4 Tips for Painting Your Wooden Shakes

If your home has wooden shakes as siding, one advantage of this material is that you can paint it to change up its look and help prevent rot from setting in. While many homeowners will opt to hire professionals to paint their homes, this is a project you can tackle on your own if you have the time, knowledge, and equipment. However, you should follow these tips to ensure good results.

1. Scrape first

Before you start applying any new paint, you need to thoroughly scrape the house. You do not need to remove every trace of the current paint, but you do need to remove any pieces that are peeling, chipping, or hanging. Use a medium-sized scraper, and scrape with the grain of the wood, which usually means you'll be scraping from top to bottom along each shake. Don't skimp on this step. The more thoroughly you scrape the siding, the better your paint will adhere.

2. Use an outdoor primer

After you scrape, a lot of the wood on the sides of your home will be bare. You never want to apply paint to bare wood; it simply won't stick well, and the color of the wood will show through it your paint is a lighter color. So before you apply any paint, you want to apply a good layer of a primer. Choose a primer made especially for outdoor use. It will help your paint job stand up to the elements. Let the primer dry for at least a day before you begin painting; being dry to the touch is not quite enough.

3. Start at the top

The bottom of your house is easier to paint because you don't have to stand on a tall ladder. However, if you paint the bottom first, you risk scuffing up some of the paint when you lean your ladder against it to reach the taller sections. You might also drip paint from above, down onto your already-painted sections. Always start at the top and work your way down.

4. Don't paint in direct sun

You want nice weather for painting, but you don't want to paint on the hottest, sunniest day, either. This can cause the paint to dry too fast, which might mean it does not adhere to your shakes very well. It's best to paint on a moderate day with a little partial cloud cover. 

With the tips above, the job of painting your shake siding should go off without a hitch. For more assistance, contact exterior house painting services. 

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Paint, Wallpaper, and Wall Coverings — Oh My!

The paint color really makes a room. You can take a room that has been painted light blue, change the walls to green, and enjoy a whole different look. In most cases, you are best off hiring professionals to paint your space. They have the tools, experience, and time to ensure the results are even and clean. However, it's still important that you, as a homeowner, know a little about the basics of painting. Check out this website for a good overview. The articles here will discuss everything from removing wallpaper, to selecting the right colors, to hiring a painting team.

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