Painting the exterior of your home is not only good for creating a new look, but also for increasing the value and longevity of your house. Sure, a new look is great for a time, but your home needs new paint every eight to ten years; especially paint in Denver Colorado.
Denver, as you very well know, has an incredibly dry climate and intense heat which wears on the paint on the exterior of your home; especially the south facing side of your home. Over the period of the eight to ten years the paint will fade to the point where it no longer protects your siding or trim of your home. This will lead to the wood breaking down, cracking, molding and falling apart.
Another sign that you will need to repaint your home is when you start seeing the caulking around the trim of your doors and windows starting to crack. This is due to your home settling and shifting. All homes settle over time and shift due to the framing & foundation moving around and is completely normal.
However your home is protected not only by the paint that covers the exterior of your house, but by the caulking that seals all of the joints of wood. So when you start seeing separation between the siding and trim, you have a big problem! Your home needs to be completely re-caulked immediately to seal your home from mold and mildew.
The first step in painting the exterior of your house is to clean the entire home. You see, you can’t simply just paint your home. You must clean the exterior of your home by using a pressure washer. By pressure washing your home you will remove all dirt, cob webs and most other particles that tend to stick to your home over time. With most houses you will not only need a pressure washer, but an extension ladder as well to reach the higher locations.
Using a pressure washer is the best resource for cleaning your home prior to painting, but a few tips are in order so that you don’t ruin your trim or siding while trying to clean your home.
Most pressure washers that you will rent will either be a 2000psi or a 3000psi. I would highly recommend the smaller, 2000psi, pressure washer because the 3000psi would just be overkill for the job. Another tip to keep in mind is that even though the pressure washer doesn’t seem too forceful, you can still do damage to the exterior of your home by holding the tip of the wand on the pressure washer close to your home. Doing so will cut into either the siding or trim of your home causing damage to the washed section.
A good rule of thumb is to hold the tip of the wand no closer than 12″ from your home.
On some homes it is a good idea to purchase a cleaning solution along with the pressure washer to help with getting the grease or other tough substances off your home.
This is the first step in painting the exterior of your home.
