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Exterior Painting Tips

So you are ready to paint the exterior of your house as a pro right? We've got you covered if you will utilize a couple of the tips we'll be sharing in this article.

Exterior painting of a house is part science and part art form. You need a combination of the two arts to do a job you can be proud of. When attempting to do exterior painting, it is important that you prepare well in advance. Like an old adage says, 'he who fails to plan, plans to fail'. The same is true of exterior painting too.

What is your local weather report saying?

To begin with, it is important that you are well aware of your local weather report during the time you want to paint. You don't want to begin to paint and then get disturbed with rain, snow or even excessive sun during your painting sessions.

Prepare your surface like a Pro!

The surface of your wall must also be well considered. To paint like a professional, your painting surface must be prepared as a professional. It is important that you tape off every area where you don't want to paint. It is also important that you do proper cleaning of the surface. Preparation of the surface to be painted is very crucial. If done correctly, it will definitely pay off itself, If otherwise, it will come back to hurt your work.

There are 3 basic skills you need when doing exterior painting namely:

1. Brushing skill
2. Rolling skill
3. Cutting-in technique.

If you are able master these 3 skills, your exterior painting will definitely make you proud.

 

Let’s look at the skills briefly.

Brushing skill - it is recommended that you load the brush by dipping about 2 inches of the brittle into the paint. To remove the excess paint, slap the brush back and forth once against the sides of the paint can. For convenience, paint from a bucket with 2 or 3 inches of paint as against a full can of paint.

Rolling skill/technique - It is suggested that you pour about a gallon of paint into a bucket of about 5-gallon capacity while hanging a roller screen into the bucket. When done, load the roller, then roll it against the screen until the roller nap is saturated and the excess paint is squeezed out. This technique usually helps to avoid paint dripping.

While painting, lay on the paint with the roller. Always use moderate pressure and reload the roller when paint no longer flows off with ease. Remember that rolling causes paint to spatter, therefore be certain to protect places you don't want to paint like walks and landscaping with plastic or drop-cloths

Cutting-in techniques - This skill is essential when painting surfaces that have edges. Skills like this are best learnt by continuous practice until you get the hand of it. The more you practice, the better you are.

While we are at it, there are a couple more tips that will help you in painting the exterior of your house.

1. Primer comes before paint. Don't skip this. Primer is not a replacement for a paint.
2. Prepare your surface well enough so that paint can stick.
3. Again, know your weather report! Dry days make better painting days.
4. "For every 400 square feet, one gallon of paint is enough", says the pros!
5. Don't forget to wash your wall before painting, paint stick better to a clean surface.
6. Never, ever compromise on buying quality painting tools. It could be the difference between a professional job and a 'wash off'!
7. Finally, patience they say, is a virtue!

With these exterior painting tips, you are about ready to have your first pro-like painting project.

 

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