Is Your House Ready For a Paint Job?

Is your house looking a little shabby? Has several years of acid rain washed away the colorants? Is six layers of paint peeling away from the siding and trim? Is your house green from mold instead of your neighbors green with envy? These are all signs that your house might need some maintenance, but is painting really in order?

Let’s take a look at the most common problems that we encounter on exterior paint jobs in the Pacific Northwest

Mold – mold is so common on exterior siding and trim that I declare mold the Oregon state flower. Take a walk around your house and look for signs of mold, which is usually black and green when it’s blooming or dark grey and black when it has penetrated the paint or wood. If the only problem you see on your exterior is the mold issue, try having the house professionally power washed and treated with a mold killer. Be careful that you use a product that won’t damage your paint. Bleaching your house over and over again can lighten up the paint color.

If the mold does not clean off with the pressure washing, then you will most likely need to prime the stained areas and paint. To avoid having mold ruin your paint job, pressure wash your house regularly.

Paint bubbles – If the paint is bubbling off your house, you may have a deeper issue. This can mean that your siding has moisture. Check out my blog on blistering and peeling paint to find out more: http://sisupainting.com/blog/2014/02/08/what-to-do-paint-failure/

If the issue is not bad, you may want to just paint the areas that are failing. I don’t recommend touch ups very often because they don’t look good, but if you continually have bubbling, it’s doubtful you’ll want to repaint your house every time a bubble appears. Besides, more layers of paint on a bubbling house can exasperate the issue.

Peeling paint – If the paint is just weathered and worn and peeling of the fascia boards, trim or even the siding and there’s no moisture issues, then it’s time to repaint. Allowing paint failure to continue will only increase your risk of costly repairs. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and it’s been proven true over and over again in this instance. If you allow your siding or trim to be exposed to the elements without the proper protective coatings, your substrates will get irreversible damage from moisture and UV damage that can only be remedied with replacement. Then, you still have to paint! This undertaking is an expensive process and unfortunately, one I see way too often. Sadly, paint will not repair this kind of damage.

If the substrate is exposed, but it’s still sound, you are good to go. Get your house protected before Mother Nature has her way with you!

You may be tempted to just paint the trim, but if it’s been many years since your last paint job and you’ll be repainting the siding in the near future anyway, it can save you a lot of money to bite the bullet and have all the painting done at once. Breaking the job out into two phases will end up costing quite a bit more. You will have to pay for the pressure washing twice and the masking is extensive when we only paint the siding or the trim. If however, your siding is in great shape and there’s no need to paint that anytime soon, then I recommend just painting the trim. Sometimes, due to weather and other conditions, the trim will require painting much sooner than the siding. It’s good to paint the trim intermittently with the siding.

Dirty and dull – If your house is just looking dirty and the paint has dulled, pressure washing can brighten and clean it up. Think about how your car looks after just a few days of sitting out in the weather. Rain mixes with the dust, mold spores and pollen and it turns into a slurry of gunk. Your house is exposed and while the eaves provide some protection, it is limited. I recommend washing your house every one or two years at least. Chances are, it’s been longer than that, so I say “better late than never”.
Fading – Unfortunately, when a paint job fades, there’s not a whole lot of options. Either you repaint or you live with it. Dark colors, substandard paint products and poor application can result in premature fading. This doesn’t usually affect the protective properties of the product, but it is unsightly. The south facing sides tend to fade the quickest. If you have just one side of the house fading, painting just that side may be your best option.

While this information does not cover every type of exterior paint problem, I hope that I have provided enough information to help you decide whether or not it’s time to start thinking of painting your home. Don’t hesitate to contact us with further questions.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Nancy Long