BobVila.com

House Prep and Exterior Painting

Bob talks with Al Roberta who is painting the Medford house. The house needed a lot of prep work before painting. The home's original wood shingles had been covered for 30 to 40 years by manmade shingles during which time they had gotten pretty baked and oxygen-starved and subsequently brittle. Some of the shingles were replaced but for budget reasons those that could be were saved leaving behind a patchwork of new and old shingles to be painted. Al is using an oil-based primer from Sherwin Williams that will both seal the house giving it a nice hard shell and also act as a stain-blocking agent as the new cedar shingles have a tendency to bleed. Al is applying the primer with either a small 3-inch roller or with a cutting brush. It's not an easy job to paint a house with so many angles. The finish coat is a latex topcoat. It's a Sherwin Williams Duration product that goes on twice as thick as conventional paint. The topcoat is rolled and back-brushed. Weather-permitting the job should take about three week. More information