Painting a house

[Sixpence]

My house needs to be painted. It's not very big and I really don't have the money to pay someone, so I thought I would do it myself(with a little help from my friends).

Now I am not looking forward to the prep work, but I was told you can use a pressure wash instead of scraping, anyone have any experience with this?

[Curval]

Are you scraping to remove paint from wood or masonary?

Power washes can put holes in masonary quite easily...which can make for a whole lot of patching up afterwards.

[Sixpence]

Wood shingle

[rabbidrabbit]

You need a good pressure washer but be careful not to get the nozzle too close or you might cut through the wood shingle itself.  It takes a bit of practice so just start in a less obvious place.

[Jackal1]

If you use a power washer make sure you allow plenty of drying time afterwards before painting. If not you trap moisture under the paint , which is worse than not painting at all.

[Sixpence]

Originally posted by Jackal1
If you use a power washer make sure you allow plenty of drying time afterwards before painting. If not you trap moisture under the paint , which is worse than not painting at all.

Yeah, I kinda figured. I got some loose stuff that's gonna get washed off and I guess you can't use a drop cloth when you pressure wash. I'm kinda wondering about the cleanup of the loose stuff that comes off.

Also, would you paint the trim first?

Gonna run to sherman-williams, see if they got some answers

[LTARokit]

Pressure washer good idea, quick and easy.  These tips may be helpful:

Your stripping a wood surface with pressure washer, be careful of the PSI settings of the washer.  Rent one that has adjustable pressure settings.  With wood surfaces lower PSI is better, anywhere from 300 to 900 PSI will do the job.

Wand tip:  Make sure washer comes with appropiate nozzle tip (goes into the end of wand).  Tip sizes are listed by angle of degree.  At zero degrees....means you have a jet stream of water and will cut through your wood siding like a hot knife through butter.  I would choose eith a 45 or 33 degree nozzle to clean wood surfaces.  The wider angle also lessens the PSI.

Male sure you have plenty of exterior rated caulking on hand too.  Any loose caulking will be removed by pressure washer.

Hope that helps.


PS:  on the wand tip, if thay don't have the right one go anywhere they sell pressure washers and you can get one for $5.

[BigGun]

Paint the trim last.

[DREDIOCK]

Sixpence. check your PMs

Correct answer is -probably both.

And you can do it a couple of ways depending on how thourough you want to be.
If your house is peeing badly you might not want to pressure wash first as all those paint chips are going to go blowing all over the place.

I would not advise someone with little to no experience, stripping a house of paint by way of powerwashing.
You can. Damage the house. Damage yourself. or both

If its peeling badly. I'd run across it real quick just scraping off. as much of the really loose stuff as you can. Unless its really windy most of it will fall straight down and make it a hell of alot easier to clean up.
Then powerwash. (with no more then a 2600 PSI and no lower then a 2400 PSI powerwasher for your average homowner) Let it dry then go around and scrape  whatever else you may fidh came loose from the powerwasher. and either spot prime those spots that came off as you go along (using an exteriour primer) or prime the entire house.
Like I said, It depends on how thorough you want to be

If your looking for a perfect job (most people arent) you will want to sand down those areas where the paint was peeeling and maybe use an eteriour spackle to smooth it all out again to pristine  like new condition before you prime.
Either way. Anyplace if goes down to the bare wood. You are going to want to prime first.

Also. If oil paint has been used on the house and you are planning on using a latex over it.
You MUST use an oil based primer first. Or its just going to peel again.

I used the 24-2600 PSI reccomendations that less then 2400 PSI and your basically using an oversized waterpistol. You could probably do almost as good with a plain garden hose and a spray nozzle as aything under 2400 PSI. using a fan tip

Larger then 2600 PSI and your running a greater risk of damaging the siding,windows or yourself.
I have a buddy of mine who is also a professional and because of a simple act of carelessness took a nice sized chunk of flesh out of his left arm. He still bears the scar some 10 years later.

also because if yoru inexperienced and you use a more powerful one 3000-4000 PSI it will only take you a moment to shred the wood on your siding or trim or to blow out a window.

Also, wash up well when your done or are stopping to eat something.
If your house is over 30 years old there is a 75% chance it has lead paint on it in one or more of its layers

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by BigGun
Paint the trim last.

Paint the trim first.
Then you wont have to worry about any laddermarks on the siding after  its been painted. AND
If you pain tthe trim first, You will fint its alot easier to keep the diding paint off the trim then to keep the trim paint off the siding.
Particularly if you want a proffesional looking job and are painting the side of the trim that fases the siding and arent just facing off the trim.


you can do it the other way. But this way is both easier and faster.

Use quality tools.
For brushes Use Purdy, or Woosters
Some people like the Cornado brushes but I find they have a longer break in time then I like

GoldCrests are good too if you can find them

Expect to pay about $15 for a brush, Less if you can get a contractors discount

Stay away from Home Depot paint.(Behr/Glidden)
Its cheper yes.
and thats exactly what your getting. cheap paint.
I dont care how much they paid consumer reports to say its good. the stuff is trash.
I WONT use it. Not even on the Customers insistance.
I tell them to find a different contractor instead.

"yes, your house.
But. my business and reputation"

[FiLtH]

I hope u have better luck than I had.  I stained my house, with a Wagner. The nozzle I wanted to use kept clogging so I had to use the bigger one. What a mess I made. Stained windows, roof, and even a bird that popped out of the eaves at me....out of reflex I sprayed the poor thing head on. Bad news is...its time to stain again!!!  Perhaps a brush will be used this go-round.

[McDeath]

Problem there was the Wagner. they mostly just spit. Rent a professional quality airless sprayer from a good paint store, much less overspray and tons easier to use.
oh and buy or rent if they will a spray shield ( big piece of metal/plastic with a handle) to keep from spaying adjacent areas that you dont want stain. Other than that spend some time masking and covering areas you dont want to stain. It takes some time but you will be happier with the results.

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by McDeath
Problem there was the Wagner. they mostly just spit. Rent a professional quality airless sprayer from a good paint store, much less overspray and tons easier to use.
oh and buy or rent if they will a spray shield ( big piece of metal/plastic with a handle) to keep from spaying adjacent areas that you dont want stain. Other than that spend some time masking and covering areas you dont want to stain. It takes some time but you will be happier with the results.

LMAO spot on.
Ive found Wagner products generally suck.
Homeowners will swear by them though.
That is till they've used a professional machine LOL

If your not used to spraying yes a sheild is a good idea.
Just remember to wipe it clean every once in a while or it will build up and start dripping
I've been doing this for almost 30 years and I can get to within a few inches of just about anything without getting overspray on the undesired object.
but like I said. I've been doing it almost 30 years. You get that good the same way you get to carnagie hall "Practice practice practice"

I dont do alot of spraying on houses anymore  (maybe 2-3 a year)because of landscape and vehicle concerns. Even if you keep it off the windows by whatever means if its even a slghtly windy day nearby plants and shrubs get the speckled effect
 And with todays landscaping its impractical to cover everything.

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by FiLtH
I hope u have better luck than I had.  I stained my house, with a Wagner. The nozzle I wanted to use kept clogging so I had to use the bigger one. What a mess I made. Stained windows, roof, and even a bird that popped out of the eaves at me....out of reflex I sprayed the poor thing head on. Bad news is...its time to stain again!!!  Perhaps a brush will be used this go-round.

I am assuming your using a solid stain and not a semi transparent?

If your using a semi trasnsparent remember. work on only one or two boards at a time and complete the entire board from one end to the other always maintainigna an wet even endge as you progress otherwise your going ot end up with lap marks.

I gave an estimate to someoen a couple years ago on a pretty big house for $7,000 to stain it. Which considering the size of the house I thought was a fair price.

Did a follow up call about a week later and she told me  (with a bit of attitude I might add)she hired someone to do it "alot Cheaper" ($4,000). So I told her well your going to get either a good job or a cheap job. the two dont usually go hand in hand and that staining a house with semi transparent is different then using a solid stain or painting it." Sh said she'd take her chances.
Ok, suit yourself

I happeend ot be working in the area and would drive by her block on the way home where I could see her house from the main road.
Soon as I saw who;s truck was otu there I knew what she was in for.
Yea the guy is cheap. but he usually isnt renowned for doing high end work.

The days go by and pretty soon you can see what the job is going to look like.
This nice horizontal siding had these really funky vertical zigzag stripes on it from working up and down rather then side to side.

Next thing I know Im getting a call from the lady apologising and asking if I can come fix it before memorial day.
"Sorry hun. Too busy now" but I refered her to someone I know who ended up doing the job...for $7,000 with a solid stain.
Now the house looks like it was painted.
Which is exactly what she didnt want.

Did a job sometime later for one of her neighbors who referred her to me to begin with and we got to talking about it. Seems the lady was away on business during most of the proccess and ddint come back till the first guy had already done 90% of the house. She was furious demanding he fix it. When he couldnt.she fired him and got a few other prices to fix it, each higher then my original and several refusing outright to attempt it at all.
so she tried calling me again. which is what this lady advised her to do to begin with.

In the end she ended up paying over 9K for a job I would have done right for 7

Cant say I didnt warn her

[FiLtH]

Ya i know I should have taken the time to mask and all, but I despise crap around the house. I just rushed it. I knew I was going to replace all the doors and windows (which is now done) so I didnt care much. This time however, I will have to be careful. I'll just have to pretend Im enjoying it. yuck