With the weather at its seasonal best, millions of homeowners across America are tooling-up and getting busy with all manner of paint jobs. Exterior painting in particular proves popular over the summer months, when the amicable conditions outdoors are perfect for painting.

Painting the exterior of your home can be satisfying and rewarding in equal measures. Stepping back to admire your handiwork having produced a remarkable result really is something else. But as anyone who’s tried their hand at exterior painting will know, achieving a flawless result can be easier said than done.

Which begs the question – what’s the secret behind outstanding results when painting your home’s exterior?

The answer…well, there are actually five main pointers you’ll want to bear in mind along the way. So if planning an exterior painting project while the weather holds out, proceed in accordance with the following and you’ll be onto a winner:

1. Protect Your Exteriors Thoroughly

First up, you need to acknowledge and prepare for the fact that paint is going to get absolutely everywhere. Literally…everywhere! You can be as careful as you like when painting your home’s exterior, but trust us when we say it’s an inevitability. As such, it’s a good idea to go to extremes when it comes to the required protective measures. Invest in all the sheeting and covers necessary to comprehensively protect everything in the vicinity. One important note – take our advice and avoid using the kinds of plastic sheets that can become dangerously slippery when wet.

2. Focus On Surface Preparation

Chances are, the existing coat of paint on the exterior of your home isn’t going to be in the best condition. In which case, you’ll need to invest as much time and effort as necessary in preparing the surface. Any chipped, loose, cracked or peeling paint is going to need to be sanded away. Any glossy surfaces you intend to paint will need to be scuffed with sandpaper, in order to ensure proper adhesion of the paint. After which, you’ll need to thoroughly clean your entire home’s exterior from top to bottom. The whole thing needs to be flawlessly clean, ensuring you allow as much time as necessary for the surfaces to dry.

3. The Right Tools For The Job

Cutting corners on quality to save money is always tempting, but is nonetheless inadvisable. If looking to produce a professional-quality result, you’ll need to arm yourself with professional-quality tools and provisions. It’s up to you whether you use paint brushes, rollers, sprays or any other application method. Nevertheless, you need to ensure that whichever option you choose, the quality of the tools is as good as it gets. Likewise, working with anything other than the highest quality exterior paint money can buy is a recipe for disaster. And just in case you wondered, the answer is yes – you need specialist exterior paint to paint your exterior surfaces.

4. Always Start At The Top

Whether applying the paint itself or preparing the surfaces with primer, always start at the top and work your way down. No matter how careful you are, it’s inevitable that a certain amount of the paint/prime you apply will drip and dribble down as gravity does its business. But given the fact thing you haven’t yet painted/primed the area beneath, it’s not the end of the world. By contrast, start at the bottom and work your way up and you’ll be fighting a losing battle from start to finish.

5. Enlist Help

Last but not least, we strongly recommend against attempting to tackle any exterior painting product whatsoever on your own. If you don’t want to bring in the professionals to take care of things on your behalf, you’ve no need to do so. However, painting your home’s exterior without at least one other (responsible) individual nearby is a fundamentally bad idea. For one thing, an extra pair of hands can simplify the whole thing from start to finish. In addition, you need to think carefully about what might happen if you find yourself in a sticky situation. It’s statistically unlikely you’ll have a nasty accident, but just in case you do, it’s worth having somebody close to hand. If there’s nobody available to help, consider delaying things until there is.

Take your time, work exclusively with premium-quality gear and you could be looking at a flawless result to be proud of. For more information on any aspect of exterior painting, contact a member of the team at Homm CPS today.