How to paint exterior of a stucco house.

Exterior house painting and preparation step by step. Spray painting of the stucco house exterior and the concrete block wall around the back of the house.
When painting the exterior of the house preparation usually takes most of the time. About 80% of the exterior house painting is the preparation work and about 20% of the time is taken up by applying paint to the surface.

1. One of the first things we do is move the gravel away from the house. It is done so that the gravel does not get any overspray when we spray paint the body.
2. After we moved the gravel away we power wash the house thoroughly. Power washing is needed so that the paint adheres properly to all surfaces.
3. Some of the houses in Arizona have loose joint tape on either the front or the back patio ceilings and prior to painting we address those repairs and replace the old joint tape with a new one. Usually after replacing joint tape the area where the joint tape was replaced needs to be re-textured to match the old texture.
4. Any paint that is pealing needs to be scraped by hand as power washing usually takes care of the very small portion of the paint that is loose.
5. After scraping the areas that have peeling paint we apply elastomeric patch to those areas, so they blend in better with the rest of the house. Elastomeric patch can be applied with either a brush or a roller.
6. We apply the same elastomeric patch to fix hair-line cracks. To fix larger cracks we use latex caulk. To repair holes in the house we use stucco mix.
7. Priming is another thing that makes the paint job long lasting. All larger areas that are missing paint and only have a bare surface need to be primed. Most of the materials that we are using to fill small cracks such as caulk or elastomeric patch do not require a primer.
8. We mask windows, fixtures, roof tile, and concrete using different type of tape. In winter we use yellow tape. It leaves minimal amount of glue on the window frames if removed within 24 hours. In winter you can leave it for longer than that. During the summer we use green tape. It is twice as expensive as the yellow one but it gives a lot longer removal time without living any traces of glue. Most common way for us to mask either concrete or roof tile (when we painting the second level of the house) is to run a piece of 12 inch paper along the side of the house and then use tarps to cover a wider area.
9. When we masked everything that is not being painted with plastic paper and tarps, we start to spray paint the house. We usually spray paint one wall at a time. We start on one side and by the time we reached the end of the wall it is ready to be spray painted again. During the winter months when it is colder it may need longer dry time between the coats, and we wait for it to dry a longer period of time before applying a second coat of paint. To make spray painting a little faster we use either 3 or 6 feet extension for the spray gun when painting the body of the house. When spray painting the pop outs or the doors we usually do not use an extension.
10. For painting the trim fascia we usually use a small roller and a brush. It is most of the time faster than masking the roof tile and trying spray paint the fascia.
11. Touch ups and clean-up are the last steps of the painting process.

These 11 points summarize the steps that we usually take to complete an exterior house painting project.


Website: http://www.housepaintinginphoenix.com/