Most homeowners assume that their houses are okay, even with some telltale signs demanding a paint job. For homes to maintain their glowing condition, there is a need to carry out routine maintenance, such as exterior painting. Maintenance retains your home’s value if you wish to sell it. The practice also protects the houses against external factors. Most people don’t know when to carry out a full-scale painting on their house.

Despite the costs incurred in repainting your house exterior, the advantages outweigh the costs. The cost of painting your house is a small expense compared to most home repairs. Below, our professional exterior painters in Woodinville WA have come up with several pointers that should tell you it’s time to call for the services of an exterior painting company.

Dull paint

Harsh environmental conditions over the years will leave your house looking dull from a distance. Walking closer, you may notice that the original paint job has lost its glow. This is a severe sign as your paint can no longer protect your house from conditions such as direct sun, snow, and rain. Factors such as exposure to environmental factors over time, low-quality paint, over-tinting, and the use of very dark-colored paint that often absorb more light tend to be the leading causes of fading paint.

Well-done paint jobs will start losing their glow after about five to six years. Once you notice fading paint signs, it is essential to seek the services of an exterior paint company and rejuvenate your home.

Outdated colors

Your house’s exterior should be the first welcome your visitors get, so it should not be dull to the eye. Most paint companies come up with new color shades for houses, and a fresher tone might be what your home needs to complete its attractive look. Give your home the chance to shout out and flaunt its features using a new fresh coat of paint.

When choosing a replacement paint palette, you should plan to have it for a long time. The best way to ensure it will be appealing for long is by ensuring it matches the general décor of the compound and the interior style. Retro colors would be more appealing if you have a retro porch chair.

Damaged external wall surface

Your wall’s external surface’s quality plays a massive role in maintaining the house’s beautiful appeal and overall value. Good paint jobs may protect your home from external factors, but it doesn’t keep destructive elements at bay. It is normal to have cracked or rotting wood on your wall, especially if you live in generally humid or scorching environment areas.

Depending on the damage extent, you may have to replace various parts of the damaged walls and cover visible cracks. This patch-up leaves your house with an irregular look. It is advisable to re-do the whole paint job instead of painting the replaced parts and leaving the house with uneven depth and brightness of paint.

Cracked and peeling paint

It is hard not to notice peeling paint, whose signs include holes on the surface, cracks, and having long paint strips peeling out on their own. There are many causes of peeling paint that range from a poorly done paint job to extreme weather conditions. The good thing is, it can be fixed. If peeling paint is left unattended to, there is a risk of having the wood’s rotting underneath, since mold collects under the peeled skin.

Noticing the first instance of peeling paint should be a wake-up call for you to call a residential painting contractor to scrape off the peeling paint and apply a new and robust paint coating.

Moisture stains and mildew

Most occurrences of humidity stains are not very serious and can go away using various DIY procedures, such as pressure washing or wiping off with a damp piece of cloth. However, this is not always the case, where some stains go deeper into the paint and leave perforations on the wall surface. Trying to force out a moisture stain can leave your house looking undesirable, demanding the need to seek an exterior painting company’s service.

Once the company finishes with your paint job, it is vital to inquire about the stains’ possible causes to prevent it from recurring. Since prevention is better than cure, the tips you receive will help you save a dime or two.

White residue when you lean on the wall

If you notice a white chalk-like residue on your clothes whenever you lean on the wall, your house needs repainting. The residue occurs when the paint surface quality deteriorates, with the weakening of the binder. Factors such as aging, direct sunlight, and excessive moisture are often to blame for worsening paint states. Ignoring this red flag poses a risk, not only to the house exterior’s attractiveness but also causes the deterioration of the house’s structure after the wall loses its paint protection.

Gaps on joints

You probably have noticed increasing spaces where two pieces of walls meet, such as door or window frames. These gaps are the perfect entry point for water to sip into the spaces and encourage rot or mold growth. The gaps are often addressed by restructuring the materials to fill out the gaps with caulk and then re-doing a paint coat on the unevenly painted areas. Failure to solve this problem can have undesirable results, such as weak movable parts such as doors.

Algae

Houses located in coastal regions with high humidity levels or those in areas with poor air circulation can have black spots on the exterior. The algae pose a significant threat to the wooden wall if not resolved since the algae can cause cracks, through which moisture can seep in. When moisture gets into the wood, it causes rot, which can be a hazard to the whole structure, therefore putting your family at risk.

It is important to always look around the house at the possible location areas of algae, such as joints. As soon as you spot the algae, be quick to schedule a whole paint job, to increase the wood protection.

Blistering paint

Blistering refers to bubble-like swellings under the paint, caused by environmental conditions such as moisture and excess heat. There are two types of blisters, determined by the condition in which the paint job was done. Heat blisters refer to the swellings that occur when the harsh sun’s presence overheats a newly done paint job. Moisture blisters, however, are as a result of water from high humidity seeping under the paint through the unpainted portions. This leads to bubbling and peeling.

Painting a wall’s damp area can lead to bubbling as the paint cannot fully attach to the wooden surface. In case you notice blistering, it is essential to notify your paint company to re-do the paint job under favorable conditions. An extra coat would also help in protecting your paint from the environmental conditions.

Observing the above pointers and taking appropriate action is guaranteed to give your house a longer life and leave it standing out. Are you in Woodinville WA and experiencing any of the above red flags? At Cornerstone Painting, we have a team of well-trained exterior painters ready to restore your home’s exterior aesthetic touch and general protection. Call us today, and we will walk you through your choice of colors and give you a reasonable quote!