How to Prepare Your Home for Painting

If your home in Nashville needs to be refreshed, a fresh coat of exterior paint is an easy, inexpensive option to improve its appearance. So if your home is starting to look shabby or if you are simply ready for a change, consider repainting the outside of your house yourself or enlist a local painter to do it for you.

Painting a home is a huge job, but it isn’t an impossible job for most homeowners. You just need to do your research to understand how to prep the exterior surface by scheduling residential pressure washing, as well as which brushes and paints to use.

You can also partner with a painter by doing all the prep work on your own, but then letting their crew come to your home and do the painting with their tools, safety equipment and professionally selected paint.

Whichever option 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 of the home to paint, collect the ladders and all other safety equipment. If you’re planning to do the painting yourself, you’ll thank yourself later. Having a plan will make the painting project go much faster once you get started. Organizing your equipment beforehand guarantees that once you start painting, you shouldn’t have to stop and search for all of the supplies, meaning that you’ll have to maintain a wet brush edge the entire time you are painting.
2. Choose good paint and brushes. The fun part of painting your house is deciding the color or color combo. You will also need to choose the right paint finishes for all parts of the house. Latex is better than oil-based paint for home exteriors. It is less messy and easier to clean up. The flat surfaces require more of a flat, or matte, finish, versus semi-gloss. You’ll need synthetic fiber brushes for latex paint. Rollers and sprayers are time-saving options if possible.
3. Pressure wash. Finally, it is time to start prepping the exterior of the house for its beautiful new paint! Put time into pressure washing your house (or hiring a local pressure washing service) to remove any cracked or peeling paint. The extreme pressure water is the best way to remove peeling paint, and it also cleans the outside of your house. Some of the sections of paint may peel off as soon as you spray over them. That’s a sign that the paint was deteriorating and had to be replaced!
4. Remove peeling paint. Now that the old paint has been loosened, get more of it off with a plastic or metal straight edge, being careful not to dig deep into the wood surface. Then sand bumpy surfaces for a smooth finish. It isn’t important to sand each surface all the way 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 paint goes on smooth.
5. Prime. Don’t skip the primer! Primer is an important step because it covers up any prior paint (especially important with dark colors), results in even color for your new paint, and a smoother exterior with minimal imperfections. Let the primer dry according to the directions so that the first layer of paint won’t mix with it or leave behind a rough patch on the surface.
6. Plan to paint in good weather. A professional painter is able to look at the weather forecast and tell you the most opportune day for painting a house. That’s why they’re professionals! If you want to do the painting yourself, wait for a day that is between 75 and 85 degrees, with little 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 home look several years newer, it also provides a layer of protection for the overall structure of your house.

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

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

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

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

Hiring a Local Professional Painter in Nashville

After prepping is done, you might want to hand the work over to a professional painter in Nashville (if you hadn’t already decided that from the start!). Hiring a painter is affordable. It also guarantees 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 will know the most efficient way to do the job, meaning the paint will look a lot better and the project will be done a lot faster.
• Pros don’t make a big mess. Their results will be neater, with no excess paint splattered or spilled on your home.
• Because of their skill and experience, your new exterior paint will last longer than if you did the job yourself.
• A professional painter will already have the safety equipment needed 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 companies are fully prepared to take care of each part of the job, from eliminating old paint and cleaning the exterior to actually applying the paint.