You don’t need to be a professional painter to know if your house needs painting. Of course, whenever you get an estimate, the painters will always tell you that you should paint. But are they telling the truth? We want to get to the bottom of it in this article so you can decide if you need your house painted.
There are 3 common paint problems on homes. Simply take 5-10 minutes to walk around your house to identify any of these problems.
Problem #1: Fading Paint
You’ll notice the paint on your house fading on the areas that get the most sun…. typically the south and west sides of the house. If you wipe a dry, dark colored rag or towel on the house, you’ll notice some chalking paint come off the house. If your are noticing this happening, your wood is not very well protected any longer. Moisture can get into those boards and cause warping. The solution is to get a new coat of paint on there to protect it!
Problem #2: Peeling paint
This problem occurs on all parts of the home. The first places to peel are the areas that get the most moisture. Examples of this are window sills, bottom of the garage trim, bottom of the door trim, or other places that snow sits. Once paint peels off, the wood is no longer protected. Moisture gets into the wood and can rot the boards. The solution to peeling paint is to scrape the loose paint off, sand the area down to create a good texture, apply a full coat of primer to protect the wood, and a finish coat.
Problem #3: Cracking paint and failing caulking
Cracking is a very common problem you’ll notice in the joints of the house where boards meet. Check around door frames, window frames, and anywhere the siding meets the trim. If you notice cracks, this is where water can get behind the boards and rot them from the inside out. The solution to this is simple: recaulk those cracks with fresh caulking.
Now that you’ve found problems and identified, do you need to paint? The answer isn’t a simple yes or no.
The purpose of paint is to protect the house, and beautify your home. If the house LOOKS bad, and it’s embarassing, you should paint.
If you’ve noticed problems listed above, it doesn’t mean you have to paint. If you choose to wait, you can expect those problems to get worse, you can expect more damage to be done to the wood, you can expect your paint price to go up the next year, and you do risk having to repair boards.
Repairing one board on a house could cost up to an extra $50-$100 per board. If this is the first time you are noticing the peeling paint, fading paint, or cracking paint… it’s probably not that urgent.
Our recommendation: If you’ve noticed problems on your house, now is a good time to paint. It’s only going to get more expensive. The longer you wait, the lower quality the job will be (because the surface is in poorer condition).
When you get estimates, we always recommend getting 3 estimates to make sure you find a painting contractor you trust and feel comfortable with.