How Do You Paint Kitchen Cabinets Without Removing Them?
Kitchen cabinet doors removed from their hinges and laid flat on a work table are an order of magnitude easier to paint than doors hung on their hinges. Gravity is…
What Causes Interior Paint to Yellow Over Time and How Do You Prevent It?
The closet door that turned noticeably yellow while the adjacent wall stayed white is not a mystery. It is chemistry. Alkyd and oil-based paints undergo oxidation in areas without adequate…
How Do You Paint Textured Interior Walls Like Knockdown or Orange Peel?
Textured walls consume more paint than smooth walls. The math is simple: a knockdown texture with 1 to 2 millimeters of depth has more actual surface area per square foot…
How Do You Touch Up Interior Paint Without Showing Lap Marks?
Latex paint shrinks slightly as it dries. A fresh patch applied over an aged coat pulls inward as the water evaporates, and that micro-retraction creates a faint halo or shadow…
How Do You Prepare Furniture and Flooring Before Painting a Room?
Paint drips are not a question of if, they are a question of when. A loaded 9-inch roller throws micro-droplets in a three-to-five foot radius with every pass across the…
How Do You Prepare and Paint Exterior PVC Trim and Composite Materials?
AZEK PVC trim expands approximately three times more per unit length with temperature change than wood does. Run a 16-foot length of AZEK in a south-facing trim application in a…
How Do You Paint Exterior Retaining Walls and Garden Walls?
Hydrostatic pressure is the reason that most standard exterior paint fails on retaining walls within a few years even when the prep and application were done correctly. A retaining wall…
How Do You Repaint an Exterior That Has Multiple Layers of Old Paint?
A paint film measurement tool pressed against old wood clapboard siding sometimes produces readings above 20 mils total thickness. That number is the accumulated weight of every paint job applied…
How Do You Paint a Garage Door to Handle Direct Sunlight and Temperature Swings?
A steel garage door facing south can reach surface temperatures above 150 degrees Fahrenheit on a July afternoon. By midnight, that same surface drops to ambient, sometimes 80 degrees cooler….
How Do You Paint Vinyl or Aluminum Siding Without Warping?
A dark green vinyl siding job in Arizona made news in painting contractor forums several years ago when the homeowner matched the color by label rather than by formula. The…
How Do You Match Existing Exterior Paint Color When Doing Partial Touch-Ups?
South-facing walls fade measurably faster than north-facing walls on the same house. The UV load on a south or west elevation can be two to three times higher than on…
What Exterior Primers Prevent Tannin Bleed on Cedar and Redwood?
Cedar and redwood contain water-soluble extractives that move through wood fibers the moment moisture contacts them. Apply a standard latex primer to bare cedar, and you will see it within…
How Do You Prepare and Paint Exterior Masonry Block Walls?
The surface of an unpainted concrete masonry block wall presents a challenge that most exterior paints are not designed to handle without preparation. The face of a standard 8-inch block…
How Do You Paint Exterior Wooden Fences to Last Through All Seasons?
A fence board that has been sitting outside for two summers without any coating has already told you something important. The surface has turned gray, the fibers have opened and…
What Is the Best Way to Paint an Exterior Chimney?
Standard exterior paint on a chimney is one of the more predictable ways to accelerate masonry deterioration rather than prevent it. Chimneys are unique among exterior masonry structures because they…
How Do You Paint Exterior Trim and Fascia Without Removing It?
Fascia boards run along the roofline for a reason. Removing them means lifting the gutter from its brackets, dealing with the roof edge flashing or drip edge that overlaps the…
How Do You Handle Lead Paint When Repainting an Older Home’s Exterior?
Pre-1978 homes in the United States were painted during a period when lead was used as a standard paint ingredient. The older the home, the higher the likely lead content…
How Do You Paint Exterior Lattice and Trellis Work Without Clogging the Gaps?
The math on exterior lattice makes it one of the most inefficient surfaces to coat by hand. A four-foot by eight-foot panel of standard diagonal lattice has approximately 200 individual…
How Do You Paint Outdoor Stairs and Steps for Slip Resistance?
A freshly painted concrete step with a smooth, gloss finish is more slippery than the bare concrete surface it replaced, especially when wet. Paint fills the micro-texture of the concrete…
What Is the Best Way to Paint a Detached Shed or Outbuilding?
A detached outbuilding with no insulation and no climate control experiences temperature extremes that attached structures never reach. On a summer afternoon, the interior of a metal-roofed shed can hit…
How Do You Paint Exterior Eaves and Overhangs From Below?
Gravity works against every brush and roller stroke when the surface being coated is above your head. Paint that would spread evenly on a vertical wall runs toward the low…
What Is the Difference Between Exterior Acrylic and Alkyd Paints?
Alkyd paint was the exterior painting standard for most of the twentieth century for good reasons. It leveled well, adhered aggressively to bare wood, and dried to a hard, glossy…
How Do You Prevent Mildew and Algae Growth on Freshly Painted Exterior Surfaces?
North-facing walls on houses surrounded by mature trees can develop visible mildew growth within 18 months of a fresh paint job if the conditions are right. Those walls get almost…
How Do You Paint Exterior OSB or Plywood Sheathing That Is Temporarily Exposed?
Oriented strand board sheathing that gets wet before siding goes on swells at the edges, delaminates at the surface, and loses structural integrity from the outside in. The degradation does…
What Is the Best Approach to Painting an Exterior Door That Faces Direct Sunlight?
Paint blistering on south-facing entry doors is not random. It follows a predictable pattern tied directly to surface temperature: the paint looks fine through spring, shows bubbles by midsummer, and…
What Weather Conditions Are Ideal for Painting the Outside of a House?
Exterior paint failure traced back to weather rarely announces itself immediately. The paint looks fine for the first few weeks. Then, during the following spring, sections begin lifting at edges,…
How Do You Prevent Paint From Peeling Due to Sun Exposure and Moisture?
Run your hand across a south-facing painted wall on a house that is five or more years old and a white chalky residue comes off on your palm. That powder…
Which Exterior Paint Types Work Best on Brick, Stucco, and Wood Siding?
Applying the same exterior paint to brick, stucco, and wood siding is like using the same drill bit for steel, concrete, and wood. Each material has a fundamentally different relationship…
How Do You Safely Paint Upper Stories, Soffits, and Fascia Boards?
A thirty-foot extension ladder on soft ground, leaned at the wrong angle, carrying a painter holding a full roller with one hand while reaching across the body to hit the…
How Often Should You Repaint the Exterior of a Home Based on Climate?
The same paint product applied on the same day to two houses, one in Phoenix, Arizona and one in Minneapolis, Minnesota, will reach the end of its useful life on…