Paint Your Own Home With These Eight Great Tips
Painting your own home can be quite a daunting task, but if you break it down into smaller tasks, the whole job won't look quite so large. If you are fairly handy, and have plenty of ladders, rollers, brushes, drop cloths, and a car wash brush, you should be able to take care the job yourself. It also can be important to have some helpful, competent family members helping as well, the more, the merrier. So, let's break that big job down into some smaller jobs that we can handle easily.
First of all, you will want to get some clippers and walk around your house and cut back all of the plants and bushes. Make sure you give yourself plenty of extra room, you'll have paintbrushes, ladders, and rollers with long handles, that all need to get through. Doing it now, will save you time and trouble later on.
The second thing that you need to do is mix a cup of bleach in a gallon water and take a car wash brush, and wash your whole house. You should be able to get an extension pole to fit your brush, then be able to stand on the ground and do it all from there. This is to remove any mold, mildew and stuck on dirt from the house.
The third thing that you need to do, is borrow or rent a large pressure washer, preferably with a turbo nozzle, and pressure wash your house. Be very careful not to damage your siding, break windows or anything else, as a pressure washer is a very powerful tool. If you have time you can use it to clean off your cement walkways, and driveway as well, after you've finished your house of course.
The fourth thing that is important to do is, take scrapers and scrape all the loose paint that is remaining on the house. Go around the house several times and double check to make sure that you have all the loose paint scraped from the house.
Now the fifth item. Take a caulking gun with paintable latex caulk, and repair all the cracks, crevices, holes in the siding, around fixtures, and trim. Double check this several times as well, make sure you don't miss anything.
Step number six. Make sure that the house is dry from the pressure washing, and the caulk is dry as well, then, use good quality, exterior primer paint to patch over any rough spots, places where the paint was chipped, and bare wood. The regular exterior paint doesn't stick well to these things without the primer, so this is an important step.
Now step number seven. Take masking tape and mask off all fixtures, windows, and other items that you don't want to get paint on. In addition to that, lay down drop cloths on the ground around your house to keep the drips of pain from getting on sidewalks, driveway, and plants.
Okay, step number eight. You're ready to paint, make sure you have plenty of helpers to steady your ladders, bring you more paint while you're up on the ladder, and help you move drop cloths and whatever else needs to be done.
There you have it, eight fantastic steps that can get you well on your way to painting your own house. It's important to involve the whole family, wife and kids as well. Helping dad paint the house is a life long memory that needs to be passed down from generation to generation. And of course, at the same time, you are protecting your home, which is the largest investment you'll ever make.
First of all, you will want to get some clippers and walk around your house and cut back all of the plants and bushes. Make sure you give yourself plenty of extra room, you'll have paintbrushes, ladders, and rollers with long handles, that all need to get through. Doing it now, will save you time and trouble later on.
The second thing that you need to do is mix a cup of bleach in a gallon water and take a car wash brush, and wash your whole house. You should be able to get an extension pole to fit your brush, then be able to stand on the ground and do it all from there. This is to remove any mold, mildew and stuck on dirt from the house.
The third thing that you need to do, is borrow or rent a large pressure washer, preferably with a turbo nozzle, and pressure wash your house. Be very careful not to damage your siding, break windows or anything else, as a pressure washer is a very powerful tool. If you have time you can use it to clean off your cement walkways, and driveway as well, after you've finished your house of course.
The fourth thing that is important to do is, take scrapers and scrape all the loose paint that is remaining on the house. Go around the house several times and double check to make sure that you have all the loose paint scraped from the house.
Now the fifth item. Take a caulking gun with paintable latex caulk, and repair all the cracks, crevices, holes in the siding, around fixtures, and trim. Double check this several times as well, make sure you don't miss anything.
Step number six. Make sure that the house is dry from the pressure washing, and the caulk is dry as well, then, use good quality, exterior primer paint to patch over any rough spots, places where the paint was chipped, and bare wood. The regular exterior paint doesn't stick well to these things without the primer, so this is an important step.
Now step number seven. Take masking tape and mask off all fixtures, windows, and other items that you don't want to get paint on. In addition to that, lay down drop cloths on the ground around your house to keep the drips of pain from getting on sidewalks, driveway, and plants.
Okay, step number eight. You're ready to paint, make sure you have plenty of helpers to steady your ladders, bring you more paint while you're up on the ladder, and help you move drop cloths and whatever else needs to be done.
There you have it, eight fantastic steps that can get you well on your way to painting your own house. It's important to involve the whole family, wife and kids as well. Helping dad paint the house is a life long memory that needs to be passed down from generation to generation. And of course, at the same time, you are protecting your home, which is the largest investment you'll ever make.