Tips on Painting Your Home's Exterior

5 Materials
$200
4 Days
Medium
In the eight years we have owned our home, we have made quite a few improvements to the exterior of our house, including re-painting the entry doors and changing the color of the shutters. The only thing left was repainting the exterior of the house. The paint on the siding was in pretty good shape, with the exception of a few spots, but the color was bland and faded. It was a boring tan that blended in with the roof and brick. This Fall we bit the bullet and decided it was the perfect time to paint the siding.
This is the Before pic...You can see the discoloration on the eves and there was also paint flaking off in a few areas due to years of pressure washing.
Prep your house for Paint:
-Cut back bushes and trees from the house.
-Clean the exterior using a House and Siding cleaner for a pressure washer.  We used this one by Zep, but they also make ones that you can use with your garden hose if you do not have a pressure washer.
-Scrape any loose and flaking paint off the house and window trim and sand if needed to have a smooth surface.
-Replace any rotten wood. The piece of wood trim on the end of the carport was badly damaged from the weather, so we opted to replace it. 
-Remove cracked caulk from the windows, using a scraper tool and re-caulk if needed.
-Re-caulk any areas around the windows and doors.
Decide on a paint color. Buy several sample sizes of the paint you are considering and paint swatches in several spots on your house. The paint looks different depending on the lighting and when it is close to other colors.


The original shade of gray I was leaning toward looked great by itself, but when I painted it next to the navy shutters, it had too much of a blue hue. Another lighter gray looked almost white next to the white window trim. It may take a few swatches to find the perfect shade.  
Painting your house
-Cover areas that you do not want to paint, such as the windows, doors, and soffits. We used the ScotchBlue Pre-taped painter's plastic to save time and effort.
-Cover the floor/ground with a drop cloth or tarp to contain the paint spills.
-We used the  Power-Flo Pro 2800 airless sprayer  for the main part of the house.
-Touch up any areas that were missed along with the trim, using a brush.
-Remove the painters tape before the paint is completely dry to avoid any sticking.
This is the finished product! We used Behr Premium Plus Ultra Exterior Paint Plus Primer in Satin. It covered so well, that we ended up on doing one coat, which was good since we used most of the 5-gallon bucket!
The exterior looks fresh and new, and it just took a couple of weekends of work.
Resources for this project:
Zep Exterior Siding cleaner
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  1 question
  • Michelle Michelle on Jun 10, 2018

    Turned out great. Very professional looking. Did you have to wait a few days after pressure washing with the siding cleaner? I have just purchased an older home that has rotten trim around the windows and peeling paint everywhere. Trying to do the job ourselves without paint chips winding up everywhere. Any ideas? Did not look like you had much of those that in your case. Just wanted to say it looks nice and your color choices were great.

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  • Douglas Parker Douglas Parker on Sep 08, 2018

    Thank you for the information.


    This looks amazing. After looking at these pictures, I too feel the need of exterior painting. I will hire the same professionals that my friend hired for exterior painting. The exterior painting San Jose contractors are very efficient in their work. Soon, I will post pictures of my house painting work.

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