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Saturday, April 09, 2011

Steps using Painting Exterior Brick Tips in Highwood

Painting exterior brick tips in Highwood is one of the most important things you can do to protect the largest investment you probably will make during life. For exterior painting to last, there are requisite steps that must be taken to properly prepare your home’s exterior before applying paint.

If you find mildew exist, you may need to apply bleach to a rag and scrub these areas. Mildew is attracted to the oil in oil-based paints but will grow on latex paints as well. If mildew is growing on your home, and you can’t seem to eliminate it completely, you may want to add some mildew inhibitor to your paint. If you add more mildewcide to your paint it can cause your paint to fade prematurely with a lot of exposure to sunlight. Allow all surfaces to dry thoroughly before caulking and priming bare wood.

Exterior painting is significantly improved with proper caulking. When caulking trim to siding, the durability of the caulk joint can be improved by spreading the bead of caulk with your finger. This will improve adhesion. When caulking trim to brick, make sure you use a very narrow bead of caulk but do not spread with your finger, or you will make a mess of the caulk line and have to clean your brick.

Inspect all metal surfaces for peeling paint. Remove loose paint with a metal brush or power brush. Effective acrylic bonding primers exist on the market today for priming bare metal. If you are painting brick, check for cracks. Caulk cracks before painting.

Check your home for any bare wood and prime with a high quality latex primer or a top quality oil base primer. This primer coat is the only coat that bonds directly to the wood; therefore, it needs to be of top quality. A top coat of paint on your home is no better than the first coat that is applied to the wood.

Consider masking around light fixtures, motion sensors, electrical boxes, etc. This will save you a lot of time in clean up.

Avoid time consuming clean up by protecting shrubs, walk ways, roofs, patios, etc with drop cloths. Clean up will cost you much more in time than cover up. When painting exterior surfaces, the do-it-yourselfer has one major consideration, the weather.

Paints have optimum conditions in which they should be applied. It is best not to paint in extreme heat, cold or in the presence of precipitation. Check your paint can label for temperature restrictions.

Painting your siding before painting the trim will save you a lot of cut in time with a brush. It is best to work from the top down since you will be dripping some paint. Although you need to work from top down, you also should work from side to side as much as possible. This will assist in avoiding a lot of up and down motion on ladders during your exterior painting project.

If you are planning to use a roller to apply paint to lap siding, you will need to back brush to smoothly spread the paint. Roller naps leave a texture to the surface. Be sure and coat the underside edge of each board of lap siding to prevent water absorption from rain. Substandard preparation may save you a little bit of time, but you will pay for it in durability and quality of appearance. It is always best to take your time with the above procedures. They will produce a paint job you will be proud to display.

Posted on 04/09 at 01:12 PM
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