Getting your house ready for exterior painting.

What is yours and what is ours

A written estimate should spell out the preparation surface by surface: washing, scraping, sanding, caulking, spot priming and masking. That work belongs to the painting crew, and on an exterior it is most of the labor. What helps from your side is simpler: clear access, a dry surface, and decisions made before the first day rather than during it.

One to two weeks before

• Confirm colors and sheens in writing. Body, trim, doors, garage door and any accent. Look at large samples on the house itself, on more than one side, in morning and afternoon light.
• Get HOA approval first. Many subdivisions around Brighton require architectural review for exterior color changes, and some ask for it even when you repaint in the existing colors. Having approval in hand before the start date keeps a project from stalling halfway.
• Flag what you already know about. Soft trim, a leaking gutter, a door that sticks, hail dents you have photographed. Anything the crew hears about up front can be priced and scheduled instead of discovered on a ladder.
• Finish repairs that come before paint. Siding replacement, gutter work and roofing should be done first. Paint goes on last.

Two or three days before

• Turn off the sprinklers. Siding has to be dry after washing for primer and paint to bond, and wet lower courses from sprinkler spray are one of the most common reasons a start gets pushed. Leave them off until the crew says the coating has set.
• Clear the walls. Patio furniture, grills, planters, hoses, bikes, firewood and anything leaning on the siding. Take down wall decorations, hanging plants and flag brackets you want kept.
• Pull plantings back. Shrubs and branches touching the house keep siding damp and get in the way of ladders. Tying them back or trimming to leave a working gap of a foot or so makes a real difference.
• Move vehicles. Park away from the house and off the driveway if you can. Wind carries fine mist farther than most people expect, and the driveway is usually where materials are staged.

On painting days

• Keep windows on the working side closed, and keep pets indoors or well away from ladders and wet surfaces.
• Leave an outdoor spigot and an outlet available. Washing and some equipment need both.
• Unlock gates and tell the crew lead about dogs in the yard, sprinkler heads close to the walls, or anything fragile.
• Expect the order to change during the day. Crews often follow the shade around the house so paint is not going onto a wall in full afternoon sun.

Wind, dust and the plains

East of the Front Range there is very little between a wall and the horizon. Strong wind dries the surface of a coating too fast, which shows up as lap marks, and it drives dust and grit into wet paint and carries overspray. A careful crew will switch from spraying to brush and roller, change the order of elevations, or move the day. If a start slips because of the forecast, that is usually the right decision rather than a scheduling failure.

Temperature matters as well. Every coating lists a minimum application and curing temperature on its label or product data sheet, and in spring and fall it is usually the overnight low, not the afternoon high, that decides whether a day works.

After the crew leaves

• Walk every side of the house with the crew lead before the final invoice, and keep a shared list of touch-ups.
• Hold off on sprinklers and washing. Paint can feel dry within hours and still be curing for weeks. Ask how long before the sprinklers can come back on and before the siding can be washed.
• Keep the paperwork. Color names, product lines, sheens and the warranty belong in your house file. They make touch-ups and the next repaint far easier.