Tips on Preparing Your House for Painting

There are many things you need to do before the painting of the house begins. If you don’t carry out certain preparation steps, you will experience a longer period for painting as some of the work will get doubled or delayed.

When working with painting services Melbourne, you have to ask them about their process. And how they prepare the site before the actual painting starts. There will be some things that you will have to do as the client such as moving valuables out of the way. You may need to look for alternate accommodation if painting is happening in multiple areas of the house at the same time. This way you can get a lot of work done in a small amount of time. But if you are living in the house at the same time as painting happens, the work will need to happen in stages. This is something to discuss with the painting company. When it comes to preparation, you have to consider any wood that is close to the ground. They can easily get damp due to the closeness to the ground and will not hold paint properly. For example, you may want to paint the trim of the garage door but it will not hold paint well due to the moisture of the concrete floor. In a situation such as this, you can create a gap between these two surfaces.          

Once you have separated the wood close to the ground, you can apply paintable water repellent to it in order to give it some durability. If there is any area with peeling paint, you need to scrape the paint away from it using sandpaper and paint scrapers. There may be areas where there is heavy paint build-up on the surfaces. In this case, you will need to use a heat gun so that the paint is softened making it easier to scrape. When hiring a painter, you need to show them around the house and show the problem areas so that they know the full scope of work and will quote accurately. There may be pieces of siding that are not in good condition. So it will not be a good idea to paint these as they will deteriorate quickly. In that case, you will need to remove the board. If there are waxy surface areas on the siding, you can sand these areas so that it will hold paint better. While sanding and priming the boards can increase durability of the siding, for long term durability, replacement is recommended.

When you are painting the exterior of the house, you need to scrape off any peeling paint first and carry out the required repairs. There may be sanding and re-caulking required. The painter will decide whether priming is needed. The house has to be washed so that all dirt is removed. When painting the interior, smaller items that can be removed should be taken out and the larger items of the room such as the furniture have to be moved to the centre and covered. To ensure that all surfaces are painted, you have to remove the covers for power outlets and light switches.