Handy Man Repairs, Inc. CEO David Carter is a home renovation expert located in Philadelphia, Mississippi. A member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and the National Kitchen & Bath Association, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1969. In this article, he tells us how often homeowners should repaint the outside of their home.
Typically, most homeowners should repaint their home’s exterior once every 10 years. Of course, that depends largely on the quality of paint that you use and the climate that are you are in.
Looking at homes in the Southeast United States, a homeowner who used good paint is going to get a good 10 years out of that. But in places like the Northeast, where the winters are much harsher, the paint might not last as long.
For the best chances of a good paint job, homeowners should prep the surface of their siding, and scrape it down as much as possible. Once you have primed it, you are ready to go. Of course, some new paints don’t even require priming. I know of a great new paint on the market from a company called Duramax that is as thick as pudding. So that in itself is the primer — it’s called a self-primer. So you don’t need to buy a separate primer before starting the job. Quality paints like that are going to cost you, though. The Duramax paint usually runs about $35 a gallon, but it is worth the price.
One thing that I always tell clients is that I will not use cheap paint on their home’s exterior. Some customers prefer certain brands or certain paint suppliers, and I will usually honor that. But I always tell customers when I go in and start a job that I want to use most expensive paint they can afford. My reason for this is because when it comes to home paint, the price equates with quality—without a doubt. I will not use any off-brands or generic paints because then the homeowner is just going to have to repaint his home in a shorter amount of time. I want to always use the high-end and top-dollar paint. It is well worth the extra money.
When you are working in the South, in particular, the heat and the humidity can be tough on your home. One thing, though, is that many homes down here are made of cedar sidings or vinyl or aluminum, if they are not made out of brick. Few homes are strictly made out of wood in the South, near where I live.
Another thing you have to worry about when it comes to repainting a home is asbestos shingles. Asbestos shingles were really popular in the 1950s, and we do have some of those down in the South. When I come across a home like that, I can’t even touch them without a special license. The landfill will not even take those shingles, and the EPA has to get involved.
Unfortunately, most homeowners would not even know if they owned a house with asbestos shingles. The majority of the homeowners I work with are not interested in the specifics of the materials that are used on their homes. They just want a quality paint job that is done right, and to get that they need to hire someone with the experience and expertise to handle the job.
