How to Prepare Your Home for Painting

If your house in Vancouver needs to be refreshed, a new coat of exterior paint is a quick, affordable way to improve its curb appeal. So if your home exterior is looking shabby or if you’re simply ready for a change, consider repainting the outside of your house yourself or pay a professional painter to do the job for you.

Painting a house is a big project, but it isn’t an unreasonable job for most homeowners. You just have to do your research to know how to prepare the exterior surface by scheduling residential pressure washing, as well as which brushes and paints you need to use.

You can also partner with a professional painter by doing all of the prep work yourself, but then having their crew come in and do the actual painting with their tools, safety equipment and professionally selected paint.

Whichever direction is best for you, you will still want to know exactly how to prepare your home for painting. Here are the most important things to consider.

6 House Painting Preparation Tips

1. Decide which parts of the home to paint, collect the ladders and other safety equipment. If you are planning to do the painting yourself, you’ll be glad you did. Having a clear plan will make the actual painting go a lot faster once you begin. Organizing your tools ahead of time ensures that when you start painting, you shouldn’t have to stop and search for all of the supplies, meaning you’ll be able to maintain a wet edge the entire time you are painting.
2. Choose good paint and brushes. The best part of painting your home’s exterior is choosing the color or color combo. You will also want to pick the right paint finishes for each part of the house. Latex is a lot better than oil-based paint for home exteriors. It’s a lot 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 want synthetic fiber brushes for latex paint. Rollers and sprayers are efficient options.
3. Pressure wash. Finally, it’s time to start prepping the exterior of your house for its beautiful new paint! Invest time into pressure washing your house (or hiring a local pressure washing service) to loosen any cracked or peeling paint. The high pressure water is the recommended way to eliminate peeling paint, and it also cleans the outside of your house. Some areas of paint may peel right off as you spray over them. That’s a sure sign that the paint was aging and had to be replaced!
4. Remove peeling paint. Now that the old paint has been loosened, scrape it off with a metal or plastic straight edge, being diligent not to dig into the wood surface. Then sand surfaces for a smooth finish. It isn’t important to sand every surface down to the bare wood. Any sections where the paint is still adhered just need to be cleaned and have the edges sanded so the new coat of paint goes on smooth.
5. Prime. Don’t skip the primer! Primer is a very important part of preparation because it conceals any previous paint (especially with dark paint colors), results in even color for your new coat, and a smooth exterior with minimal imperfections. Let the primer dry according to the directions so that the original layer of paint doesn’t mix with it or produce a rough patch on the surface.
6. Plan to paint in good weather. A professional painter can look at the weather forecast and find the most opportune day for painting a house. That’s why they’re professionals! If you plan to do the painting yourself, wait for a day that is somewhere between 75 and 85 degrees, and with low humidity. This will lead to the best adhesion.

Why Painting Your Home is a Good Idea

Not only does a brand new paint job make your house look years newer, it also provides a layer of protection to the overall structure of your house.

Paint can help prevent pests from eating or clawing into your home’s exterior. It also reduces wear and tear from the elements. High quality paint stops wood from rotting and dirt doesn’t adhere to paint the same way it does to wood.

Peeling paint is an obvious indication that it is time to be replaced. If paint is peeling on your home, you need to have it repainted to protect the wood surface.

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

Painting is a good idea if your house doesn’t seem to “fit in” in the neighborhood. If your home’s exterior color makes it stand out, or if the opposite is true and you want it to stand out, a different paint color can completely change its look.

Hiring a Local Professional Painter in Vancouver

After prepping is complete, you have the option to hand the project over to a professional painter in Vancouver (if you hadn’t already chosen that from the start!). Hiring a painter is cost effective. It also ensures that the results will exceed expectations with little effort from you.

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

• A professional painter knows the optimal way to do the job, meaning the paint will look much better and the project will go a lot quicker.
• Pros don’t typically make a mess. Their results will be much neater, with no excess paint splattered or spilled around home.
• Due to their skill and knowledge, your new exterior paint will last a lot longer than if you did the job yourself.
• A professional painter will have the safety equipment required to paint anything above ground level.

Based on your DIY skills and desires, you can trust your painter to do all the pre-painting preparation, too. Most services are prepared to handle every part of the project, from eliminating old paint and cleaning the exterior to actually applying the paint.