How to Prepare Your Home for Painting

If your house inMinneapolis needs to be updated, a new coat of exterior paint is an easy, inexpensive option to improve its appearance. So if your house is starting to look worn down or if you are just ready for a change, consider painting the outside of your house yourself or enlist a local painter to do the job for you.

Painting a house is a big project, but it isn’t an impossible 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 you need to use.

You can compromise with a professional painter by completing all the prep work by yourself, but then having their team come to your home and do the actual painting with their best tools, safety equipment and selected paint.

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

6 House Painting Preparation Tips

1. Choose which parts of the home to paint, collect the ladders and other necessary safety equipment. If you are preparing to do the painting yourself, you’ll be glad you did. Having a clear plan will help to make the actual painting go much faster once you begin. Organizing your materials 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 brush edge the whole time you are painting.
2. Choose paint and brushes. The fun part of painting your home’s exterior is choosing the color or color combination. 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 is a lot less messy and much easier to clean. The flat surfaces require more of a flat, or matte, finish, versus semi-gloss for the trim. You’ll want to us 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 your house for its brand new paint! Invest time into power washing your house (or hiring a local pressure washing service) to loosen any cracked or peeling paint. The high pressure water is the best way to remove old paint, and it 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 sure sign that the paint was aging and had to be replaced!
4. Remove peeling paint. Now that the original paint has been loosened, scrape it off the house with a metal or plastic straight edge, being careful not to dig into the wood. Then sand bumpy surfaces for a smooth finish. It isn’t necessary to sand every surface all the way down to the bare wood. Any areas where the paint is still adhered need to be cleaned and have the edges sanded so the new paint goes on the home smoothly.
5. Prime. Do not skip priming! Primer is an important part of preparation because it conceals any prior paint (especially important with dark colors), results in even color for your new coat, and a smoother 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 in good weather. A professional painter is able to look at the forecast and determine the most opportune day for painting a house. That’s why they’re professionals! If you want to do the painting on your own, wait for a day that is somewhere between 75 and 85 degrees, with very little humidity. This will lead to the best adhesion.

Why Painting Your Home is a Good Idea

Not only does a 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 boring into your home’s exterior. It also reduces wear and tear from inclement weather. High quality paint prevents wood from rotting and dirt doesn’t adhere to paint the same way it does to bare wood.

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

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

Painting is 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 too much, or if the opposite is true and you really want it to stand out, a different color can completely change its vibe.

Hiring a Local Professional Painter in Minneapolis

After the prepping is over, you might want to hand the job over to a professional painter in Minneapolis (if you hadn’t already chosen that from the beginning!). Hiring a painter is affordable. It also ensures 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 knows the optimal way to do the job, which means the paint will look much better and the project will be a lot faster.
• Companies don’t typically make a mess. Their results will be much neater, with no excess paint splattered or spilled on your 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 necessary to paint surfaces above ground level.

Depending on your DIY skills and interests, you can trust your painter to do all the pre-painting preparation, too. Most companies are fully prepared to handle every part of the project, from removing old paint and cleaning the exterior to actually applying the new paint.