When You Don't Hire a Pro...

Have you ever wondered why you should hire a professional painter for your exterior project? The experts at CertaPro Painters® are here to help you, and tell you what could happen if you choose to forgo professional painters.

Many people understand painting to be solely for the cosmetic purpose of changing a home’s exterior color. But this is not the case. The purpose of painting is to protect and seal the home from damage.

Often overlooked, preparation is the most important part of the painting process. For any painting project, there are specific, crucial steps that are required to take in preparation to ensure the protection of your home. Far too often do DIYers or hired handymen unknowingly omit the preparation step – costing the homeowner’s more money in the end when problems arise.

Understanding why you should hire professional painters comes from an understanding of the detailed preparation process. First, our professionals will power wash the home’s exterior to remove any contaminants such as mildew, dirt, or chalking (common in stucco exteriors) to begin preparing the surface for the prep process. Once the home is dry, the next step is to scrape away any loose and peeling paint, patch cracks in stucco surfaces and apply a sealer coat. Our team uses an acrylic sealer that acts as a barrier that will prevent any remaining contaminants from interfering with the new paint. Without a clean surface and a layer of sealant, the new paint may not adhere to the surface properly which jeopardizes the longevity of the paint job.

If these steps are not taken, you can have a situation where contaminated surfaces have been painted over, preventing the new paint from sticking. If this is the case, the only way to fix the issue is to remove the layers of paint to get to the root cause of the issues. Below, you will find photos of what it looked like when the preparation process was skipped.

A homeowner hired our team to repaint the exterior of their home, only to find serious issues resulting from the previous paint job. Our team found that sheets of paint were peeling off the home, which is a telltale sign that the paint is no longer adhering to the surface. In order to move forward, we had to first scrape off the peeling paint layer before power washing to remove the chalk and contaminants and resealing the exterior properly. A mistake like this can cost the homeowners hundreds to thousands of dollars as stripping paint is a tedious and time consuming process.

Knowing that surface preparation is the most important part of a paint job is vital to a successful project. Skipping the basics will destroy the paint job and cost you much more to have it redone correctly.