Painting the outside of your house can seem more of a chore than a pleasure, simply because of the size of the job. By breaking it down into separate, manageable areas and using time-saving tools and techniques, you can keep the weather at bay and complete the task more quickly than ever before.

The main reason for decorating the outside of your house is to protect it from the elements. But paint can also transform the appearance of your house and increase its value, so it’s a job worth doing well.

Exterior Painting

The outside of your house is under continuous attack from rain, frost, heat and light from the sun, dirt and pollution. Properly applied paint or varnish is the best way of protecting the fabric of the house, and it should last for about five or six years before it needs renewing. If the outside hasn’t been touched for several years it’s probably looking rather shabby by now and you should start to think about repainting.

Modern paints come in a very wide range of colours and are very easy to apply. A little time spent preparing and painting your house now can transform a drab old building into a desirable residence; and increase the value of the house with very little outlay.

The main parts of the house that have to be painted are the woodwork, metalwork, and possibly the walls. Plastic gutters and pipes do not need to be painted. It’s up to you whether you paint the walls or not. Brick, pebbledash, stone and rendering can all be left in their natural state, but if the walls are in need of repair or are porous, stained and dirty, a good coat of paint will both protect the surface and brighten up the house.

The first thing to do is to take a long, critical look at your house to assess what needs to be done. Search for any detects that may affect the final paintwork. A common fault on older houses is leaking gutters. These can leave unsightly stains on the wall or cause woodwork to rot. They can be easily sealed or even completely replaced with new gutters. Other common faults are flaking and peeling paint, rotten window sills and cracked rendering.

It’s unlikely you’ll find all of these faults on one house, but you’ll probably find a few. It is very important that you remedy every fault you find before you begin to paint or the paint won’t be able to do its job and your house will only deteriorate further. This preparation will usually be the most time consuming part of the decoration and will often be quite hard work but it has to be done if you want your new paintwork to last.