If you choose to paint your own house instead of hiring professional house painters, you definitely will benefit from time-saving tips. These are hacks, tips, and recommendations that will help you paint your house efficiently, effectively, and with less effort. Washing down your house by hand is the most effective and the most work-intensive way to get your house clean. But what is the least you can get by with? If you own a pressure washer, spray down the house two times. First, clean it with a soapy solution. Second, rinse it with clean water. If you have no pressure washer, your second-best option is to thoroughly hose it down. In any case, your main goals should be to knock off the big, visible junk (spiderwebs, wasp’s nests, leaves) and to wash away that thin soot and dust. If you do not know the present house color, find an area of peeling paint, pull it off, and take it to a paint store. If there is no peeling paint, remove a painted item such as a dryer vent or a strip of molding. The paint store usually can match the existing color. If you want to change your color, then consider making the next color darker than the present color. Using the same color or a darker color makes it easier to lay down just one coat. When the paint is in good condition and you are re-painting the same color, there should be no need to apply primer. Problem areas, though, will require a primer. Bare wood, wood filler, and rust-stained areas should all be primed. If you just have bare spots, an exterior-grade quart of primer will be enough. Hit unpainted and unprimed areas with primer, not the whole house. One caveat is that primed areas will show through the paint. So, unless your topcoat is pure white, you may need to apply an extra coat of paint just to hide the lighter-colored paint primer. One problem with paint scraping is that one section always seems to lead to another. If the edges of the paint will stay down, you can probably leave it alone. The new paint will seal the edges and help keep it in place. Scrape until you reach a relatively solid edge, then stop at that edge. If you find that you need to remove all of the paint from the house, it is time to hire house painters or a crew to mechanically remove the paint. If your house has flat siding or even large flat sections, use a paint roller and an extension pole to cover those sections quickly. On the other hand, paint spraying requires much preparation. Every part of the non-paintable surface within 20 feet should be covered. If you have delicate foliage or grass, those areas should be covered, too. If this is late in the summer and you have given up on the lawn for the season, you can probably spray without laying down a cover. If your house is rich in architectural details, the time invested in paint spraying will pay for itself many times over. Details usually mean brushwork, and brushwork is always slow. But if you are able to mask away non-painted areas without undue time or effort, this is highly recommended. For paint roller covers, purchase inexpensive quality roller covers and dispose of them at the end of each painting session. Better quality covers are recommended for interior painting, where critical eyes will be viewing the handiwork. Exterior painting is more conducive to economy-quality roller covers. With paintbrushes, it’s best to buy high-quality brushes and treat them well. The best way to do this is to clean your good brushes with a paintbrush comb and water. Paintbrush combs cut brush clean-up time at least by half. More importantly, they help you pull out all of the paint remaining between the bristles.
