Exterior Painting 101
Ever wonder how often a home should be painted? Depending on who you ask, the answers can vary anywhere from 5- 10 years for a wood sided home, and there are a number of variables that determine whether your home needs a new coat.
Exposure
Within the Santa Cruz area, we are blessed with lots of sunshine and outdoor living. While we pick up some color during our time in the sun, our homes are affected by the UV rays as well, causing the paint to turn chalky, crack, and fade. Paints are made of pigments, binders, and solvents. Over time, UV rays breakdown or oxidize the binders, which in turn release the pigments. If we were to draw a parallel of your home’s exterior paint with a quality sunblock, a house with chalky, faded, or cracked paint will expose your wood siding to the elements, becoming more susceptible to rot, cupping, and splitting, just as we become vulnerable to lasting effects from second degree sunburns.
Quality of Previous Paint Job
There are a number of factors involved in getting a good paint job. At Santa Cruz Landmark Construction, we believe that a good paint job is 90% prep work.
The surface area to be painted needs to be clean and dry, with any paint bubbles or chips scraped away. Old dried up window caulking should be scraped away at this time as well and replaced with paintable exterior grade caulk, which needs to be primed prior to painting.
The quality of the primer and paint is important!
Better paints and primers are formulated with greater pigmentation and resin, with less solvent material, which will provide better coverage overall. Good primer and paint will:
provide a solid even color
stick well to the home, without cracking or peeling off
be stain resistant
Planning to change the color?
Bring home a sample to test on a couple of walls for a true look at the pigmentation in different lighting. What may look great on a paint swatch will look different once applied on your walls! Take a look at the color palette that your neighbors use. While you will most likely want to use a different color, the tone of your colors homes should complement each other.
For more information about what we do, please contact us at molly@sclandmarkconstruction.com
