The sun and weather can be pretty brutal to your home’s exterior paint over the years. The inside often takes a different but equal beating over time. A fresh coat of paint can do a lot to make it look new again. Our team at Fox Painting understands that it’s hard work painting your home, so we can come to take care of the hard part for you. If you’d like to make the process go much faster, there are some things that you can do to get ready. We thought we’d help you get started with this brief guide that walks you through how to prep a house for painting.
Exterior
Wash the exterior of the house
The outside of your house will accumulate plenty of dirt and grime between rain, birds, and wind. It’s best to have a clean surface for your painters to start with so the paint sticks to the home rather than dirt. We recommend washing the outside of your house by spraying it off with your hose or a pressure washer on low power. Putting the pressure washer on too high of a setting can damage your siding.
Scrape off chipped paint
Flaking or chipped paint doesn’t make for a strong surface for painting. Chipped paint that’s been painted over leaves unsightly divots. Walk around your home, find areas where your old paint has chipped, and scrape it off using a paint scraper or sandpaper to avoid such divots.
Make necessary repairs
You’ll find that there might be parts of your house that need some attention as you scrape chipped paint. Areas of your home that are in disrepair will need to be repainted if the repair is made after you paint, so you should have the work done before.
Apply painter’s tape
Paint isn’t easy to get off windows, doors, and shutters. Protect the outside of your windows and doors by applying painter’s tape around the edges. Painter’s tape is recommended because it has a strong enough hold to remain in place until the job is finished, but the adhesive is weak enough to come off without leaving behind residue. You want to make it easy for your painters to get the surface behind your shutters, so it’s essential that they’re either removed or closed.
Interior
Move furniture away from walls
Furniture will not only be in the way of painting the rooms in your home, but you’ll also want to avoid getting paint on it. It’s best to move it away from the walls to the center of the room or put it in the garage where it won’t be disturbed or in the way.
Take off light switch and outlet covers
You can easily take your light switch and outlet covers off the wall using a small screwdriver. The screws used to keep the covers in place can be tiny, so we suggest putting both the covers and screws in a small, plastic sandwich bag to ensure that they don’t get lost.
Apply painter’s tape
As we mentioned with the exterior of your home, it’s crucial that you cover the edges of your windows and doors. Unless you’re planning to paint the baseboards the same color as your walls, it’s considered best practice to tape the top edge of your baseboards as well.
Take care of your pets
There’s a lot going on when you have painters come to your house. Between the equipment and new people walking around, it’s easy to make pets excited or nervous. What’s more, your pet could end up stepping in wet paint and tracking it across your carpet. Crating your pet or sending it to a friend or neighbor’s house is a good idea, so they’re not likely to step somewhere they shouldn’t or brush up against a wall with wet paint.
Schedule a free consultation
If you’d like more tips about how to prep a house for painting, get in touch with us at Fox Painting. You can give us a call at 845-500-0557 or send a message using our online contact form to schedule a free consultation. We look forward to hearing from you.
