Your home’s exterior is exposed to all sorts of damaging weather and environmental elements such as rain, sunlight, organic growth, temperature fluctuation, and bugs. It’s a less controlled environment compared to interiors. By painting your home’s exterior, you’re protecting it against these environmental abuses and hence less wear and tear in the long run.

Exterior painting is expected to protect your home’s exterior from premature deterioration while adding decorative elements based on color, texture, and sheen. While the exterior paint in your home in Clinton Township, MI is meant to be the first line of defense against the damaging elements, your paint ultimately breaks down and wears off.

A typical exterior paint job lasts about 5 to 7 years, depending on the type of paint used, weather conditions, type of surface and the quality of the paint job. However, if your exterior paint starts failing prematurely, there is a problem. Let’s take a quick look at the three most common possible reasons why your exterior paint is failing sooner than you expected.

Low-Quality Paint Products

Many homeowners tend to use low priced paint products in the hope of saving some money. Well, there is nothing wrong with trying to save a dollar or two, after all, exterior painting can be quite costly. However, using low-priced, low-quality paint makes it impossible to achieve a quality and durable paint job.

Most low-priced paints are manufactured either using inferior additives or a lesser amount of key ingredients such as resins and pigments. Such paints are usually difficult to work with due to splattering and poor coverage. They also tend to show signs of paint failure such as fading and chalking prematurely. So always start with quality paint products for quality and long-lasting paint job.

Painting On A Wet Surface

This is a common mistake most homeowners and DIY painters do. Paint doesn’t adhere well to wet surfaces and painting on wet or partially dry surfaces often leads to paint peeling and cracking sooner than later. Other than peeling and cracking, painting on wet surfaces causes moisture to be trapped under the paint film.

If the paint film is heated, the trapped moisture under it expands and leads to paint bubbling. The paint bubbles might bust or remain bulging, either way, they look unappealing. So when painting your home’s exterior, avoid humid and rainy conditions, and wait for at least three days after raining for the substrate to dry. Additionally, wait until the previous coat of paint has completely dried before applying subsequent coats.

Poor Surface Preparation

The bulk of exterior home painting jobs go to surface preparation (cleaning, sanding, paint stripping, priming, etc.), and this is what determines how great your paint job will turn out. Your home’s exterior usually collects dust, dirt, debris, and stains over time. Additionally, exterior paint breaks down over time through chalking, peeling and cracking.

Before painting can take place, all the dirt, dust, debris and loose paint needs to be cleaned and removed. Painting over dirty surfaces only leads to premature paint failure due to poor paint adhesion. If you paint over loose failing paint, the loose paint will come out together with your new coat of paint.

The Bottom Line
Paint failure can be caused by the use of low-quality paint products, painting of wet surfaces and poor surface preparation. In addition, poor painting techniques will lead to inferior paint quality, poor coverage and ultimately premature paint failure. The best way to avoid premature paint failure is to have your home exterior painting done professionally.

At Eason Painting Company, we offer reliable and durable exterior painting services, currently serving the areas of Macomb Township, Washington Township, Ray Township, Rochester, Rochester Hills, Romeo, Armada, Troy, Shelby Township, Harrison Township, Chesterfield, and Clinton Township, MI. Give us a call today for a free quote and more details.