Exterior painting – our process.

While many painters employ different processes in painting a house, all agree that timely repainting will make your home aesthetically pleasant and increase the longevity of your siding and thus your house structure.

In our painting process, we rely on using only the best paints, accurate and attentive prep stages, and applying paints per the manufacturer’s directions.

The process is composed of a few simple steps:

Estimating an accurate price for the labor and materials, so there is no discrepancy at the end of the project. During this stage, we identify areas around the house that need special attention or repairs.
We prepare the surface by power washing it, to remove dirt, mildew, and loose paint. When the surface has dried (about 2-4 days of nice summer weather) we go through and fix all of the cracked caulking, and wood deterioration. The surface is prepared by scraping and sanding all loose paint exposed after power washing. Then those areas are primed with a specialty primer.
We use tape and plastic sheeting to protect non-painted areas.
The paint is applied by an airless sprayer in two coats. The first coat is thoroughly back-rolled, which guarantees good adhesion to the surface. It is allowed to dry, and then the second coat is applied for a long-lasting finish.
At least two coats of trim color are then applied by hand.

Let’s look at those in detail, starting with estimating.

Estimate

What's in the price?

The size of a house - will determine the amount of paint and labor.

Complexity - some homes have little trim, which is very labor intensive, while others have a lot. Roof dormers, bay windows, and columns make it a lot more complicated and thus more expensive.

Hight – while it is easy to paint a small rambler house with only a step ladder, it might be a lot more complicated and expensive to have specialty equipment and ladders on a very high house.

Surface condition – new siding takes very little prep work, on the other hand peeling paint, wood rot, cracked caulk that needs to be fixed, and siding boards that need to be replaced will make it very labor intensive.

Landscaping and grade – a sloped grade around the house makes it a much trickier job of placing ladders and equipment. So do, retaining walls, lots of shrubs, and overgrown trees.

Surface preparation.

Power washing, besides knocking off dirt and dust on the house, also exposes peeling paint, rot, and loose siding boards and trim. While some projects, might not involve a lot of painting and thus, do not need power washing, we always recommend it regardless. Besides prepping the surface for new paint, while power washing, we usually rinse off walkways and porches, bleach and wash soffits and facias, rinse of cobwebs, windows, doors, and overall clean up around the house. During this step, if we estimated for it, we can also clean your gutters.

After the house has dried over a few days in the summer, or longer, depending on the weather, we continue our preparations. At this time, we repair all loose boards, cracked caulk, and wood rot. Sometimes it requires replacing siding or trim boards, which we can do as well. All new wood siding is primed with a good primer from Sherwin-Williams paint store: Extreme Bond Primer. All of the loose paint is scraped by hand and primed with: PrimRx Peel bonding Primer. We can compare this primer to a thin set glue, which binds the peeling paint to the substrate, allowing us to have a good surface for the top coat.

Masking

During the process of spraying the first and second coats, some paint becomes air born, and it can later settle on areas that are not intended to be painted. We use tape and plastic sheeting to protect those

Painting

The paint is applied by an airless sprayer in two coats. The first coat is thoroughly back-rolled, which guarantees good adhesion to the surface. It is allowed to dry, and then the second coat is applied for a long-lasting finish. We only use high-quality paint from Sherwin Williams. Our preferred paint is the Duration line. It provides great results even with dark colors. We recommend satin sheen, as it seems to have a harder surface than flat paint, which in turn makes the paint last longer without deuteriation.

Painting Trim & Finishing up.

After the main color or colors are applied, two coats of the trim color are painted by hand. Lastly, everything is cleaned up, checked, and touched up as needed.

As an end result, you will have a beautifully painted house that will last for years to come. We are 100% confident in our work, the painting process, and the quality of the paints that we offer a 3-year warranty on all exterior painting projects.

If you are looking for inspiration in choosing a new color for your home, visit Sherwin-Williams

If you are ready for your home to be painted contact us.