Regular exterior painting In San Diego, CA is ideal for protecting your home’s siding against exterior harsh weather conditions. Without proper painting, your home’s siding could succumb to wood rot due to extended exposure to moisture as well as bug invasion.
Generally, exterior painting is a huge project that needs to be left to trained and experienced professionals. It’s quite laborious, especially the surface preparation bit. And it also needs specialized tools that might not be easily and cheaply accessed by most homeowners and DIY painters. However, if you want to give DIY exterior painting a try, here are the top five common mistakes you should try your best to avoid.
Using Low-quality Paint
Exterior painting is a large project, and it’s understandable if you try to save some money on paint and other items. However, using low-quality paint will only save you a few hundred dollars during the project but will end up costing you much more down the line. Cheap paint generally doesn’t adhere well to the surface and will start peeling and cracking prematurely.
Additionally, low-quality, low-priced paint doesn’t provide the best coverage due to fewer color pigments used. This means you will actually need more paint cans to provide sufficient coverage.
Skipping on Surface Preparation
Most homeowners and DIY painters fail to prepare the paint surface adequately, either because they don’t understand the importance of proper surface preparation or don’t know how. If it’s been a while since you last painted your house, chances are the exterior has accumulated its fair share of flying dirt, dust, and debris over the years.
Before painting can take place, any surface dirt, mildew growth and failing loose paint need to be cleaned off the surface to facilitate better paint coverage and adherence. So power wash, strip the paint, sand, caulk and fill in any holes and cracks before painting.
Skipping the Primer
Applying the primer means additional expenses of buying the primer and more time and effort required to actually apply it. For this reason, many DIY painters are often tempted to skip priming the surface before painting. This is a huge mistake. Priming blocks and seals in any stubborn stains and dark previous paint colors from showing through your new paint. In addition, it promotes better paint coverage and adherence. The overall effect is a clean, vibrant, high-quality and durable paint job.
Painting on a Wet Surface
You won’t believe how often DIY painters make this mistake. And this can happen at various stages of the exterior residential painting process. Painting on a wet surface usually leads to poor paint adhesion –which translates to paint peeling and cracking just a few months down the line. In addition, moisture can get trapped under the paint film which leads to paint blistering.
So, before applying the primer after cleaning the surface, make sure it’s completely dry. Similarly, allow the primer and the subsequent paint coats to dry before applying the next ones.
Not Consulting the Experts
As already mentioned, exterior painting is a major project that can be overwhelming to a typical DIY painter. If you don’t have the right tools and experience, you’re more likely to make costly mistakes that defeat the cost of hiring a professional painter in the first place. If you have any doubt in your painting capabilities, we strongly recommend hiring a professional exterior painting contractor in San Diego such as Ron Rice Painting.
We’ve been doing exterior residential painting in San Diego for decades and would like to add you to our long list of happy clients. Simply give us a call to get started.