Ok, you used maintenance free vinyl siding and brick for the body of the house, but you decided to trim the house with wood and paint it. Painted wood trim gives you the option of changing colors from time to time as you desire a change. Even though you can paint the siding (and the brick for that matter), you most likely will only paint the trim where you have aluminum or vinyl siding and brick. Here is how I paint a wood trim house depending on whether the house is trimmed with rough sawn or smooth trim.
Clean
Pressure wash the trim with bleach to kill mildew where necessary see Cleaning an Exterior for Painting.
Prime
Depending on the paint you are using and the paint you are painting over, you may need to primer before you commence the painting. See Exterior Paint Primers.
Smooth trim
Smooth trim is usually painted with a brush. The advantage of using a brush is better coverage and hiding than you can get with a roller - and without the spatter associated with a roller.
My favorite brush for exterior trim is a semi-oval 3”or 4” brush. The semi-oval will hold a lot of paint, which means less dipping.
Don’t leave the paint bucket on the ladder when you move the ladder. Bring the bucket up and down the ladder with you as you ascend and descend the ladder. You can hold the paint bucket handle, and still grab the ladder rail as you go up and down the ladder. You can leave the paint brush standing in the paint bucket as you do so. If your paint bucket is no more than 1/3 full, you won’t bury the brush into the paint doing this.
Paint
I like a good hiding primer/ finish for hand brushing wood trim. My favorite paint for this is Sherwin Williams Duration.
Rough Sawn Trim
Rough sawn trim is hard to brush. It is too much work to paint rough trim with a brush. I use the same one gallon paint bucket system with a ladder hook that I use with smooth trim brush , but I don’t use a brush (for the most part), I use a mini 4” pencil roller with a short handle. In the paint pail you will need to insert a one gallon roller grid. Rolling the trim with a mini roller works well from a ladder, it is not much different than using a brush.. The roller will push the paint into the rough wood better and more easily. I hold the paint roller by the frame along with the paint pail handle when descending and ascending the ladder without any problems. I do use a brush which I put in my back pocket (bristles up and handle down in the pocket), this keeps the brush out of the way while using the roller until I need to cut in with it. There are brush holsters and holders that can be used to free up your hands and hold your brush, but the back pocket works fine for me - remember, bristle up, and handle down into the pocket.
Solid Stain
With rough sawn trim you will find that an exterior solid stain will push into the pores a little easier than a thick paint. Stains are thinner in viscosity, allowing better penetration into the rough wood. There is no real loss of coverage or hide with the solid stain on rough sawn trim, since the roughness of the trim will hold a lot of paint. A good solid exterior stain is Sherwin Williams Weatherscapes. Another favorite rough sawn exterior stain is a mix of a quality house paint and Emulsabond (about a 50 / 50 mix).
Brush painting the trim will require painting from off a ladder - probably an extension ladder. You will work out of a one gallon pail that is about filled about 1/3 of the pail. Attach the bucket to the ladder with a ladder hook. You will paint from the ladder with 3 point contact at all times (two feet and one hand holding the ladder). Do not over reach while brushing or you will risk losing your balance. Most painters learn to paint with both left and right hands and this comes in handy when brushing paint off of a ladder. Paint as much as you can with the right hand then switch the brush to the left hand and paint as far as you comfortably can reach before descending the ladder and moving on.
Painting Exterior Trim
Search This Site
 | ||||
Custom Search
| ||||
The
Concourse eStore
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
SM
Painting Tips and Advice
| ||||
Painting and Decorating Concourse
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
Our "terms of use" governs your use of our website; by using our website, you accept this disclaimer in full. If you disagree with any part of our "terms of use", do not use our website.
| ||||
Little Giant Ladders
Ladder Accessories
Name brand ladders
| ||||
Click here
