How to Prepare Your Home For Exterior Paint

With the holidays right around the corner, now is a great time to paint the house. Imagine guests arriving for gatherings and saying things like, “Your place has never looked better!” With that in mind, exterior painting projects involve more than just coming up with color schemes and hiring a professional.

Properly preparing your home guarantees the paint will look great for years to come. So what can you do ahead of time? Let’s take a look at some ideas, as referenced from Angi:

Wash the exterior

Think back to the last time you washed your home’s exterior. Can’t remember if you’ve ever done that? Then pressure washing is an absolute must before doing anything else.

For those on a tight budget, we recommend renting a pressure washer at your local hardware store. This project shouldn’t take you more than a few hours to complete. Once you’re done, you will have a clean surface, which maximizes the adhesion of the new paint to your home.

Scrape away flaking paint

Once the house is completely dry, scrape away any flaking paint. All you need is a standard paint scraper and some patience. One thing to keep in mind with this project: Scraping the house while it’s still wet will likely result in more flaking paint once it dries.

Apply caulk

Now is a good time to caulk any cracked seams between clapboards or along vertical junctions. Pro tip: Do not caulk gaps between structures that serve for insulation purposes. For example, there’s no need to caulk between the edge of a soffit and gutter.

Make any necessary repairs

It’s never smart to paint over damaged or rotted areas. So after applying caulk, proceed to make any exterior repairs. While you may want to start thinking about colors at this point, you don’t want to overlook this step in the process.

Are the repairs beyond your level of expertise? Then your best bet is to contact a carpenter or handyman. Avoid testing your luck and potentially delaying the painting with DIY efforts.

Apply primer first

If you notice any bare or exposed areas on your home’s exterior, then you should absolutely invest in an oil-based primer. This product seals the bare wood and creates an air- and moisture-tight barrier between the house and the new paint. Ask a professional if a light sighting by hand would be beneficial prior to priming.

New Jersey’s Preferred House Painter

Now that you know how to prepare your home for exterior paint, what’s the next step? Sure, you could certainly take things into your own hands and go the DIY route. Another option, though, is to contact an experienced residential house painter.

DJ’s Painting has been serving New Jersey homeowners for more than three decades. Unlike other painting services that cut corners and rush through jobs as quickly as possible, DJ’s takes a more thorough approach. Plus, we have vast experience in all kinds of coating systems.

From start to finish, our painting contractors make the process easy and stress-free. First, we take a look at your project and write up an estimate with a clear scope of work and well-defined paint specifications. Never will DJ’s try to take advantage of a customer with hidden fees and gimmicks.

Next comes the work itself. When it comes to residential painting, no other company compares to DJ’s. For one thing, we have painted thousands of homes in New Jersey, including log cabin staining. Over the years, our contractors have figured out what works and doesn’t work in the industry.

Something that doesn’t work is when a house painter skimps on their products. In addition to providing the best painting services in the area, DJ’s also makes it a point to use the highest quality coating products available. Some of the paint coating systems we use include Benjamin Moore Paints, Sherwin-Williams, BEHR, and PPG.

We take pride in being more than just another local painting company. If you’re ready to put a shine on your home, we invite you to contact the team at DJ’s. In addition to interior and exterior painting, we also specialize in waterproofing, garage floor epoxy coatings, stucco repair, carpentry, drywall repair, caulking, pressure washing, sandblasting, and more.

See how DJ’s can transform your home just in time for the holidays.