Cleaning is the single most important step in the process of preparation for painting the exterior of your home. Let’s face it, no one likes to do this and would much rather get to the fun part and paint away, but that can lead to unpleasant results if the cleaning steps are not followed correctly. No matter how much you want to start painting right away, don’t skip these critical stages in the preparation cleaning process.

Consider a solid power wash before proceeding. Although not imperative, it would give your surface a clean slate, and the paint will stick very well once dry of course.

You’ll want to start with first doing a solid job of scraping the walls and taking down all the unwanted dirt before any paint is applied. Not doing this well could result in the paint not sticking well and even worse could stick to the dirt instead of the wall. You’ll want to sand all the surfaces very smoothly so that the paint will stick very well to the wall. Use a long-handled pull scraper to take down all the peeling paint from a previous paint job, this way you don’t have small spots where new paint will go over old paint. Next, you’ll want to use your building skills to do the stucco repairs or patching if needed anywhere on the surfaces.

Replace rotten wood at this stage of the process. Leaving rotten wood un-replaced will sabotage your entire project and leave you frustrated. Not skipping steps in the exterior paint prep process is vital to a successful project.

One last step experts recommend is caulking. This will prevent water from penetrating the structure and destroy the walls. On top of that, caulking will make the paint job look perfect and professional. One thing to keep in mind when selecting your caulking is that low price is a poor choice because it does a poor job. Do yourself a favor and buy the caulking that is of better quality so that you can enjoy the full effect of it.

Spending too much time in preparation stage is never fun; however, it will improve the chances of your project looking fantastic once finished, and you’ll thank yourself for sticking to the steps and having patience all along the way. More people would see better results in their exterior painting jobs if they’d follow these simple steps outlined above. Save yourself a ton of headaches and take time with each step, remembering that the cleaning part is the most important step in the whole process.