To Scrape Or Not To Scrape: Exterior Painting Issues You Should Think About First

23 August 2017
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If you are about to have your home's exterior painted (or repainted), then you should take some things into consideration. Are you going to scrape old paint off the house? Or are you leaving it on? Can you get away with sanding the painted portions of the exterior? When thinking about all of these factors, there are some definite pros and cons to scraping and sanding first:

Scraping and Sanding Pros

Scraping and sanding leaves your home's exterior with a much smoother, easier to paint surface. The paint will adhere better because there is nothing preventing the paint from sticking or peeling. Sanding before and in between coats of paint helps prevent mold and mildew from sticking to the previous coat of wet paint. Scraping and sanding ensure that your exterior home paint job looks as professional as it can be.

Scraping and Sanding Cons

The biggest reason that most homeowners avoid scraping and sanding paint from their homes' exteriors is that it takes far too long. It is very time-consuming and difficult to do, especially if you have a large home that is at least two full stories. You are probably tempted to do it anyway since the cost of hiring an exterior painting service is more than fifty percent labor due to scraping and sanding. 

However, it the old paint on your home is cracked, peeling extensively, and just looks awful, it MUST be scraped and sanded off. Otherwise, the new paint will not adhere to the home, and will just flake off with the old paint underneath. If you are worried about the expense, you can offer to help the painting team scrape some, or you can scrape the lower half of the house and have the painting pros scrape the upper half.

When You Do Not Have to Scrape

There are a couple of situations where you will not have to scrape or sand the exterior of your home. If you are just painting the vinyl/plastic siding of your home, and there is no previous coat of paint, you do not have to scrape or sand. You also do not have to scrape or sand if the painted portions of your home are smooth or recently painted and you just want to paint them a different color. Be advised, however, that if you want to use a lighter color paint over a darker color paint, you may either need extra coats of paint or you may have to sand and scrape anyway.

Contact a company like paintersplus for more information and assistance.