How To Get Better Results When Painting Your Home's Exterior
If you want your exterior painting job to look incredible, your best bet is usually to hire professional painters. Nothing beats the years of experience that professional painters have. However, if you are on a tight budget and prefer to do the painting yourself, there are some tips you can follow to get better results. Start with these ones:
Scrape the surface very thoroughly.
If there is flaking paint on your home and you paint right over it, your new paint will dry and start flaking off with the old paint. So, you need to scrape your surface very well before you apply any paint. Use a large scraper, and then follow it up with a smaller scraper to get into all the nooks and crannies. Keep going until you no longer see any additional paint flake off.
Apply a good primer.
Look for a primer that is made specifically for exterior surfaces. It will do a better job of standing up to changes in temperature and humidity. Apply it generously. Even though this is not your top coat, pay attention as you apply the primer and attempt to do so as smoothly as possible. All of your brush strokes should go in the same direction. This will make it easier to apply your top coat of paint evenly and in the same direction.
Let the paint dry thoroughly between coats.
When you want to see the results, it is tempting to work quickly and apply additional coats of paint before your early coats have time to dry. But this will definitely make your end results look lumpy and uneven. Instead, give each coat of paint ample drying time. A few hours is good, but a full day is even better.
Use a good-quality brush.
It is worth paying a bit more for a good-quality paintbrush. A good brush will allow the paint to go on more smoothly. It is less likely to lose bristles in your paint, too. Plus, one good brush is likely to last through the whole paint job, whereas you would likely go through several cheap paint brushes.
If you follow the tips above, you can get better results when painting the exterior of your home. A lot of it really comes down to patience, doing each step thoroughly, and taking your time. Talk to a painter in your area to learn more.
For more info, contact a local painting contractor.