7 Tips To Properly Paint Your Brick Exterior in Arlington, VA
When you have a brick exterior, it may be difficult for you to come to terms with the possibility of painting it. There are pros and cons to painting a brick exterior, but eventually, you may decide it is worth doing.
The issue with painting a brick exterior is that it is quite unlike painting other surfaces — there are things you need to bear in mind before you take on such a painting project.
Here are seven tips to properly paint your brick exterior in Arlington, VA
1. Clean Around The Area
One of the first things you have to do when painting your brick exterior is to clean the area around it.
This is important because you want to make sure that there is nothing in the surface area that you are going to paint, as it could very well get on the surface as you paint it.
It is better to fully clean the area near where you are going to paint before you start rather than clean as you paint.
2. Pressure Washing Can Help
When you’re looking to paint your brick exterior, a good way to make sure that you do a thorough job is to have a clean surface.
As you’ll be working with a brick exterior, you should do what you can to get it clean, and in many cases, the best way to get this done is with pressure washing.
Pressure washing is a fantastic way to get much built-up dirt off your brick exterior.
3. Pick The Right Color
There are so many colors out there that one can choose from, but the question really is which one of them will be right for you.
You can go about choosing a color for your brick exterior to get a small sample or two of the colors that you may be considering and actually apply some to the home exterior.
By doing this, you will see how your colors will look in a variety of light settings and thus determine which is actually best for your brick exterior.
4. Remember Primer
An essential step in painting your brick exterior is the application of primer.
This is important because you want to have a surface that is as smooth as possible when you are painting, and primer is a key part of making that happen.
Primer is also important because it helps the paint adhere to the exterior of your home and stay on longer.
5. Drying Time Is Important As Well
At every step of the way, you are going to need to allow time for drying.
This will mean everything from waiting after you have cleaned the bricks to waiting after each coat of paint for it to fully dry.
6. Spray Painting May Be Best
There are many ways that you can paint the brick exterior of your home, but it is entirely possible that spray painting could be one of the better ones to do it.
Turning up the spray painter setting will likely be a good thing to do, like the paint used for painting a brick exterior tends to be a bit thicker than your standard exterior paint.
7. Acrylic Caulk For Cracks
Lastly, before you start painting, you should make sure that you don’t have any remaining cracks in the surface of your brick exterior.
If you find that you do have any, of course, you’re going to want to take care of them by filling them in with acrylic caulk.
This sort of thing is just what you need to make sure that the brick exterior is ready to be painted.