Best Way to Paint Siding on a House

February 20, 2022 Post a Comment

A fresh paint job has the power to totally transform the look of your house in less time and for less greenbacks than whatsoever other remodeling projection.

That sparse skin of resin and pigment also protects your investment, shielding it from sun, wind, and rain—until the pigment begins to crack and peel, that is. Then it's fourth dimension to button up with a couple of new coats.

How Long Does Exterior Paint Final For?

Properly applied, new pigment should final for a good 15 years, provided you use top-quality materials, utilise them with care (and with an heart on the weather), and, almost important, make clean and sand every surface first.

How to Paint Your Business firm

Is it time for a fresh glaze? Here'southward what y'all need to know to go a fantabulous stop on your dwelling house's exterior.

Wash

A thorough scrubbing is a must before painting any exterior surface. It removes the clay and broken-downwards paint residues that keep fresh coats from adhering and gets rid of mildew that grows on paint in all but the most barren climates. Most contractors clean with pressure washers, but in the hands of someone unfamiliar with the equipment, these can gouge wood, shatter glass, and drive water behind siding and trim. Using a hose, a pump sprayer, and a scrub castor is slower merely safer, and only every bit effective.

Earlier the scrubdown, protect nearby plants by misting their leaves and saturating the surrounding soil with h2o, pulling them abroad from the business firm, and shrouding them in cloth drop cloths. (Plants will cook under plastic.) Lay more than drop cloths along the base of the walls to collect whatever falling paint debris.

Walls should be moisture downwardly before getting scrubbed, and then washed with a gallon of water mixed with 1 cup chlorine bleach and i cup of either a concentrated, phosphate-free cleaner, such as a trisodium phosphate (TSP) substitute, or Jomax Firm Cleaner. Working in sections, from the bottom to the top, will avert streaks. Be certain to rinse walls well before the solution dries. Wood siding and trim should be set to paint later on a solar day or two of dry weather.

Scrape, Office I

Paint that has peeled, bubbled, or blistered has got to go. But if atomic number 82 is present—a strong possibility in houses built before 1978—you need to continue with extra care. To lay whatever doubts to rest, you can send paint chip samples to a lab, such every bit Macs Lab'south Domicile Free; for about $38, they'll give you a definitive answer.

If your pigment does comprise atomic number 82, you'll need to accept special precautions during the scraping and sanding phases to protect yourself, your family, and the environment from toxic dust. If the paint is lead-free, you need only don a dust mask and lay down tarps to take hold of debris before tackling the most crucial role of the project.

New Orleans contractor Joseph Wallis did utilise a PaintShaver on this projection to capture atomic number 82 dust. This carbide-tipped bending grinder, which has a grit-collecting shroud that connects to a HEPA-filter vac, can be rented by mail from the manufacturer for most $50 a day.

Scrape, Part Two

Scraping paint past hand is a grueling chore because you've got to set on it from every direction. But compared to ability grinders and sanders, it'southward the least damaging way to remove the sometime layers. You can speed up the process by using a heating gun to soften the paint (as shown).

Rubber Outset: Use a respirator when scraping paint by hand. Also, make sure y'all protect the surrounding piece of work area—including whatsoever plants and shrubs—with a tarp covering.

Sand, Function I

With loose paint removed, it's time to step back and assess what remains. If most of the pigment still adheres well and information technology'southward not too bumpy, the purlieus between the paint and the blank forest can be smoothed with l- or fourscore-grit sandpaper.

Sand, Part Ii

Small random-orbit or pad sanders brand this job go faster. (Wallis first covers these boundaries with Synkoloid patching compound then no edge is visible later sanding.) As shown, yous want to make sure that there is a feathered, smooth transition from exposed wood to erstwhile pigment. For areas that might get shut scrutiny, yous tin follow up with a 100- or 120-grit rubdown to erase whatever scratches.

If less than half the old pigment is left, however, it may be worth stripping information technology all off. Guertin gets rid of stubborn remnants using shrouded grinders (like the PaintShaver), infrared paint strippers (such equally the Speedheater), or chemic strippers (similar Multi-Strip), and then smooths the wood with a course or ii of sanding. When siding (or bank accounts) can't take the shock of a total strip job, Rich O'Neil, of Masterwork Painting in Bedford, Massachusetts, has successfully hidden rough, well-adhered paint under Skin Bond, a thick primer.

Rubber Kickoff: When using a random-orbit sander, be sure to protect yourself from reject with a respirator. For sanding by mitt, a dust mask volition practise.

Patch and Fill

Later the sanding is washed, it's fourth dimension to fill pocket-size cracks and dents, repair any rot, and supplant any pieces that are besides far gone. (Wholesale replacement of woods siding or trim volition likely require a carpenter.)

O'Neil patches shallow holes and divots with Ready Patch considering it dries fast, sands smooth, and stays flexible. Deep cracks and rotten spots are best repaired with ii-step epoxies, such every bit those fabricated by Avant-garde Repair Engineering. (For a step-by-pace instructions, see Repairing Rot with Epoxy.) The days of using polyester car-torso fillers on wood are over. "They cure too difficult," says Portland, Oregon–based painting contractor Kathleen George. "They look good at get-go, merely then they peel away."

Hold off on caulking the cracks until everything has been primed. "Primer protects the wood when—not if—the caulk fails," says O'Neil.

Prime, Part I

Primers are formulated to penetrate, seal, and provide a good surface for the elevation coats to stick to. Apply them over blank wood, Spackle, and epoxy, or over paint with a chalky, deteriorated surface. (If the paint surface is clean and sound, y'all tin skip the priming step.)

Acrylic primers tin can exist used on most surfaces, but on cedar or redwood, oil-based coatings are a must because they lock in these woods' carmine-brownish "extractives," which volition leach out and leave behind rusty stains if the wood is primed with a water-based product.

Painters frequently tint primer close to the colour of the height coat, but Wallis thinks that's a recipe for "holidays," or missed spots. Instead, he tints his primer a contrasting color. "If I can see the colour coming through, I know I need to utilise more than paint," he says. On the cottage shown in this story, he chose a gray-bluish primer to become under a peach top glaze.

If primer is sprayed on, "back-brushing" it immediately past manus will work the coating into every crevice and crack.

Prime number, Part 2

Tip: Spray exposed nailheads with a metallic primer to prevent rust from bleeding through the pigment.

Caulk

When the primer is dry, caulk all small joints (less than ¼-inch-wide) in the siding and trim. Most pros use siliconized acrylics—paint won't stick to straight silicones—but Guertin and O'Neil like the new, more expensive urethane acrylics for their greater flexibility and longevity. O'Neil stresses that it's shortsighted to skimp on caulk. "If the articulation fails, you're back to square 1." Guertin uses the lifetime rating as his quality guide. "I don't expect 35-year caulk will concluding 35 years, but it should concluding longer than a 15-twelvemonth caulk."

Paint, Function I

Deciding which paint to use has gotten much easier at present that acrylic latexes have pushed oil-based paints well-nigh to extinction. The acrylics offer superior performance (they don't harden with historic period, the way oils exercise, and so they move and breathe without blistering), they don't mildew as readily, and they emit fewer VOCs, so they comply with new air-quality regulations. They also work over both oil- and water-based primers.

Oil paint all the same has a place in high-traffic areas such as wood steps and porch floors because of its superior wear resistance, and on steel and cast-iron railings, which benefit from oil's h2o repellency.

Paint, Part Two

The concluding big conclusion is how to apply the paint. Most pros use paint sprayers considering they're fast, merely in inexperienced hands a loftier-powered sprayer can leave drips, thin coats, and a mist that may state on many things other than your siding.

If you practice rent a painter who uses a sprayer, make sure he is meticulous nearly removing, covering, or masking off everything in the area that might get hit with overspray: gutters, roofs, windows, shrubbery, walkways, cars—you lot name it.

Once y'all choose a pigment brand, the pros suggest against additives, such as mildewcides. But they volition add conditioners such as Floetrol (for latex) or Penetrol (for oils) to slow drying times in hot atmospheric condition so brush and lap marks don't bear witness, and to make paint more sprayable.

Pigment, Office Iii

Every painting job develops a unique choreography every bit ladders go up and come downwards and tarps are unrolled and folded up. Only two basic principles remain:

Showtime at the top and work down.
Work in the shade, out of the dominicus'due south glare.

As the dance gain, keep an eye on the weather. Rain can wash freshly applied latex right off the wall, and a temperature dip beneath fifty degrees F two days after awarding can interfere with adhesion and curing and ho-hum the sheen of glossy paints. (Latexes similar Sherwin-Williams'south Duration and Benjamin Moore's MoorGard Low Lustre are formulated to tolerate temps as low as 35 and forty degrees, respectively.)

What Practice I Need to Paint My Firm?

Do-information technology-yourselfers are best off using a brush for maximum control. You may end up with a meliorate quality chore, to boot. Says Kathleen George, "With a brush, I know that I've inspected every square inch of a house." Mini rollers speed application on clapboards and trim only should exist followed immediately with a brush.

Whichever application method you end upward using, the pros are universal in their insistence that two top coats are ever better than ane. Says O'Neil, "It's ane of the real secrets of a long-lasting paint chore."

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Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/painting/21018466/how-to-paint-your-home-s-exterior

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