How to Prepare your Home's Exterior for Professional Painters

Preparing your home's exterior for a professional painting job, whether it's a regular painting job or paint damage repair, can seem daunting, but it doesn't have to be. With some simple preparation, you can ensure that the painters can do their best work and keep your home looking its best.

This article will show you how to prepare your home's exterior for professional painters in four easy steps, so the project goes smoothly from start to finish.

• Clear away debris and furniture for easy access
• Clean surfaces with detergent and water
• Protect surrounding areas and cover plants
• Consider weather conditions
  

Clear Away Debris and Furniture

To ensure an efficient painting process, the easiest thing you can do to help your painter is to clear away debris, furniture, and anything else you don't want to risk getting paint on. Collect and throw away any debris, like leaves and sticks, so the painters can easily access the exterior of your home without risk.

Removing obstacles from their path will save them time and effort when they arrive to paint your house.

Your painters will take care of scraping off any flaking paint that may be present on the siding or trim and doing all the rest of the wall preparation. But moving your cars, kid's toys, wicker furniture, or anything else will help them be efficient and detailed about delivering a good paint job to your home.

All these steps are necessary before professional painters come in to do their job; preparing beforehand will ensure you get beautiful results.

Preparing the Surface

This next part isn't always necessary, depending on the state of your house and the agreed-upon services with your painter. However, if your house is stacked with dirt, it always helps to spray it well the night before the painters come. That will often scour any dirt or grime off the outside of the house, allowing the painters to quickly begin preparation work like sanding and filling.

If a house is cleaned, or at least not filthy, then on Day 1, your painters can often commence sanding, scraping, patching stucco, and preparing your home for paint.

After spraying and/or scrubbing your home down, we typically try to leave it alone for a couple of hours to thoroughly dry before we begin. So, if you plan on taking this step for your painters, give them a call and let them know! Not only will they appreciate it, but it might change how they allocate partners to your job site. Talk about getting off on the right foot!

Protect Surrounding Areas

Protect your surrounding areas so you can feel good about the outcome of your painting project! As part of the preparation for professional painters, organizing materials and covering plants is essential.

This will help you minimize messes and keep paint away from other surfaces. To start, take a look around the area that will be painted. Move anything that could be affected by the painting process, including furniture, plants, decorations, etc., away. If you have a car in the driveway, we recommend parking it across the street for the duration of the painting part of the process. If you have a dog or any outside pets - bring them inside and restrain them while the painters are there.

Doing this beforehand prevents any last-minute scrambling and ensures that everything stays safe during the painting process.

Cover your plants in plastic or cloth tarps to prepare them for potential contact with paint. Your painters will use dropcloths and protection for your plants, but sometimes sensitive plants need extra care. Make sure to point that out to your estimator in advance, or take matters into your own hands when preparing your yard for the painting teams.

Unfortunately, paint can damage plants if it comes into contact with them, so covering them up is the best option despite all the risks. Since most house painters, including us, use water-based acrylic paint, the risk is minimal. Still, we recommend covering and protecting your plants while painters are on the property. (1)

Finally, double-check all surrounding areas before allowing professional painters into your home's exterior space. Check your windows, account for any breeze or wind that day, and ensure nothing has been left behind that could potentially be damaged when painting begins.

Taking these extra steps now helps ensure that everything runs smoothly throughout the process, so you can enjoy beautiful results when all is said and done!

Check the Weather Forecast

Before your painting day, check the weather. Your painter will likely be ahead of you, but it's prudent for a homeowner to know what's coming. In New Braunfels, the main threat to painting is humidity and rain. Humid conditions can make painting tough because the water in the air causes the paint to dry at different times, leaving a patchy finish.

If rain or extreme temperatures occur, it might be better to delay painting until conditions improve. Your painters will communicate with you about the weather, but know that they want you to have the best-looking paint job when they are done, so please be patient if they recommend an inconvenient delay.

When checking the weather forecast, check for wind, too, especially if your house is taller than the sprayed paint, which may float and cover things much further than they would otherwise.

No matter what climate you're dealing with, making sure that conditions are favorable before starting an exterior paint job will give you peace of mind and ensure your home looks its best!

References:

(1) https://www.groundwatergovernance.org/does-water-based-paint-kill-plants-and-poison-soil/