Preparing to Paint Exterior Walls: Tips You Need to Know
ShareIf you are planning to paint exterior walls of your home, it's vital to cover all the basics to ensure your project is successful. First, you need to purchase the right supplies and paint depending on your requirements. You should also decide if you'll hire a painter or handle the entire project on your own. Working with an expert is always better — you will get expert advice and high-quality services.
Since preparation is key in any project, this post will share essential tips you need to consider before painting your exterior walls.
Choose suitable paint
Most people don't have a problem picking out colours for a painting project since this mainly depends on their style, preferences or requirements. However, you need to know some things about the main forms of paint.
Textured paints: These paints are ideal for exterior walls, and they provide a hardworking finish. If your wall has any imperfections, the textured paint will mask it perfectly. Most external walls tend to have holes, lumps & bumps, odd tiny quirks and dents, so to get a uniform finish, consider using textured paint.
Masonry paint: Masonry paint is designed for exterior walls and comes in a wide range of finishes and colours. Thanks to its features, masonry paint protects the walls from weather damage. Water-based acrylic masonry paint is more ideal for your exterior walls. Other than waterproofing the walls, it will also allow moisture that's within your walls to evaporate, preventing damp formation.
Know the best weather conditions
Even if you get the best paint and hire a painter, the weather also needs to cooperate for your project to be successful. The manner in which the paint dries directly relates to the temperature and weather conditions at the application time.
Ideally, the painting should be done during warm and dry days, so be sure to check out the weather for the next few days before setting the painting date. If it rains a day before the painting day, your siding will be affected, and it will take several days to dry out. This means you won't paint it the following day. Also, it shouldn't rain after application since the paint won't have cured fully.
Temperature fluctuations also play a significant role in this kind of project. If it's warm during the day and then the temperatures drop suddenly after sundown, the paint starts reacting, and this will affect the curing. This might leave you with a painted surface that's uneven, cracked and peeling.
Contact painters in your area for more information.