Painting your fences would be a great way to enhance and elevate your home curb’s overall appeal – this is because your fences are one of the most prominent features of your exterior, and its overall condition significantly impacts its appeal.
While painting your fences can be a simple task to do, going through it hastily and not getting acquainted with the proper system of a fence painting project is a sure path toward failure.
So, if you want to ensure that your fence painting project goes right, here’s something you should check out.
Take a look at these Mistakes You Should Avoid In Painting Your Fences.
1. Neglecting Proper Preparation
One of the most common mistakes people make when painting their fences is skipping the proper surface preparation.
Most people find this step as something trivial and tedious, thus, often skip this, but neglecting proper surface preparation can lead you to tons of paint problems that will just be a hassle to fix.
So, if you’d like to have a successful fence painting project, here’s what you should do:
- Cleaning: Start by thoroughly cleaning your fence. You can use a pressure washer or a scrub brush and soapy water to remove dirt, grime, mold, and any loose or flaking paint. This step is vital, as paint won’t adhere well to a dirty or uneven surface.
- Sanding: After cleaning, inspect your fence for rough spots, damage, or peeling paint. Sand these areas using fine-grit sandpaper. Sanding helps create an even surface and ensures better paint adhesion.
- Repairs: If you are seeing damage on your fences’ surface, make sure to get the necessary repairs for them. This is important since painting on a damaged surface will just result in an ugly, uneven paint finish.
- Protection: To avoid any unnecessary mess in the area near where you’re going to be painting, cover any nearby plants, grass, and any nearby surface with drop cloths. This will protect them from any accidental paint spills or splatters.
2. Choosing the Wrong Paint
In doing any painting project, you will need to acquire a specific type of paint formulation best suited for the surface you’re going to be covering with paint – which is something you must do in your fence painting project.
Acquiring the wrong kind of paint is definitely going to set you up for failure, especially since you’re going to be painting your fences, which is affected by tons of external factors.
To do this, you’ll want to see what kind of fence you have at home – either wood fencing, metal fencing, aluminum, or timber – and choose the kind of paint best suited for them.
However, it can be particularly confusing to do this all on your own, so if you’re having a hard time determining which paint to buy for your fences, approach a paint professional and ask for their opinion.
3. Ignoring Weather Conditions
Doing a fence painting project will require you to work outside, thus, the weather conditions will be a huge factor to consider in your project – and a costly mistake would be to ignore this completely.
In painting your fences, you’d ideally want to paint in favorable weather conditions, which would be a clear and fairly dry day.
In scheduling your fence painting project, here are some conditions that you need to avoid:
- Temperature: Avoid painting in extreme heat or cold, since this might affect your coat of paint’s overall quality. Ideal temperatures for painting are typically between 50°F and 85°F (10°C to 30°C). Painting in extremely hot weather can cause the paint to dry too quickly, while cold weather can slow down the drying process.
- Rain: Never paint when rain is in the forecast. Wet conditions can cause the paint to run, streak, or not adhere properly.
- Wind: Windy conditions can lead to dust and debris getting stuck in the wet paint. If you must paint on a windy day, try to work with the wind rather than against it.
4. Forgetting To Apply A Coat of Primer
Since you’ll be painting your fences, applying a coat of primer prior to applying paint will be crucial to ensuring its longevity.
As has been said, your fences are affected by tons of external factors that might break them down over time, so adding a coat of primer on your fences is actually like adding another layer of protection for your fences.
Additionally, a coat of primer lessens the possibility of any paint problems in the near future, which can be a hassle to take care of.
We are Total Pro Painters. As a successful, family-run business we’ve been providing commercial and residential painting services in the Boston area since 2010.
For painting inquiries, you can contact us at 774-509-0345 or send us an email at info@totalpropainters.com.
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