Painting the exterior of your home can be quite a big job, but if your siding is still in good shape, it's a great way to update your home. Painting the exterior is more than simply purchasing paint and slapping it on your house. You need to do some work beforehand to ensure your paint job looks good and is long lasting. See below for some necessary prep-work before painting your house.

Clean It Up

Siding accumulates with dirt and debris over time, but it can also have mildew and mold growing on it. Clean this and other stains from your house before painting to ensure the stains do not seep through your paint job. Use a siding cleaner and a pressure washer to clean up your siding. For harder to remove spots, use a cleaner such as TSP and a soft bristle brush. To get up high in the peaks of your home and to clean the gutters, soffit, and fascia, you'll need to get up onto a ladder. Be sure to have someone helping you to hold the ladder and to spot you while you are on it in case of an accident.

Make Repairs

This is the time to make repairs in your siding.

Vinyl. If your vinyl siding has small holes in it, fill them in with paintable caulk or silicone. For larger holes in vinyl, use a spare piece of vinyl cut about an inch larger than the hole. Use caulk around the hole as an adhesive and apply the patch over the hole. Seal it with paintable caulk or silicone.

Aluminum. For dents or dings in aluminum siding, you can try to pull the dent out using a can of pressurized air to cool it, then use a hair dryer to heat it up immediately after. The dent should pull right out. Repeat the process if necessary.

Wood. For wood siding, fill in small holes using wood filler. Replace any rotting pieces of siding with new pieces. You may need to sand down some portions of the wood that are splintering or that seem a bit rough.

Remove Obstacles

Remove obstacles around your home such as shutters on the house and patio furniture around your home. You may also need to remove downspouts to be able to paint behind them. Use painter's tape to tape around window and door trim that you may want to be a different color or aren't planning on painting. Also use drop cloths on the ground around your home to ensure paint doesn't drip onto your driveway, sidewalk, decking, or patio.

Painting your home requires quite a bit of preparation. Be sure that if you are tackling this type of project, you do the prep-work to get the job done right. For more information, contact local professionals like Braendel Painting.