The Proper Way to Paint your Home

Before painting your home you need to pressure wash it thoroughly, using bleach and water. After one good day of drying, your ready to begin the prep-work needed before painting. First you need to scrape off any old flaking paint, if any, using a putty scraper to where its fairly smooth.

After your done scraping,then you need to use silicone caulking to fill any cracks or holes that may exist. The caulking should take about one hour to dry, depending on the temperature. If you have to do excessive scraping then you need to “spot prime” the bare places using either a water based or oil based primer you can purchase at any painting store, or most hardware store.

The primer, if needed, will dry very quickly. after you have covered the whole house your ready to begin painting. You will want to use a ‘latex’ paint which is water based, meaning you can clean up using water. Most painted homes use water base paint, however, if oil based paint has been used, you either need to use oil based again or you would need to either sand the whole house using sandpaper or prime it, as latex or water based paint will not stick to oil based paint.

When your ready to paint, start at the top of the house using a four inch brush and work your way down, I suggest you paint the trim around the windows and doors last using a two or three inch brush, as you will probably get the siding paint on the trim as you move along.

After some time, you’ll be done, then you can sit back and enjoy your beautiful work for three to four years to come, as that’s about as long as it will be before you need to paint again.

?Lee Brant is a professional painter by trade and hopes this article will guide you to a successful painting project.

?