How to Prepare Your Home for Painting

If your house in Grapevine needs to be updated, a fresh coat of exterior paint is a fast, inexpensive option to improve its appearance. So if your house is looking shabby or if you are simply ready for something different, consider painting the exterior of your home yourself or enlist a professional painter to do the job for you.

Painting a house is a huge project, but it isn’t an unreasonable job for some homeowners. You need to do your research to understand how to prepare the exterior surface by scheduling residential pressure washing, as well as what brushes and paints to use.

You can even partner with a professional painter by doing all of the prep work on your own, but then having their team come to your home and do the painting with their best tools, safety equipment and professionally selected paint.

Whichever direction is best for you, you’ll still need to know 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, gather the ladders and other safety equipment. If you are planning to complete the painting yourself, you’ll be glad you did. Having a plan will make the painting project go a lot faster as soon as you get started. Gathering your equipment ahead of time ensures that once you begin painting, you won’t have to stop and search for needed supplies, meaning that you’ll have to maintain a wet brush edge the entire time you are painting.
2. Choose the right paint and brushes. The most fun part of painting your home’s exterior is deciding the color or color combination. You will also need to choose the right paint finishes for each part of the home. Latex is better than oil-based paint for home exteriors. It’s less messy and much easier to clean up. The flat surfaces need more of a flat, or matte, finish, versus semi-gloss for the trim. You’ll need to us synthetic fiber brushes for latex paint. Rollers and sprayers are also efficient options.
3. Pressure wash. Finally, it is time to begin prepping the surface of your home for its brand new paint! Put time into pressure washing your home (or hiring a local pressure washing service) to remove any cracked or peeling paint. The high pressure water is the most effective way to remove old paint, and it cleans the exterior of your home. Some of the areas of paint may peel right off as soon as you spray over them. That’s a sign that the paint was aging and needed to be replaced!
4. Remove peeling paint. Now that the original paint has been loosened, scrape it off the house with a metal or plastic straight edge, being careful not to dig deep into the wood. Then sand bumpy surfaces for a smooth finish. It isn’t necessary to sand every surface all the way down to the bare wood. Any areas where the paint is still adhered need to be cleaned and have the edges sanded so the new coat of paint goes on the home smooth.
5. Prime. Do not skip priming! Primer is an important step because it covers up any prior paint (especially with dark paint colors), results in even color for your new coat, and a smooth surface with minimal imperfections throughout. Let the primer dry according to the directions so that the original layer of paint won’t mix with it or produce a rough patch.
6. Plan to paint on the best day. A professional painter is able to look at the weather forecast and find the most opportune day for painting a home. That’s why they’re experts! If you plan to do the painting yourself, wait for a day that is between 75 and 85 degrees, and with very low humidity. This will result in the best adhesion.

Why Painting Your Home is a Good Idea

Not only can a new paint job make your house look years newer, it also creates a layer of protection to the overall exterior of your home.

Paint helps prevent pests from eating or boring into your home’s exterior. It also prevents wear and tear from inclement weather. High quality paint stops wood from rotting and dirt won’t adhere to paint the way it does to wood.

Peeling paint is an obvious indication that it is time to be replaced. If your paint is peeling on your home, you need to go ahead and have it repainted in order to protect the wood beneath.

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

Painting is also 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 too much, or if the opposite is true and you want it to stand out, a different paint color can totally change its look.

Hiring a Local Professional Painter in Grapevine

After the prepping is complete, you might want to hand the project over to a professional painter in Grapevine (if you hadn’t already chosen that from the start!). Hiring a painter is cost effective. It also ensures that the results will exceed your expectations with less effort on your part.

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

• A professional painter knows the most efficient way to complete the job, which means the paint will look much better and the project will move a lot quicker.
• Pros don’t make a mess. Their results will be much neater, with no extra paint splattered or spilled on your home.
• Because of their skill and experience, your new exterior paint will probably last longer than if you painted yourself.
• A professional painter will have the safety equipment necessary to paint surfaces higher than ground level.

Based on your DIY capabilities and interests, you can trust your painter to complete all the pre-painting preparation, too. Most companies are prepared to handle every part of the project, from eliminating old paint and cleaning the exterior to applying the paint.