How do you know if the exterior of your home needs to be repainted or if any of the wood needs to be replaced, is one of the common questions homeowners may have.
Doing an annual spring or fall walkabout around your house to look for common deterioration such as fading, discolouration, chipped or peeling paint helps to ensure the TLC and maintenance of your exterior windows and doors does not go neglected and the beauty and curb appeal of your home shines through.
Giving your home the best TLC, and ensuring its maintenance is one of the reasons why you should paint the exterior every 5-7 years.
These tips will help with knowing when is the right time to paint or if you need to replace any of the wood siding, or any of the wood around the window or door frames. Annual maintenance with a simple touch up can help prevent a full repainting.
When to Repaint or Replace Exterior Wood
Over time the wood siding on the exterior of your home or the wood frame around windows and doors begins to fade or rot from the constant exposure to environmental elements.
It is common and normal to see things like fading, peeling or that the exterior paint is cracking and flaking, especially if the exterior has not been painted and maintained for years.
Using good quality paints will help restore the beauty and maintain the lustre of your homes exterior for at least 3 to 5 years before requiring a full repainting.
Repainting
The frequency of how often the exterior should be painted depends on factors such as the appearance of faded paint colour, paint peeling or cracking or flaking paint.
You can provide the best TLC and curb appeal to help maintain your homes exterior and help protect it from extreme heat, sun, snow, ice and frigid temperatures by ensuring exterior home painting at the minimum 3 to 5 years interval.
Replacing
A thorough inspection around the exterior of the home is recommended to ensure there are no gaps or holes where water and moisture can seep through to eventually cause rotted wood.
Water damage creates rotting wood like the picture below and to help prevent prevent this kind of water damage from deteriorating any of the wood we recommend the application of caulking that will not only help prevent any further water damage but prevents any chance of build up of mold.
Ensuring you seal areas that have gaps or spaces where water can seep through will help prevent having to completely replace the wood around the windows like in the picture below.
Should You Paint or Replace Exterior Wood
If you are feeling uncertain about whether you need to replace or simply repaint the exterior wood of your home, seek the advice of the best rated painters in Ottawa who can help bring the WOW and lustre back to your home.
Call or Email Us to set up an appointment and your free painting estimate.
Tips for Exterior Siding
Not every Ottawa home is wrapped in wood siding. Our neighborhoods are made up of a variety of exteriors. From aluminum to vinyl siding, brick to stucco, each home has its unique look.
If you have exterior siding other than wood here are a few additional tips for knowing if you need to repaint or replace.
Vinyl Siding was first introduced in the late 1950’s. It was an alternative to aluminum siding and promoted as a more maintenance free option. Vinyl siding will fade over the years and can be painted with vinyl safe paints that are specifically formulated to help extend the maintenance and look of your home.
Aluminum Siding was produced to replace wood in the 1940’s. It too just like vinyl was introduced as a more maintenance free solution to wood siding which requires more upkeep. It is known to last for at least 20 years or more but the wear and tear of the environmental elements will show the fading of its original colour. Painting aluminum siding can revive the look once again and help it look beautiful, but its best left to the professionals as it is extensive work.
Brick Exterior – can be painted over in any colour, ask the experts at your local paint store for the best recommendation they have on painting over exterior brick.
Stucco Exterior – is the latest trend in the Ottawa area. Many homes have updated the look by ridding their homes of vinyl or aluminum siding and covering it in a stucco finish. Stucco is a surface that can be painted with exterior paint. Most often stucco will last a very long time, and you might just want to change the paint colour for a new look but not because its got extensive damage.
If you are not quite ready or in need of painting the entire exterior an easy way to give your home a new look is to paint a new colour on the garage doors, or the front door. Use no more than three different paint colours to add value and curb appeal to a homes exterior. Check out the paint colours on some of our exterior painting projects in the Ottawa area.
Check out our blog to get tips and advice on interiors, exteriors, home decor, painting and more.
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This post was originally published Jul 08, 2016 and edited on July 26, 2021
