Spring is just a few days away (yippie!), and if you’re one of the many homeowners now considering painting the exterior of your home, here’s some info on what’s needed for a great exterior paint job.
Any high-quality paint project needs a lot of careful attention on the prep work. But for an exterior job, prep is even more important. If moisture gets in a spot that should be caulked, paint can fail. If a little paint chips off and moisture has access to the siding, a larger area of paint can fail. If the underlying surface isn’t properly stripped, sanded, and primed, the house won’t look good… and paint can fail.
Our high standards for prep set us apart from other paint companies. You can find out more about our attention to detail for all jobs on our Process page.
Great know-how and great tools and paint make a project great. For exterior jobs we like to use:
- Paintshaver Pro: This gives us complete control over how much depth we want to strip from a surface. One layer of paint? Two? Ten? This will strip exactly how deeply we need without damaging the substrate. We will strip all the paint off an entire house if that’s what’s needed.
- Festool sanders: These are top-quality sanders that provide an excellent finish on the substrate before the paint goes on. These, and the Paint Shaver as well, connect to our Festool HEPA vacuum so that shavings and dust go straight to the vacuum and not on your grass and plants! This is also very important when there is lead paint involved.
- Premium caulk that won’t fail and let moisture in. And a big part of caulk is knowing where not to caulk; there are some spots we don’t caulk so that moisture can get out and isn’t trapped in your walls!
- High quality oil primer that is slow-drying. The longer dry time means that the primer has more time to soak deep into the substrate, meaning better paint adhesion. And we don’t believe in rushing through any job!
We use Ben exterior paint (see Our Favorite Paints) for most exterior jobs, but for certain surfaces there are special paints. Benjamin Moore’s Elastomeric, for instance, is pricey but it’s the best coating out there for stucco homes. Stucco inevitably develops cracks over time, and Elastomeric completely encapsulates the stucco and keeps moisture from creeping into those cracks. It basically creates an extremely durable latex shield for your stucco… and it looks great!
Contact us here or via the form on the right for a free estimate for your exterior project!