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PREPARING THE EXTERIOR OF A HOUSE FOR
PAINTING
Cleaning
- Wash
it down with a hose, and go over stubborn dirt with a scrub brush
and warm, soapy water
or wash
it down with a power washer for extreme conditions
- Do the job
well, and your paint job will not only look better, but it will last
for five to eight years
on average.
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Remove dirt, chalk, etc. by scrubbing with detergent and water
(rinse thoroughly) or by careful
power washing using plain water.
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Examine the outside of the house: exterior walls, under the eaves,
around windows, doors and
along the
foundation.
- Look
for split shingles and siding, popped nails, peeling or blistering
paint, mildew, and rust stains.
Once
you've identified the areas that need attention, make the repairs.
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Treat mildew
with a 3:1 water household bleach mixture, leaving it on for 20 min.
and adding more as it
dries, where gloves.
- Dull
any glossy paint by sanding with fine (#220) grit paper
- Work
from the top down and rinse all areas where you scrubbed.
Scraping
- Use a wire brush and a wide-blade putty knife to remove small
areas of defective paint. - Scrub
under the
laps of clapboard siding as well as on downspouts and gutters.
- For
metal, a wire brush attachment on an electric drill will remove rust
and paint with less effort.
- For
more extreme paint removal, use a sharp pull scraper a tool with a
replaceable blade
Sanding
- For smoothing the edges of scraped spots, wrap a piece of sand
paper around a wood block.
- For
larger areas use an electric orbital sander. Move it up and down or
back and forth across
the surface to
remove old paint and smooth rough edges at the same time.
- Avoid
using an electric disc sander or a belt sander. Both can leave
swirls or dips in the wood that
will show
through a new coat of paint.
Melting
- For heavy deposits of paint, heat may be more effective than
muscle.
- Apply
heat w/an electric paint remover, which is a device with a plate
like heating element that
"cooks" the
paint and has a built-in scraper to pull it off.
- Wear
heavy gloves, hold the heating element against the surface until the
paint sizzles.
- Pull
the remover firmly over the surface.
Liquid Paint Removers
- Only use liquid paint removers only as a last resort.
- They
work well, but they're expensive, especially on big jobs. Also, they
can slop
onto
perfectly good paint, giving you one more problem to deal with.
Priming
- After you’ve removed all the loose paint, you should apply an
appropriate primer to some of the
distressed areas, especially if your paint-removal system has exposed raw wood or bare metal.
- The
kind of primer you use depends on the kind of paint you'll be using
later. For latex paint, use
latex
primers for solvent-thinned paints, use solvent-base primers and for metals, use metal primers.
Other Prep Work
- Rust stains on siding, overhangs, and foundations need to be
removed.
- Leaks
in gutters and downspouts have to be repaired.
- Loose
caulking should be replaced, along with split shingles.
-
Cracks in siding must be filled, sanded, and primed.
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Mildew must be scrubbed off, and steps should be taken to eliminate
its return.
- Remove storm windows, screens, shutters, awnings, wall-mounted
light fixtures (be sure to turn the
power
supply off), the mailbox, and even the street address numbers should be taken down,
cleaned, and
painted separately.
-
Removing downspouts makes it easier to get a paintbrush behind them.
- Reset
any nail heads
- Nail
Heads that have left streaks of rust on exterior walls, use
sandpaper or steel wool to clean the
nail
heads.
- To
keep trees out of the way while you're painting, tie a rope around
the trunk, and pull the tree out
away
from the house. Stake the other end of the rope out in the yard.
Covering Shrubs
- Trees, bushes, and ornamental shrubs can also get in the way
of your painting.
- Prune
any branches that hang over the house or brush up against walls.
- Trees
and tall bushes growing close to the house can be wrapped with
canvas drop cloths.
- Cover
smaller shrubs, flower beds, sidewalks, and driveways with drop
cloths to protect them from
paint
drips and spills.
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Call Toll Free!
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1-888-524-3464 |
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1-888-5-BIDING |
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