1. When is it time to paint?

The clues to whether there is a paint job in your future may lie in your past: What was the quality of paint you used on your last paint job? How thoroughly was your home prepped before it was painted? How extreme has the weather been since your home was painted? How good was your last painter (one way to tell is how his work is holding up). A great paint job with premium paint can last 15 or 20 years. A poor paint job may start revealing problems in a matter of months, and need to be redone after a few years. Paint makes your home look good and well cared for, and it is also the primary barrier protecting your home from the weather and insects. When you inspect the current condition of your home's exterior paint, it is time to paint if you see:

• Chips
• Flakes
• Cracks
• Peeling
• Blistering

Places where the wood or other building materials are exposed with no paint covering

2. When is it NOT time to paint?

When the temperature is below 50 degrees (F).
When you have reason to believe that wet weather will follow a day of painting, or if the weather has caused the surface to be wet and it has not yet dried thoroughly.
Bottom Line: If you are painting your own home, avoid painting in conditions that are too cold or wet, as these conditions will negatively impact the results of your hard work. If you are working with a professional painter, have the "weather conditions" discussion as part of the interview process. Ask them how they adjust their schedule to weather conditions.

3. Get Help or Do it Yourself?

As major do-it-yourself household projects go, exterior painting requires a medium level of expertise. Beyond the expertise required, and depending on the size of your home, it can be a multi-day job requiring a lot of physical exertion. There are some precision techniques required in preparation and painting. If you are thinking of using a power paint sprayer, these can make the job go much faster but also take some getting used to; try getting a big piece of scrap plywood you can use to practice the even motions required by the paint sprayers.
If you are like most home owners, you'll be hiring a professional painter to paint the exterior of your home.

4. Brands

There are many brand manufacturers in the paint market, and Splise ranks 26 of them. A number of the larger companies have several lines of paint, of varying quality. Other companies only have one line of paint, which obviously comes in a variety of colors. If you are working with a professional painter to paint your home, they may have a brand they prefer to work with. If so, consider trying to find the colors you want within your painters preferred brand of paint. If you have a brand that you prefer and it is important that your house be painted using that brand of paint, discuss it with the painters you are interviewing before you finalize your dicision.

5. Oil/Alkyd or Latex Paint

Old-style oil based paints are, for the most part, no longer available because they contained so much thinner, a major pollutant. The new generations of oil based paints have replaced much of the thinner with alkyds, a synthetic thinner. Alkyd-based paints are still less environmentally friendly than latex paints, and are tightly regulated by many states. Latex paints work as well or better than alkyd paints on siding.

6. Four characteristics that determine paint quality

Hiding characteristics: when the paint is applied to the surface, how well does it hide what is under it?
Chalking resistance: if the binder in a paint is not of good quality, over time it will tend to separate and the paint will begin to have a chalky appearance.
Blistering resistance: blistering or bubbling happens when excess moistures comes from under the paint layer. This can be influenced by the conditions under which you home was painted, but also by the degree to which you paint resists blistering.
Color retention: how well does your paint hold its color over time. Poor quality paints will fade as a result of exposure to sun and other elements.

7. Sheen

Sheen describes the level of light reflectivity possessed by a paint. Generally, the higher the sheen (the more reflective), the more stain resistant a paint is. The lower the sheen, the less stain resistant.

• Flat has the lowest sheen, and is good for covering surfaces that are imperfect (scratched, dented, or gouged) that would be highlighted by a higher sheen paint.
• Low Lustre, Satin, or Eggshell does not have a high seen, but is easier to clean than flat paint. It is a good choice for homes that are exposed to a lot of dirt and would need the exteriors washed regularly.
• Soft/Medium Gloss is durable like high gloss paint, but has a little less sheen. It is often used on trim and casings as a highlighting effect.
• High Gloss is the most reflective It is also the toughest and most resistant to scuffs.

8. Color

The color of your home is, in most cases, a very personal decision. The exception would be if you lived in a planned community where house color are controlled by local ordinance, and if you live in a historic district and may choose to remain within the historic norms of your community.
In thinking about the color to paint your home, consider the practical issues first: if your house is currently painted a dark color, and you want to paint it a light color, you may have to cover it first with a primer coat and then multiple coats of your light color to ensure that the dark under-color does not bleed through. Read the sections of this Exterior Painting Buying Guide on Primer and Coverage, talk to the folks at the paint store or with the
The color or color combinations you choose to cover your home are personal decisions. But decisions can have consequences. If the colors you've chosen for your home are not attractive to most people, you may have to repaint the house if you decide to sell it, or risk having your paint color reduce the value of your home. Another consequence of choice is if your home is currently a dark color and you decide to paint it a light color, because it is hard to get light colors to completely cover a dard color. You may end up having to buy very expensive paints (with lots of pigment to cover the dark undercoat), you may have to put on many coats, or both.

9. Primer

A primer will help protect the surface and it will help paint adhere to the surface. If you are painting over a dark or variably-colored surface, a primer will provide a more uniform appearance with fewer coats of paint. It is wise to use a primer when you are painting over new materials, when you are painting materials that have been heavily prepped with all layers of paint completely removed, or if the paint you are attempting to cover is dark or bright. You can ask a paint salesperson or your painter (if you are using one) for their opinion based on your situation.

10. Painting Methods

There are several, popular methods for painting.

• Brushes
• Rollers
• Powered Painters and Sprayers

Often rollers or power sprayers are used for exterior walls, and brushes are used for windows, doors, and other areas requiring detail work. Professional painters have usually worked out a method or combination of methods for achieving optimal results, and most homeowners let the painter decide how the get the job done (though it is perfectly acceptible to ask the painter what methods they use). However, if you have a preference and want your home to be painted with rollers, for instance, it would be important to let the painter know this before they worked up a quote for you, as it may effect the price of the job.

11. Cost/Economy

When calculating the cost of painting your house, it is important to evaluate the costs of getting the job completed, but also calculating how long the job will last. The higher the quality the paint, the more likely it is to look good and protect your home for many years. In terms of the cost of the painter: have you hired a painter who has thoroughly prepped your house before he starts painting? How many coats of paint is he applying? If he painting only when conditions are optimal? A thorough paint job with quality paints can last 15 or even 20 years. A poorly done paint job will start showing signs of deterioration in three years, sometimes even less than that.
Another factor worth considering is that many of the paint companies sell paint at one rate for consumers and at another rate for painting contractors. When calculating whether to use a contractor or paint yourself, you should realize that contractors get paint at a lower price that you can on your own.