Here is How to Maintain Your Exterior Paint Job

Repainting the exterior of your home in Warsaw or Syracuse, Indiana, can be a major undertaking, whether you’re hiring a painting contractor like Matthews’ Painting or doing it yourself. It requires a significant investment in terms of money, time, and effort, which is why you would want it to last as long as possible. A high quality, properly executed exterior paint job will last longer without showing signs of paint failure, such as cracking, peeling, or flaking too soon.

Ultimately, however, each paint system deteriorates due to exposure to damaging elements such as rain, sun, humidity, frost, organic growth, and insect invasion. Proper maintenance can keep your exterior paint looking great for longer and reduces the need for costly major repairs. Below are our recommended exterior maintenance practices that will stretch your paint job’s durability, keep your siding protected and save you a lot of money that could have otherwise gone into costly repairs.

House Washing

As hinted above, your home’s exterior is exposed to a wide range of damaging elements, and over time, the siding will accumulate dust, dirt, and grime. Washing your home exterior gets rid of all kinds of surface contaminants, including dirt, pollen, air pollutants, mildew, mold spores, bird droppings, and more. Other than keeping your home looking great, it protects your paint system from deteriorating.

You can wash your exterior using a soft scrub brush or a sponge. A long-handled, soft-bristled scrub brush would be a perfect choice. Brush gently with mild soapy water and then rinse with plain water using a garden hose. This method can, however, be slow and tiresome, so if you want to save some time and energy, you can alternatively use a power washer. Rent one from a home improvement store, if you don’t have one. A thorough exterior washing at least once per year is recommended for most types of sidings.

Caulking

Caulk can split or crack over time, and this allows air leakage, which leads to increased heating costs and water intrusion that results in paint failure. Doors, vents, windows, and other features that interrupt your siding are the most prone to caulk failure. If there’re significant patches of missing caulk in your siding, consider hiring a professional to fix them in time before they lead to advanced damages.

Touch-up Painting

Different parts of your siding are exposed to varying conditions that result in different rates of paint deterioration. For instance, some areas receive more sunlight exposure than others, while some have different substrates underneath them, such as vinyl, metal, or wood. These conditions and more mean that some areas of your home’s exterior will require repainting sooner than others.

Waiting until you have to repaint the entire exterior means you will end up painting some areas sooner than you would need to, or letting other areas go too long before repainting. The best compromise is to perform touch-up painting on areas that are showing significant levels of paint failure. And this can be done after every one or two years. Hiring a Painter for a Day service can help you have this done professionally and significantly extend the durability of your paint job.

Dealing with Mold and Mildew

Mold and mildew can wreak havoc not just on your paint job, but on your siding substrate as well. If mold and mildew are a particularly major problem in your micro-climate, it’s wise to have your exterior painted with paints that have special additives to prevent mold and mildew in the first place.

If you have mold and mildew growth on an existing paint job, lightly scrub the affected areas with a mild detergent and a scrub brush. You can use a mixture of 1-part household bleach on 3-parts of plain water. Do this as soon as you see any signs of mildew or mold growth.

Bottom Line

The above four quick exterior paint maintenance tips should be able to keep your exterior paint looking pretty and going for longer. However, if you notice extensive signs of paint failure such as paint peeling, cracking, excessive chalking and fading, and extensive mold and mildew growth, it’s time for a new exterior paint job.

When your exterior needs a little more than just regular maintenance, Matthews’ Painting Company can be of help. Our crew has years of experience in residential painting, currently serving the areas of Warsaw, Syracuse, Lake Tippecanoe area, Winona Lake area, Columbia City, Indiana, and surrounding Indiana cities.

Contact us today for more details or a free estimate! (574) 834-3575