Dos and Don’ts In Painting Your Home’s Exterior Wall

Whether you’re painting your home’s exterior wall to increase your home’s value, enhance its overall appearance, or simply to protect your investment, this is actually an excellent home remodeling choice because a fresh coat of paint is enough to transform your shabby and unattractive house into an a fresh and attention-grabbing home. But before you get started with your paint job, you should know its dos and don’ts.

Dos

• Hire a professional unless you’re obsessive in doing things on your own. Remember, unless you’re willing to put all that kind of sweat like climbing ladders, getting spattered with paint, or working in a warm weather, then you’re better off hiring a professional painter to help you get the job done.
• Decide the type of paint you will use – latex, water or oil based. This is important as the type of paint you’ll apply depends on the surface of your exterior wall, the durability, as well as the ease of cleaning you prefer. Latex is actually a smart choice since it can resist UV-fading compared to alkyd. Plus, it’s less likely to crack or peel.
• Check the weather report regularly. Before painting, be sure to check the weather report for that day because you need to avoid painting on a rainy day, overly windy or humid day since such weather conditions can affect the finish. To achieve the best results, it’s recommended that you paint on days with a temperature of 10 to 30 degrees Celsius.
• It’ll really be helpful if you mix all cans of paint of the same color into a bucket before you start painting. This ensures uniformity because if you use two cans of the same color, there might be a slight different in their color concentration.
• Invest in the right tools for your project. If you’re going to use latex, you’ll need to invest in high-quality synthetic brushes to paint your shutters, trims and other areas. This also means choosing the correct width roller and the type of roller suited for your home’s exterior surface.

Don’ts

• Never choose low quality paint because extreme weather conditions, rain or even sunlight may cause the paint to crack or peel. Premium paints last much longer than their cheap variety plus they have better outcome.
• Never paint over surfaces that have peeling paint, mildew or are dirty. You have to make sure the surfaces are dry and dull before painting so wash the surfaces and then sand it if necessary.
• Do not choose Technicolor if you live in a quiet street where houses have almost the same aesthetic and palette. Keep this in mind especially if you plan to sell your home in the future.
• Don’t be lazy especially if you’ve chosen to do the job all by yourself. Never over reach to paint a larger area as this is not only dangerous, it can also lead to a poor and patchy paint job.
• Don’t start the project if you won’t be allotting enough time to finish it. Nothing looks worse than having a half painted house.

Home Remodeling Projects: What To Expect

If it’s your first time to take on a remodeling project, it’s normal to feel a little anxiety. You certainly have a lot of questions in mind like the cost, the amount of time necessary to get the job done, and the problems that might arise in between. Knowing what to expect will help lessen your fears while allowing you to be more prepared in handling anything that may come. Below are some things you can expect during your home remodeling projects.

Dirt and dust. There are a few ways to control dust and dirt from accumulating in non-construction areas of your home. You can use a compression-fit temporary wall to close off the construction area from other parts of your home. Another way is running an air filtering system that can pull the dust from the air. Otherwise, you can also hang a plastic sheet over the doorways that lead to the construction area, the cabinets and pantry doors too to keep the dust and dirt out of your bard.

Noise. This is something you couldn’t control unlike dirt and dust. Noise will become incessant therefore, if you want to sleep, you better find another place. And unless your office or working area is far from home, don’t consider working from home too because you certainly won’t be able to concentrate.

Other items can get broken. Even if the items aren’t found in the area where your remodeling project is taking place, they are still prone to getting damaged. There will be accidents but there are a few things you can do to prevent this from happening. For instance, you can move your valuable things out of the house. You can ask your other family members, neighbors or friends to keep these items while the remodeling is on going. Remove picture frames hanged on the wall too especially those opposite the wall of the room being working on.

Loss of privacy. A lot of your contractor’s workers will be in your home for a few weeks or months to do complete your home improvement project. Therefore, you have to learn to compromise, as this is inevitable while the project is on going.

The project might take longer that what you have estimated. Before the project starts, you will be discussing a few things with your contractor and one of which is a rough estimate of the project’s completion. Once you’ve determined this, add at least 15 percent to your estimated time because you might lose a day to rain, the materials might get delivered late, or some areas of the project might need to be re-done.

5 Don’ts In Home Remodeling

A lot of homeowners have gone through different home remodeling projects with various contractors. From such experiences, they’ve learned lessons they want to share to other homeowners so they can avoid committing the same mistakes as they have a negative impact on the home renovation.

So what are those things that can hurt your home remodeling project?

Changing your mind too much is one thing!

Although this is inevitable, just remember that changing your mind too often can have negative effects on the project. This means an increase in total costs, an extension of the project’s timeline and the alteration in the scheduling of the tasks.

Purchasing your own materials.

We know you’re thinking that this is an obvious way to save you a lot of money but actually, your contractor may get a better price than you did. Therefore, even after the markup, you might be paying almost the same price.

Working on a project without emergency funds is a big no-no.

It’s uncommon for homeowners to set a realistic budget for a project. Sometimes, a project eats a part of your emergency funds however; it’s never advisable to stretch your budget to the point of consuming your contingency funds just to get the job done. Plan ahead of time and if the budget isn’t enough, don’t push through with the project for the mean time.

Living in the property.

Homeowners usually ignore this rule for a good reason. Of course, remodelling is already expensive and moving out while the remodelling is going on just adds to your expenses. But if you can’t move out totally, try to spend some time away in a clean and comfortable place especially if you can’t handle the stress of coming home to a messy environment.

Working without a design.

Never start a project without a design because this will eventually lead to a series of problems once the remodelling project starts. You’ll need the help of interior designers, architects and talented home builders to come up with a functional and satisfactory home remodelling project.

Just follow these essential guide and we promise you, you don’t need to lose your sanity while completing your home remodelling project.