How Often Should You Paint Your Home’s Exterior?
It’s best not to wait for your home’s exterior paint job to look decrepit and old
before you start repainting it. However, how do you know how often to paint it?
Unfortunately, there isn’t a quick and easy answer for this question, since the kind
of paint you use, where you live, the weather conditions your house experiences
and other factors all determine how often the paint needs to be reapplied.
If you have wood siding, for instance, then it needs to be repainted every three to
seven years. If you are staining it, you can do that once every four years.
If it’s stucco you are dealing with, then you can repaint it every five or six years.
For aluminum, plan to repaint every five years.
Painted brick lasts the longest of any exterior home paint job. It usually only
needs to be redone once every 15-20 years. If you have unpainted brick on your
house, then you can just clean it instead of painting it.
For cement fiberboard siding, you will want to paint over the old paint once every
10-15 years.
You should also take into account the kind of conditions that your home is faced
with. Not every environment is equally kind to paint jobs. If you live somewhere
near the sea, for instance, then salt corrosion can occur rapidly and require at
least a partial paint job every year or so. If you live in an area where there is a lot
of sunshine year-round, then your paint can fade quickly and need a fresh coat to
look appealing. In places where the weather conditions are severe, you may need
to use a special kind of paint to prevent having to repaint your home every couple
of years and to protect it from leaks.
You will also need to repaint more often if you use low quality paint. Not all paints
will last as long as one another, and the process you use to paint can determine
how long it lasts as well. If you don’t put down a primer or don’t use the right kind
of paint for the type of siding you have, then you may has to repaint more
frequently.
Also look for signs that your paint needs to be replaced or painted over. Look for
chipped, peeling, blistering and faded paint. All of these could mean that your
current paint job is failing and needs to be redone.
The kind of maintenance work you do can also determines how long your current
paint job lasts and how often it need not be replaced. If you wash your homes;
exterior every so often, you can prevent corrosion and degradation. If you deal
with areas on your house were paint is starting to go bad, then you won’t need
to repaint everything so often. Just pay attention it your home’s paint and try to
keep it clean and looking its best to avoid repainting on a regular basis.
