Exterior House Painting: Warning Signs
Avoiding Exterior Paint Disasters
Painting your home increases its beauty and protects the structure from normal damage that occurs from prolonged exposure to outdoor elements. Weather, even good weather, is unkind to all types of surfaces.
Perform a thorough examination your home’s exterior every five to seven years. Walk around the entire perimeter, looking for any evidence that your paint is at the end of its useful life. Signs that you should paint vary in different environments, so we’ve compiled helpful checklists for especially impacted climates:
Warning Signs: Snowy Regions
- Paint is peeling
- Caulk between wood/brick and windows is separating
- Bare wood is exposed
- Mold or water stains are apparent in shady areas, where snow doesn’t melt easily
Warning Signs: Hot/Sunny Regions
- Stucco is cracking, especially around window and the foundation
- Wood rot is apparent, especially at the bottom of door frames
- Caulk failure: it has turned brittle or lost flexibility
We understand that painting the exterior of your house costs more than simply changing the color of a room. For that reason, it makes sense to delay as long as possible—but beware that the consequences of waiting longer than you should often cost more than preventative upkeep, sometimes much more.
Potential repercussions of waiting too long to paint include:
Severely damaged wood must be replaced, caulked and painted. In addition, rotting wood may compromise the overall structure of your home!
- Stucco will crumble and fall apart
Stucco is laid over cement block, and when water breaches through to the cement, draining becomes difficult. Rather than simply patching a crack caused by normal wear and tear, you will likely need to re-stucco an entire surface.
- Mold and mildew will grow and proliferate
Removing large quantities requires additional supplies and intensive work. For example, mildew requires a bleach additive to kill spores.