For areas that might get close scrutiny, you’ll be able to comply with up with a 100- or 120-grit rubdown to erase any scratches. With unfastened paint removed, it is time to step back and assess what remains.
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Once you choose a paint model, the pros advise against components, similar to mildewcides. But they may add conditioners such as Floetrol or Penetrol to slow drying times in scorching weather so brush and lap marks do not present, and to make paint more sprayable. Most professionals use paint sprayers because they’re fast, however in inexperienced hands a high-powered sprayer can go away drips, thin coats, and a mist which will land on many things aside from your siding. Deciding which paint to use has gotten a lot simpler now that acrylic latexes have pushed oil-based paints virtually to extinction. When the primer is dry, caulk all small joints (lower than ¼-inch-wide) within the siding and trim. Most pros use siliconized acrylics—paint won’t persist with straight silicones—however Guertin and O’Neil like the new, costlier urethane acrylics for his or her higher flexibility and longevity. “If the joint fails, you are again to sq. one.” Guertin uses the lifetime rating as his high quality guide.
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“I do not expect 35-year caulk will last 35 years, but it should last more than a 15-yr caulk.” O’Neil patches shallow holes and divots with Ready Patch because it dries quick, sands smooth, and stays versatile. Deep cracks and rotten spots are best repaired with two-step epoxies, similar to those made by Advanced Repair Technology. (For a step-by-step directions, see Repairing Rot with Epoxy.) The days of utilizing polyester auto-body fillers on wood are over. “They treatment too exhausting,” says Portland, Oregon–primarily based painting contractor Kathleen George. Small random-orbit or pad sanders make this job go faster.
If many of the paint nonetheless adheres nicely and it is not too bumpy, the boundary between the paint and the naked wood could be smoothed with 50- or eighty-grit sandpaper. That thin pores and skin of resin and pigment also protects your funding, shielding it from sun, wind, and rain—till the paint begins to crack and peel, that is. For the cost of a few circumstances of exterior paint, plus some patching and sanding, you can have a whole new residence.