If the paint on your home's exterior is peeling, or if you're ready for a new color, talk to an exterior house painting contractor about having new paint put on. You may need to wait until the temperature warms up enough to have paint applied, so late spring through the fall are good times to schedule exterior house painting.

However, since warm weather is the busy season for painters, you may need to schedule the work a month or two in advance, so you don't want to wait until the last minute if you want the new paint on by a specific date. Here are the steps required for painting the exterior of your home.

Remove Peeling Paint

All the old peeling paint has to be scraped off of your house. If your old paint is in bad shape, this could take a lot of time. When the loose paint is gone, the painter may sand over the area to make sure the surface of the walls is smooth. Then your house can be washed to get rid of dirt.

The painter may use a power washer to clean all sides of your house. When your house is clean, the new paint can stick much better. They'll let the house dry thoroughly and then proceed with applying primer.

Apply Paint Primer

It may be necessary to paint the house with primer first. Primer seals the walls so new paint won't soak in and cause the finished job to look splotchy. Primer is generally used on bare walls and on walls where a lot of old paint has been scraped off. It might also be used if you're changing the color of the walls.

Some exterior house paints come with paint and primer combined so the step of adding a primer coating alone can be skipped. Your exterior house painting contractor will determine if a primer coat is needed. If your old paint job is still in good shape and you're using the same color, it might be possible to skip the primer step.

Paint The House

At this point, several days may have passed since the painting crew started working. When it's time to start painting, the crew has to consider weather conditions since dry conditions in an ideal temperature range as determined by the paint manufacturer are needed for the best results. They may apply the paint with a sprayer and by brushing and rolling.

If you buy high-quality paint and you're keeping the same color, a single coat of paint may be all that's needed. However, for the best coverage, your painter may apply two coats. Look into exterior house painting for more information.