7 Exterior Painting Mistakes Every Homeowner Should Avoid in Mechanicsburg, PA

Exterior home painting is a process that can be taken on once every few years depending on how long it had been since the last time it was done.

The process of exterior home painting can be quite lengthy depending on how well it is planned and how many people are involved in the job itself.

There are things that, if you know about them, can and should be avoided as they could cause the project to take significantly longer and possibly be much more costly.

With that in mind, let us now look at seven exterior painting mistakes every homeowner should avoid in Mechanicsburg, PA.

1. Using The Wrong Kind Of Paint

When you’re going into an external painting project, one of the key things you will need is an appropriate amount of paint.

You’ll be able to calculate how much paint you will need by first estimating how many square feet the exterior of your home is (measuring or approximating both work well enough) and then using a standard paint calculator to get a number of gallons that you will need.

Since you will know how many gallons of paint you will need, it is quite important that the paint you get to be correct for the job.

This is beyond the seemingly obvious being sure that you use external paint and not internal paint — they aren’t interchangeable — but also matching the kind of paint you get to the kind of paint that already was there.

This means that if the house previously had latex paint, it should get latex paint when you repaint it and if it previously had oil paint, it should get oil paint for the new paint job.

2. Not Preparing Enough Before The Paint Job

There are quite a few things that go into preparing for a paint job, such as making sure that you don’t have any areas on your exterior that have peeling or loose paint of any sort, which have to be sanded with 120 grit sandpaper.

You must also check your home for signs of damage or any sort of rot that should be taken care of before you actually paint the house — if you think painting over this kind of thing will make it go away, you are mistaken.

3. Wrong Kind Of Ladder

Like with paint, there’s more than one kind of ladder and not all of them are appropriate for every need.

There are some ladders, for example, that could easily damage your home if you put them against it.

4. Bad Color Choice

A poor choice in the color of your paint is fairly easy to make if you go strictly off of the paint chips that you can find in any standard paint store.

It is far better for you to get a small sample of the paint itself and take it home and paint a small area of the exterior wall — and you’ll, therefore, be able to tell how good it looks in all lighting conditions.

5. Keep Your Pets Inside Or On A Leash

Just imagine the following scenario — your dog comes across the scene of you painting the exterior of your home and is excited by what’s going on and finds a paintbrush, runs around the yard with it, and you end up with a yard that is now splattered with paint.

Do yourself a favor and protect your home while you are painting by keeping your pets inside or on a leash while they are outside.

6. Verify It’s Not Too Humid Outside

When it’s too humid outside, the time to dry for water-based paints goes up considerably.

If you are using water-based paint, hold off on painting if you see that it is too humid outside.

7. Don’t Dunk Your Paintbrush — It’s Not A Donut

It’s entirely unnecessary to fully dunk your paintbrush — you only need to partially put in the paintbrush, about a third of the way in.

Doing this will save on paint waste from all of the dripping.

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