The first step in the painting process is to have the house cleaned. The best way to clean your home is power washing. Power washing is an effective and efficient way to clean the surfaces on the exterior of your home. A mixture of bleach and TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) along with water is the best solution to remove mold, mildew and chalking that may exist on the siding.

If the paint on the siding is loose and peeling, a lot of that will be removed as well by power washing. There will be some loose paint left behind that will have to be hand scraped. Once the house is given adequate time to dry, your paint contractor should return and continue to prepare the house for paint.

The next step in the preparation process is actually protection. All walk-ways, the driveway, roof and landscaping should be covered with drop cloths while the painters are working in those areas. All windows, light fixtures and other items not getting painted should be covered by plastic or masked off with tape. Once all protection is in place your painter should go around the home and scrape all loose and peeling paint off the home.

After the loose paint is removed all gaps and cracks in the home should be caulked with a paintable latex caulk. All bare wood areas should be primed with a high quality exterior primer. Once all of these preparation stages are complete, your house is finally ready to be painted!

As you can see preparing a house for paint is not a quick and easy process. It is actually time consuming and absolutely necessary for a quality paint job. Preparation is usually 80% of the paint process. It sets the tone for the entire paint job and if overlooked or done poorly it could result in a less than desirable end product. If all proper steps are taken to prepare your house for paint you can expect excellent results and your home looking beautiful for years to come.

Article originally published at Source by Geoff A Sharp