Your Dallas Handyman

To give your house a maintained, clean appearance, promote friendly neighbor relations and of course gain instant curb appeal, home exterior painting is the first thing you may want to consider. Painting the exterior of your house gives it a fresh and clean look and can add value to your home when you plan to sell. Here are some things to consider before painting the exterior of your home:

1. Powerwash your bricks or siding. You want to be sure your surface starts out clean. Old, peeling paint won’t suddenly be cured because there is fresh paint on top of it. Preparation is always key to a good paint job. You’ll have to do some scraping, but a good power wash is the best way to begin. You can rent a power washer, or hire someone to do the job for you. Be careful when you spray vinyl siding though. A direct hit of pressurized water can dislodge and even remove a well applied siding.
2. Remove staples, nails, hooks and other excess hardware. As a painter, I am still amazed at how much I’ve seen accumulate on a house. Staples from last Christmas’ lights, nails, hooks for hanging planters and so on can accumulate over the years if not attended to regularly. Spend an hour or so and get it all cleaned up!
3. Trim brush, bushes and other growth away from the house. A well manicured yard goes a long way for both the looks of your property and the ease of painting the exterior of your home.
4. Make sure you have all the tools you need for painting. Ladders, brushes, drop cloths, rollers, sandpaper, scrapers, are just the beginning of the things you’ll need. There is also a painters tools checklist on this blog you can check out.
5. Make sure you are physically able to paint your house. This sounds obvious, but just know that you will be climbing ladders, carrying 5 gallon paint buckets and doing a myriad of physical activity every day of the job. At the end of each day, there is clean up as well which takes time. You can eliminate a great deal of the labor if you hire a handyman or a day laborer to assist you. You can save hundreds of dollars in the long run just by hiring out at least some of the work.
6. Write out your cost for painting materials and time before you begin. There is a lot more cost than just the price of paint. Spackling, sand paper, primer, power washing, caulk and other minor home exterior repair items add up. Painting the exterior of your home is a large undertaking. If you’re going to do the job yourself, it may take several weekends to get the job done.
7. Hire out what you don’t want to or can’t do. Hiring a good and reliable handyman can make the difference between being able to, and not being able to paint your house on your own.

The list above does not necessarily reflect a complete list of considerations, it is simply intended to be helpful. I also have a general home maintenance and repair checklist you can download for free at my my primary website. You can go directly to the free download page if you click here. The downloads link is on the right hand side of the page. There’s no charge and it’s a helpful tool if you want to make sure your home is up to date.

I’ve listed below the elements of a typical exterior painting job here in Dallas, but most homes in the US have similar construction. You can also navigate my blog to find other useful tips and lists as well.

• Trim around windows and doors
• Fascia
• Gables
• Soffets
• Paneled siding
• Doors
• Decorative iron
• Trellis
• Fences
• Gates

I hope you found this article useful. Please comment! If you have questions or want to share some tips of your own, please do!~ Phil

One of the greatest return on investments to your home is a good quality paint job. Exteriors need to be maintained regularly to avoid over exposure to the elements, which, if neglected can result in costly repairs on top of the paint job. The main thing to remember is that preparation is key to a good paint job, and preparation is virtually always the majority of the work. It’s a good thing to remember when acquiring bids. Remember that a lot of the cost is surface preparation. Your own Dallas handyman can assist in many ways as well, from prep to clean up and every thing associated with getting the job done efficiently and in a timely manner.

Interior paint jobs begin with surface preparation. How well your walls, trim and ceilings turn out will be a direct result of what goes into preparing them for the final paint. Drywall changes over time. Protruding nails can show up as small bumps over time, cracks from foundation settling and other causes can slowly but surely deteriorate the appearance of a once-beautiful paint job. Depending on your time and money budgets, house painting can become a weekend job that can last several weeks or even months, or can last a week or two as a full-time endeavor.

This post does not cover wall/ceiling/trim preparation, only the actual painting job.

Here are some interior painting tips for the do-it-your-selfer:

1. Create a plan. The total cost of a paint job is far greater than the cost of paint. You’ll need sandpaper, brushes, rollers, drop cloths, ladders, primer, drywall mud, and so forth. Unless you don’t care what the cost in time and money will be, sit down and write out everything you’ll need.

2. Seriously consider neutral tones, especially if you plan to sell your home. Neutral tones are exactly that: neutral. They are most appealing to the eye and enhance the beauty of your furniture. Very light pastels work great too.

3. Unless your existing paint is flat, it will require priming so the new coat will adhere properly. Plan your job accordingly. It may be that only some areas need to be primed. A good primer/sealer is not a bad idea. Consult with the painting guru at your local home improvement store, but be careful, free advice is not always the best advice. My experience is that they are pretty well trained overall and can be a great source for basic home interior painting tips at the very least. I have picked up a wealth of information from the guys and gals behind the counter over the years.

4. Remove all electrical cover plates, curtains, curtain hardware, doors and door hardware before beginning. A clean canvas will give you the best job. Unless you are extremely skilled, you will get drips and over-paint on these items no matter how hard you try not to. You can organize your screws and plates and such in zip-lock bags and help keep you from losing any pieces. Use a magic marker to label the bags if you need to.

5. Start with the ceiling. If you are rolling it, move in about 6 foot square sections and be methodical. Overlap your paint a couple of inches as you move across the ceiling. This will help your progress and your paint thickness will remain the most uniform. It will not be a problem to allow the top inch or two of your wall to get painted along with the ceiling at this stage.

6. Painting walls: Before rolling the walls, I always brush in the top edge of the wall, next to the ceiling. This requires some practice, but as you move along the wall,  you’ll get better and faster. If there is not a great tonal difference between the wall and ceiling colors, small “flubs” will be unnoticeable in the final job. You can always touch up the ceiling later as well. If you just can’t create a nice clean corner, you may need to consider buying a cutting tool or masking the ceiling with painters tape. Try a freehand style first, you may just surprise yourself and you will save a lot of time. All that said, always remember that the final job is a good one or a great one depending on the DETAILS!

7. Baseboards and trim: Unless your are very skilled, you may need to mask the walls before doing your trim. Remember that the edge of your masking will be the edge of the paint so keep it in mind as you tape. Look at it. You should be able to visualize the final edge. Remove doors. I know this is a job in itself, and I’ve seen a lot of hinges painted over, but painting over hinges is sloppy and you can never get all the cracks and crevices properly. I think it’s about the same amount of work to remove the doors and rehang them later as it is to paint over everything and keep touching up. Removing doors before painting gives a far superior finished job. A good question to ask is, do I want a good paint job or a great one? If you are dealing with hardware that has been painted over previously, you may want to consider buying new hardware.

8. Final touch ups: Don’t be afraid to touch up any areas that need it at the final stage. I’ll state again, the difference between a good job and a great job lies in the details. Compared to the entire time it takes to do a room, spending an hour or two touching up is minor and can make a huge difference.

9. Doors: A great trick I’ve used is to screw two 1 x 4 boards, about 3 feet long to the bottom of each door so they will stand up by themselves. You can roll or brush the entire doo0r at one time that way and save a lot of time by avoiding leaning the doors against a wall. Painting doors does not have to be extra hard work!

If you need a handyman in Dallas, Texas you can call me for help at 972-278-2824. What I do is more of a handyman business and have extensive painting experience. Check out my website here. I can step in and correct or finish an incomplete or slow moving job or handle the entire project in most cases. I also broker large and specialty jobs and manage those at no extra cost to you. I work with some of the best contractors in the area and get paid commission for bringing them business. My North Dallas based business is registered with the state of Texas as Thousand Hills Properties.