5 Ways To Avoid Common Exterior Paint Problems in McLean, VA
Painting the exterior of your home can lead to a nice new look for your home and improve the health of the exterior – but it can also lead to paint problems… problems that can be avoided if you know about them beforehand.
These are issues that come up not by chance but as a direct result of improper preparation — or using the wrong sort of materials in some cases.
Let’s now consider five ways to avoid common exterior paint problems in McLean, VA.
1. Not Painting Over A Wet Surface
When you’re painting the exterior of your house, you should be careful to ensure that the surface is dry.
Specifically, you want to avoid painting a wet home exterior.
When you paint a wet surface, there are a few issues that could come up.
The biggest one you can see is bubbling on the surface, which directly results from the moisture on the surface.
All it really costs you to paint on a dry surface is when it takes for it to dry.
2. Not Cleaning The Surface
Before you paint the exterior of your home, you must ensure that the surface is first cleaned thoroughly.
By not cleaning it as such, you can almost ensure that you will run into some issues.
Firstly you can imagine that there’s a good chance that, depending on what you left on the surface, the mess may find its way to the surface even well after you’ve painted.
This is particularly the case if you allowed mold or mildew to stay on the surface of your home before painting.
Save yourself from this issue by properly cleaning your exterior and then allowing your exterior surface to dry.
3. Not Using Primer First
It’s not just a good idea to apply a primer coat before painting; it’s pretty much a necessity.
Applying a coat of primer will help the exterior paint you subsequently put on adhere better and stay on better.
A telltale sign of an exterior that has not been properly painted can be in paint that peels – though this also comes from other factors that we will now discuss.
4. Mixing Different Kinds Of Paint
By this, it is not intended to refer to the practice of mixing different paints but rather applying one coat of paint, perhaps that is flat and then a subsequent coat that is glossy.
It’s also not good to first paint a coat of paint of one quality and then a second coat of a different quality.
Doing either of these things is bad for your home exterior and may lead to issues like the peeling mentioned above or other issues.
It is much better to stick to the same kind of paint throughout your exterior painting project, especially when going from one coat of paint to another.
5. Painting When It’s Too Hot Outside
There’s a good temperature range for exterior painting, depending on the paint you are using.
It’s worth looking up for the kind of paint you are using, but it’s anywhere from around forty to ninety degrees Fahrenheit.
A few things can happen if you paint when it is too hot – you can find yourself with the paint cracking soon after it dries, having not properly dried.
It could dry too quickly, leading it to develop alligator like texture eventually.
Regardless, you want to make sure that the temperature is right for your exterior painting, so you avoid these rather unpleasant issues.