‘When’s the best time to repaint my home’s exterior?’. This is one of the most common questions among homeowners. Below are a couple of tips you can use as a guide when you assess the existing paint job of your home.
Is It Time to Repaint My Home’s Exterior?
The answer to this popular question will be different for everyone since the answer will depend on the following factors:
- Your area’s climate.
- The quality of your home’s existing paint.
- Your home’s specific cladding type.
If you notice your window trim is already cracking or peeling even from a significant distance, this is a sign that you must consider repainting — you should’ve even repainted it as early as two years ago so don’t put it off once again. You should likewise thoroughly inspect your cladding each year if it’s made of timber and keep a close eye on areas where the timber butts or overlaps with other materials. Watch out for indications of moisture, fungus or infestation in these parts.
Other cladding types that are more resistant to different weather elements will not require repainting as regularly as timber. However, don’t forget to repaint timber elements like doors, window trim, and fascias.
What’ The Life Expectancy of an Exterior Paint Job?
While there’s no one answer to this question, professional painters in Perth offer the following guidelines:
- Painted timber could last as much as 10 years. However, if it’s regularly exposed to direct sunlight, it might only last five to six years, and if your home is along the coast, you may need to repainting every two or three years.
- Clear finished or stained timber requires refinishing every two or five years.
- The paint on fibro or weatherboard could last as much as 15 years.
- Window trims in semi-gloss or glossy timber will require repainting every four to five years.
Note that the quality of paint and workmanship makes a colossal difference to your home exterior’s paint job. If you’re planning on repainting, surface preparation should take considerably longer than the painting itself to ensure that the paint job lasts longer. Likewise, know that skimping on paint and labour costs could actually end up costing more in the long haul than using superior quality paint and primer in the first place — so choose your materials and painting contractor wisely.