How to Prepare Your Home for Painting

If your house in Macon needs to be refreshed, a fresh coat of exterior paint is a quick, affordable way to improve its curb appeal. 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 hire a professional painter to do it for you.

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

You can meet in the middle with a professional painter by doing all of the prep work on your own, but then having their team come over and do the painting with their best tools, safety equipment and selected paint.

Whichever choice is best for you, you’ll still need to know how to prepare your home for painting. Here are some of the most important things to consider.

6 House Painting Preparation Tips

1. Choose which parts 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 clear plan will help to make the painting go a lot faster as soon as you get started. Organizing your materials beforehand ensures that once you start painting, you won’t have to stop and look for needed supplies, meaning you’ll have to maintain a wet brush edge the entire time you are painting.
2. Choose the right paint and brushes. The fun part of painting your home is deciding the color or color combination. You’ll also need to pick the right paint finishes for all parts 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 require more of a flat, or matte, finish, versus semi-gloss. 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 start prepping the exterior of your house for its brand new paint! Put time into power washing your house (or hiring a local pressure washing service) to wash off any cracked or peeling paint. The extreme pressure is the best way to eliminate old paint, and it also cleans the outside of your house. Some sections of paint should peel right off as you spray them. That’s a sign that the paint was deteriorating and needed to be replaced!
4. Remove peeling paint. Now that the original paint has been loosened, get more of it off the house with a metal or plastic straight edge, being careful not to dig deep into the wood surface. Then sand surfaces for a smooth finish. It isn’t important to sand each surface all the way down to the bare wood. Any areas where the paint is still adhered need to be tended to and have the edges sanded so the new paint goes on smoothly.
5. Prime. Do not skip priming! Primer is a very important part of preparation because it conceals any previous paint (especially important with dark paint colors), results in even color for your new paint, and a smooth exterior with minimal imperfections throughout. Let the primer dry based on the directions so that the first layer of paint won’t blend into it or produce a rough patch on the surface.
6. Plan to paint on the best day. A professional painter can look at the weather forecast and determine 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 between 75 and 85 degrees, with low humidity. This will result in the best adhesion.

Why Painting Your Home is a Good Idea

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

Paint helps prevent insects from eating or clawing into your home’s exterior. It also stops wear and tear from the elements. Good quality paint stops wood from rotting and dirt won’t adhere to paint the way it does to bare wood.

Peeling paint is an obvious clue 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.

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

Hiring a Local Professional Painter in Macon

After prepping is over, you can hand the job off to a professional painter in Macon (if you hadn’t already chosen that from the beginning!). Hiring a painter is cost effective. It also ensures that the results will exceed expectations with little 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 do the job, meaning the paint will look a lot better and the project will be a lot faster.
• Pros don’t typically make a big mess. Their results will be much neater, without extra paint splattered or spilled on your home.
• Because of their skill and experience, your new exterior paint will last a lot longer than if you painted yourself.
• A professional painter will have the safety equipment necessary to paint areas higher than ground level.

Depending on your DIY abilities and desires, you can trust your painter to do all the pre-painting preparation, too. Most pros are prepared to handle each part of the