Winter may not be the time to paint your home’s exterior, but it’s certainly the time to plan. As the snow, ice, and winter winds take over, it’s time to settle into planning for the new year. If you’re thinking of painting your home next year, here are some of the planning steps to go through before the arrival of spring.

Plan Your Landscape

Before you begin the painting process, you need to think about how this new paint job will work with your landscape. Incorporate your painting plans into your overall landscaping plans. What color will your paint job be, and how will this work with existing landscape plantings and outbuildings?

Consider Your Weatherproofing Needs

What does the weather bring to your location every year? As you plan to paint, think about how you’re going to protect your paint job. This might mean situating landscaping farther from the house to reduce problems with air flow and moisture accumulation, adding a large shade tree on the sunny side of the house, or adding new gutter systems that prevent water from cascading over your new paint job.

Check for Trouble

Before you paint, check your siding for trouble. This could be rotten siding or cracked seals that you need to remediate before you paint in the spring. Test your old paint as well. If you plan to remove or scrub old paint before painting again, make sure that you know whether your paint contains lead.

Look At Your Paint

What kind of paint would you like to add to your home? Look at the old paint that’s on your house, and if possible, choose to add a paint that works well with the old coat. Paint works best with like paints, so if you have an oil-based exterior paint you might consider adding a similar type on top.

Measure Your Square Footage

While the weather holds, go out and get a rough estimate of the size of your paint job. Look at difficult areas that have a lot of nooks and crannies to add them to the square footage as well. Having a sense of your square footage will help you understand how much paint to buy or how much it will cost to hire someone to do the job.

Decide Whether You’ll Do It Yourself

After you’ve made some basic painting decisions, you can decide whether you’d like to embark on painting the house. If you have trouble with ladders or you need to do extensive scraping or repairs, this might be best left to the professionals. If it’s a straightforward touch up job, you may be able to complete this project yourself.

Gather Your Tools

As spring approaches, start to collect the tools you’ll need for the job. If you plan to do the painting yourself, you’ll need rollers and brushes, dropcloths, and large ladders. You’ll also need tools to clean and scrape the old paint.

When you’re thinking of remodeling the exterior of your home, contact Harry Helmet. Our gutter systems add gutter covers and gutter heat to your home, ensuring that your gutters run clean and clear throughout the year. Protect your paint job and prevent overflows with gutter products from Harry Helmet.

Written by Del Thebaud