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Prep
Take time to make an assessment of your project.
Note the condition of the all the surfaces to be painted. In general you
will find areas that have pealing or weathered paint, discolored or faded
areas, dirty and mildewed surfaces. To check to see if the surfaces is
chalky, wipe a colored rag across the surface to see if it picks up the
color.
Windows can be a job themselves. Older style windows
may have loose or missing glazing compound (putty) to deal with
before they can be painted.
As you go through the prep process it is possible
you may find areas that need minor if not major repair. Common problem
areas are where window casings meet the window sill, the bottom of door
casings and where wood is low to the ground. These are areas where
moisture has a high potential collect and cause wood to decay. If you
should encounter any rot problems, it is important that repaired as soon
as possible to prevent further spreading.
Before starting the work,
consider any near by power lines in the area you will be working. Call the
utility company to have them place protective covers over the lines. This
is a free service in many communities .
Having tools and materials on hand ahead of
time will save you a few interruptive trips to the hardware store while
you seemed to be making some real progress. Although we all need a break
from this kind of labor from time to time.
Make a
list of common items such as ; Tools :Extension ladders, step ladder,
scrappers, putty knife, paint brushes, caulk gun, dust brush, buckets, pot
hooks, drop cloths, hammer, screwdriver, pliers, wash brush, sponge, stir sticks, water hose & nozzle, pieces of boards to
shim under ladders, rope, "wet paint" signs.
Materials:
Sandpaper, caulk, scrapper blades, wood filler, rags, masking tape,
primer, finish paint, paint thinner, window glazing, window points,
nails. Personal Items:
Dust mask, hat, work
gloves, rubber, gloves, sunglasses, sunscreen, insect repellent, first-aid
kit in case of cuts, scratches, ect.
Quality:
We believe it is important to do a good & thorough job, however to be very
fussy on an exterior is probably not practical is most cases, as this
could add days, weeks or even months of prep work labor if one is an
extreme perfectionist
Beginning
the work Rotating your work:
As you work
you will probably want to work on a shady side of the house. This way you
may end up with two or more sides scraped before you do any priming. You
may choose to complete all of the scraping first , but if a side is
scraped and the surface is dry it may be a good idea to prime the side
before the next rain. This way you may end up with some sides primed
before other sides are scraped. Any way that is best for you is ok, but
try not to work in direct sunlight and get the priming done while the
surface is dry.
Setting up:
Any Shutters & paint-able storm
windows can be removed and done on a work bench. You may chose to
remove the window screens before you began to prevent them from
being spattered. It is very difficult to remove paint from screens. You
will probably have some steps, decks, sidewalks or other items to cover
before you begin to spread any paint
{Caution do not
set ladders (except for open step ladders) on drop cloths}
Also
See Ladder Safety
Washing: Washing exterior surfaces prior to
painting is highly recommended by many paint companies today, however;
depending on the condition often surfaces can be successfully painted
without washing. You will at least have to use a
dust brush in some areas. It may be best if you at least wash some of the
building before it is painted. If it is very dirty chalky or mildewed it
should be probably washed. If you decide to wash,
we usually recommend washing the exterior surface before it is scraped.
After washing, any wood surfaces should be allowed several days drying
time before it is primed See
Washing Surfaces
Also See Repaint
Illustrations 1
Scrapping
is one of the hardest
jobs included in a repaint project. We recommend using1 & 2 inch scrappers
although other sizes are available. Most paint scrappers have changeable
blades because it does not take to get them dull, although we have learned
to sharpen our scrappers with a file to cut down on buying replacement
blades. However we still recommend buying new blades each time
between major painting projects. Very seldom is all
or a high percentage of the old paint removed from the exterior of a
building before it is painted. To do so would take a great deal of work or
cost thousands of dollars. The objective here is to
scrape off any loose paint. All pealing areas will have loose paint around
the edges. You should try to remove all of this loose paint until the
remaining paint feels tightly bonded. If the remaining paint is difficult
to remove, and you see no loose edges then you have probably scraped the
area enough. A chisel-edge putty knife will often help to remove
loose paint. Start scrapping at the top of the
building cover all areas that may possibly need some scrapping. Carry a
piece of 60 or 80 grit sandpaper with you, and use it to take down
some of the hard edges of the paint and any frayed wood. It will usually
be to difficult and time consuming to featheredge all paint edges so do
not get carried away with the sanding. Any heavily rusted nail heads can
be quickly sanded over at the same time to remove loose rust. Small
holes can be filled with filled with the appropriate patching material
such as wood doe, exterior spackling or putty
Priming: The next step
is to get all of the bare wood primed .The wood should dry, this is most
important if oil base primer is to be used. Usually spot priming is
sufficient. If you will be repainting using a colored finish paint,
similar to the existing color, it may benefit you to have some primer
tinted to an approximate color that you will be using, (especially on
darker colors). Paint stores should be able to do this for little or
no extra charge. Prime patch material and rusted nail heads also.
(See
Exterior Paint for information on
exterior primers) Also see
Repaint Illustrations Page 2
Caulking:
You may chose to caulk side joints
such as where clapboards meet corner boards and window & door casings. Do
not caulk the joints under clapboards or joints under or between shingled
siding. The objective here is to prevent rain water from running into the
joints, but allow moisture to escape from under the overlap joints. We
prefer to use a white latex caulk in most cases. This type of caulk can be
used directly to most surfaces but will bond better to a primed surface
than bare wood or metal. Caulk itself does not usually require primer
before painting. |