Painting any part of your home can be challenging enough — you have to prepare the space and surfaces properly, gather the right materials, use good technique, etc. Exterior home painting tacks on even more obstacles, factoring in weather, daylight, and heights. Indeed, the taller your house is, the more involved (and hazardous) the painting process must be. If you’ve never painted a two-story house before, or you’re looking for ways to make the project go more smoothly, here are some helpful tips.
Two Stories, Twice the Work?
The amount of time and effort it takes to paint a home depends on multiple factors. The main factor here is, of course, the total surface area being painted. However, if we were to compare two houses with the same surface area — a wide one-story home and a taller two-story home, the time and effort required of both projects would not be identical. This is because the added height of a two-story home is an additional consideration that doesn’t apply to the one-story home. Painters have to implement extra resources and precautions in order to successfully coat the higher reaches of a tall home.
So while painting a two-story house isn’t necessarily twice the work of painting a single-story house, it is typically more work. With this in mind, you’ll want to allow plenty of time to tackle this project.
Normal Exterior Preparation Still Applies
Aside from the added height, preparing to paint a two-story home isn’t all that different from preparing for any other paint job. Your exterior surfaces should still be cleaned, stripped, and sanded prior to painting. A pressure washer comes in handy for most exterior house cleaning, but this is especially the case for two-story homes where certain areas are far out of reach. Make sure your washer is powerful enough to reach and thoroughly clean the upper portions of your home, but not so out of control as to damage your siding, windows, gutters, roofing, etc.
Ladders May Only Get You So Far
Height is the name of the game for painting two-story homes, so ladders are common tools for this type of work. That said, ladders have their limits, and if they’re too short and/or in poor condition, they can pose a serious hazard when painting on top of them. Extension poles can come in handy, but they don’t offer much precision. Using a boom truck with a lift bucket is often the safest and most efficient way to paint high-up areas. Setting up scaffolding is useful, too, though this often takes much longer.
While the average person doesn’t have access to boom trucks, lifts, or scaffolding, some professional home painting services do. As such, it’s a good idea to enlist their services and/or resources when you have no other options.
Look Out Below
No matter how tall or short your home is, you must be mindful of the objects and features below you. It’s always easy to get exterior house paint on your shrubs, light fixtures, lawn, etc. The higher up you are, though, the more common these mistakes tend to be, and the less control you have over where paint drips and spills land. So, in addition to painting carefully and not oversaturating your brush or roller, make sure you cover any and all objects beneath you so they remain safe from splatters. Standing on a lift bucket also greatly reduces the odds of these accidents because you’ll have a place to set your painting tools and a foundation to catch most falling paint.
Split the Labor
Hiring professional exterior house painters is typically the best way to get your two-story house painted safely and efficiently, but going this route can be costly. If your budget is tight but you’re concerned about how well you can do it yourself, consider breaking up the project — you can paint the bottom half of your home yourself and hire the pros to handle the higher stuff. You’ll save money and still get the results you’re looking for without all the hassle!
No one said painting a two-story house was easy — but it doesn’t have to be so difficult, either. With the right mindset, resources, and approach, you can revitalize your exterior no matter how tall it may be. If you need more advice on painting your two-story house and/or help to get the job done at any stage, the experts at Murfreesboro Painting are here for you.
To learn more about us, our services, and our values, call us at 615-854-8806 today!