Publication date: 07/10/2009

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Planning, prep work take the pain out of painting

With more of us staying in our homes longer due to the current economic situation, one of the best things you can do this summer to give your home a fresh look is to paint the home's exterior. With the proper planning and preparation, and the right products, you'll be able to make your old, tired siding look new again.

If you are doing the job yourself, make sure you have a good extension ladder. If it's a two-story home, I recommend renting a scaffold from a place such as National Ladder & Scaffold Co., (800) 535-5944, www.nationalladder.com. Having the proper ladder or scaffold makes the job safer and easier.

Before you paint, prepare the surface. For example, if your home has wood siding and the paint is peeling, blistering or cracking, you should scrape and sand the problem areas first and then clean it. For aluminum, vinyl or even T-111 plywood siding, a good cleaning is in order before painting; however, I don't recommend using a power washer, because it can damage the siding. Instead, I recommend cleaning the siding using a solution of 2 ounces of dry measure TSP per gallon of water, and then make sure you rinse it thoroughly. If it's really dirty, increase the TSP to 4 ounces.

Or you can use specialized cleaning products like Krud Kutter's House Wash or Exterior Siding Cleaner available at many paint and hardware stores. There's also Clean-It from DeWitts Products that connects right to your garden hose and is both biodegradable and cold-water effective. Clean-It is available at Ace and ACO hardware stores.

Once you have cleaned the siding, you may need to consider a primer coat before painting. A newer primer product on the market that can make your painting easier is Peel-Bond from XIM Products, (440) 871-4737, www.ximbonder.com. According to XIM President Dick Hardy, Peel Bond is a filling primer that is used by professional painting contractors, but is also becoming more popular with the DIY market.

"Peel-Bond doesn't just prime the siding before painting, but it actually fills in cracks and rough surfaces to help decrease the amount of scrapping and sanding you need to do before painting," he said. Dick added that Peel Bond is especially good on T-111 siding, and because it is a superior primer, it also enables you to use less paint when painting your home's exterior. The company also has a new product, Trim Magic, that is similar to Peel Bond but goes on thicker, making it perfect for painting shutters, window trim or railings.

Once you have prepared the siding, now you can get to the fun part -- painting. Good paint covers around 350 square feet per gallon, so first figure out the square footage you will be painting, and then determine if it needs one coat or two. Then you can divide the total square-footage you will be painting by 350 to determine how many gallons you will need.

Because this is a job you don't want to do too often, I recommend using a high-quality paint that goes on well and lasts a long time. Brian Eisbrenner at Shelby Paint and Decorating, (586) 739-0240 www.shelbypaint.com, recommends Benjamin Moore's Aura for exterior application.

"Aura paints feature Benjamin Moore's patented Color-Lock technology that has special pigments that lock in the color so it won't fade, is stain-resistant and won't crack or peel," Brian said. "And it covers so well that many of our customer's only need to use one coat for their exterior paint projects."

Another superior exterior paint is Duration from Sherwin-Williams, (800) 474-3794 www.sherwin-williams.com, which the company says provides one-coat coverage due to it being 70 percent thicker than ordinary exterior house paints, and a lifetime guarantee against peeling and blistering.

The summer is a great time to do outdoor projects around the home, and one of the big projects that many people consider during the summer is painting their home's exterior. Painting is the second most popular home improvement project, and many people have the capability to do the job themselves. However, when it comes to painting, it's the prep that is often the hardest work. But doing it right means the painting part of the project will go much smoother and faster, and the results will be something you can brag about it longer.

Note: This article was accurate at the date of publication. However, information contained in it may have changed. If you plan to use the information contained herein for any purpose, verification of its continued accuracy is your responsibility.

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