Fix Lovely: How to paint the exterior of your house

http://fixlovely.blogspot.ca/2013/10/how-to-paint-exterior-of-your-house.html

I did TONS of research before painting my house, read a bunch of books, and checked out everything from multiple sources before embarking on this project. So I've tried to compile everything I've learned in one place to save you all the trouble.

Here's what the front of my house used to look like...

My house REALLY needed a new coat of paint. It was built in '95, and hasn't been painted since. Oh, it looked awful. Paint peeling, wood rotting, random gouges and nicks everywhere...

Look at these eaves!! LOOK AT THEM! Hideous!

So, I will tell you how I did it... I changed the color on my house, sanded, prepped, painted, everything.

I first got a quote from a painting franchise, Rhino-Shield, on how much it would cost. It was going to be $3,600 to paint my house. And my house is mostly brick - the only siding is on the chimney and around the front door!

Why so expensive?!

So what's my answer? TO DO IT MYSELF OF COURSE! :-D

Here is what you'll need!

- Power Washer

- Sander (TRUST ME, you DON'T want to sand via elbow grease!!!)

- 80 grit sandpaper

- Wood rot stabilizer (if your siding is wood and has rot)

- Wood fill/putty (filling in gouges and such)

- Paintable caulk, both in clear and in white

- High quality Exterior primer, tinted as close to your paint color as possible (I used only two gallons of primer for my whole house, at $30 a gallon)

- High quality exterior paint, in the colors you want to paint your house. (I used Valspar Exterior paint, it was also $30 a gallon)

- Painting supplies. I only used two paintbrushes this whole project, two big 4" wide synthetic brushes. Using rollers doesn't work on stepped siding.

First, you need to power wash your whole house.

Lots of nasty gunk gets in all corners of the outside, and you can't paint over that stuff. I also power washed crap off my driveway and mud dauber's nests from the weepholes in my brick. It was nice! Be careful using power washers around your windows, some power washers are strong enough to break glass. Practice on your driveway first.

Second, you will need to lightly sand the eaves/trim.

You can't sand synthetic siding (mine is some sort of flaky wood composite - it's not vinyl), because it has faux wood grain etched onto it, and since it is shingled, all you'd do is create a huge mess. But you can sand trim and eaves.

Here is DH sanding the eaves

Here is the trim around my garage door, and around my bay window in the backyard, all sanded!

You do not need to sand your gutters or downspouts - since they are metal, and are likely not glossy (they have a chalky paint applied at the factory), so paint will stick to them fine. Just power wash the dirt off of them.

You will also need to remove all old caulk. the trim around my garage door was all caulked, but since it was so old, it practically cracked right off. I find that a hammer and chisel is very effective for removing caulk. If the caulk is still pretty good, leave it :-).

You will need to power wash the eaves and trim again.

Since you sanded, there is dust everywhere, and it all needs to get washed off before your next step. Wait 24 hours after spraying to begin painting with latex based paints, and 72 hours before oil based paints.

*make sure the weather is dry and sunny - no rain expected for several days.*

Stabilize any rot.

I poured some of my wood rot stabilizer into a bucket (it looks and smells like elmer's glue), got a 1" brush, and dabbed the stabilizer in any nicks or gouges that looked suspicious.

DH and I decided that we really needed to replace the trim on our chimney. The trim was beyond any salvaging, and needed absolute repair - it was so bad!

See how it's bowing out? It looks pregnant. I have a pregnant chimney.

We pried off those boards, and bought 1"x4" trim boards at Lowe's, and cut and nailed those to fit! Cutting the angles of the boards to fit the sloping roof was a bit tricky, but we got it. (It was a 30 degree angle).

We nailed the new boards to the siding:

Here it is almost done. You can see we still have to finish up at the top.

I was too scared to try to reach that high on the chimney (20 feet!), and extension ladders scare the heck out of me, so I put an ad on Craigslist for $50 for someone to nail the rest of the boards to my chimney.

Fill any big gouges or holes with wood filler.

Using a putty knife, fill those gouges and holes! Try to make the fill as smooth as possible - then you won't have to sand as hard. You can put wood fill in gouges that you applied wood stabilizer to. When the fill is dry, lightly sand by hand, just enough to smooth it out.

Caulk around windows, doors, and anywhere else there's a seam where water can get into the hosue.

There were some places where trim met brick that I didn't want to caulk until after I painted (that's when I used the clear caulk).

However, I did caulk (with white caulk) everywhere else.

Currently caulking around the bottom of the window - you can see where the right side is caulked but not the left yet.

Now paint on some primer!

You will want this little tool....it was GREAT for protecting the brick as I painted the trim against it:

That little metal edge slips between your brick and trim and you don't have to worry about getting paint on your brick, or taping off the brick.

Prime everything, including gutters, downspouts, siding, etc.

The part of your house that gets the most intense sun will be the most damaged. For me, it was the back of my chimney.

I had just applied the rotted wood stabilizer to all the scratches.

I did one coat of primer on the whole house, but I did TWO coats of primer on the sunward side of the chimney. I wanted extra protection there.

It looks so much better.

Then I had to decide on house colors. I bought a few sample pots of what I thought I wanted..and boy, I'm glad I did!!! I will always recommend getting sample pots and painting a section before you buy the big gallons.

I thought I'd like a greenish color on the eaves, and a creamy color on my siding. (I painted the creamy color on the small trim below the eaves so I could see it against my eave color.)
UGH! It didn't look good at all! Looked so much better in the store.

Here was my first sample swatch:

I went back for more samples, and painted over my first swatch..this one was much better:

I liked the dark brown ("Fired Earth" by Valspar). The creamy color #2 I tried is around the garage door. The cream didn't work for me. It wasn't the right shade to work with the mortar... too yellowish.

Back to the store...

This beige siding color didn't work with anything.

This yellowish cream against the Fired Earth didn't work either!! I guess fourth time's the charm, because this next time, I got it right.

It's really hard to see the color I chose; the right side is the awful yellowish cream (looks even worse towards evening!) but on the left is a sort of greenish cream. The original pinkish cream siding color is in the middle bottom of this pic.

So now I had decided on colors....

Here is the primed bay window:

And the primed garage area

So, now, I could finally get to the most rewarding part: Seeing your house change colors before your eyes!

Paint on the real colors.

You will need two coats on your house for sure, and I would suggest three coats on surfaces that get intense sun.

**ALSO, it is not recommended to paint wood siding a dark color, as heat exposure can warp the wood. Always paint your wood siding a light color. My lot is heavily shaded, and the only place on my house that got the killer Texas heat was the back of the chimney.