips, which include techniques, can make a huge difference. It could be like discovering a whole new way to paint a house.
You can find more tips like this one below – Tip #1: plan around the weather.
Not The Same Mistake Twice
“If we’re going to do this we’re going to do it better than last time.”
Ashley looks at Andrew as his face gets serious. She doesn’t blame him. The last time they tried painting their house exterior it didn’t go too well. It was messy and didn’t turn out looking good…
But they want to try again! This time with the proper knowledge and preparation. If it doesn’t go well they’re fully ready to hire a painting contractor to finish the job.
The couple goes online and pulls up the article they found on exterior house painting tips.
Here is what they found.
9 Exterior House Painting Tips
- Plan around the weather
- Choose quality over price
- Protect your plants
- Always clean and sand
- Use primer
- Box your paint
- Paint top-down and side-to-side
- Brush painting technique explained
- Roller painting technique explained
“Can you scroll down so I can see the details on these exterior house painting tips?” Andrew asks.
Making The Most Of These Painting Tips
1. Rain and humidity will ruin homes with fresh paint on their exterior. Paint can’t bond to wet surfaces and rain can make fresh paint streak and run. It’s best to look for drier days to paint outside.
“That makes sense, but what is this choose quality over price thing farther down the page?” Ashley asks.
2. Quality paint will create a better look and should hold up against the weather for longer than cheap paint. Sure it may cost more now, but in the long run, you won’t have to paint your house exterior as soon or spend money on doing it.
“So we pay more upfront but won’t have to paint again as quickly? These exterior house painting tips already put a win in my book,” Andrew notes.
3. Plants and sidewalks don’t sport the paint drips and splashes look very well. Paint can easily splatter everywhere it shouldn’t. This is why the pros use drop cloths and tarps when they paint (you might want to as well).
“If we get paint on my flowers again I will be sooooo mad,” Ashley all but growls.
4. Cleaning and sanding will help the paint stick to your house’s exterior better. Cleaning gets rid of dirt, dust, and anything else on your exterior. The sanding roughs it up so the paint has something to stick to. It’s like trying to climb a marble pillar versus a tree – the tree is rougher and easier to hold on to.
“Wow, that analogy made it really easy to see why paint sticks better to rough surfaces than slick ones,” Andrew says with approval.
5. Always. Use. Primer. Even if it’s the paint-and-primer in one. Primer helps the paint stick even better, which means it’s less likely to start peeling off. There are many other reasons to prime before painting too.
“And peeling paint is the bane of our existence,” the couple says together.
6. Boxing your paint means taking all the gallons of paint you have and combining it into a single bucket (same colors only, of course). This helps the color stay more uniform and lessens the on-site clutter.
“Wish we knew that last time. Man these exterior house painting tips would’ve been great to know,” Andrew sighs sadly.
7. Painting from the top down and moving side-to-side is one of the best ways to paint. It helps lessen the number of streaks and makes any drips easier to get rid of. It’s harder to miss spots and makes the paint job more uniform.
“At least we did that part right,” Andrew points out.
8. The best way to paint with a brush goes like this:
Dip your brush 2 inches into the paint. Wipe it against the interior of the can to remove extra paint. Paint it on thick with 2-3 back and forth strokes until you cover about 3-4 feet. Smooth the paint out with long brush strokes being sure to back brush from the unpainted area into the painted part. Lift your brush at the end of each stroke.
“Is that right?” Ashley asks. “Sounds better than what I was doing,” Andrew admits.
9. The best way to paint with a roller is by:
Using a grid to get rid of any excess paint on the roller. Paint an area about 3-4 feet wide using a moderate amount of pressure. Then back brush with a paintbrush, making sure to get into the cracks and the bottom edge of the siding. Finally, brush with the grain to smooth it out.
“And that’s the last of these exterior house painting tips,” Andrew says with a flourish of his brush.
Now To Paint!
“I feel much more prepared to paint our house exterior this time,” Andrew says in relief. Ashely nods in agreement as she grabs the tools and materials they’ll need.
“I’m just happy we’ll soon be on track for how often we should paint our house exterior instead of having to do it earlier than normal.”