Painting Lap Siding

Lap siding comes in real wood (cedar siding or otherwise), cement composite (Hardiplank) or wood fiber composite (Louisiana Pacific, Masonite etc.) products. Lap siding comes in different widths, but usually it will be in 8” (or something close) widths.

Paint the siding horizontally

The best way to paint horizontal siding is horizontally. You can do this with either a roller, brush or sprayer.

Paint two or three pieces of siding at a time - horizontally, with the length of the siding, working from end to end and from the top - down. Starting at one end of the house, pant two or three pieces from one end of the house to the other. Shorten the ladder, and paint the next two or three pieces from one end of the house to the other, and so on, until the whole side of the house is completed in this manner.

Painting the siding vertically

You can paint the lap siding vertically with a roller too. The thing to watch out for with vertical painting (up and down) is to be sure you adequately paint the underside of the lap siding, and that you don’t leave heavy paint just under the laps of siding.

the hot sun is on the siding. Hot sun will set up wet paint in minutes, making it impossible to go up and down the ladder, and still keep a wet edge for good paint blending..

If you get lap marks on horizontal siding you can eliminate them by repainting the affected siding pieces with a second coat. Try rolling just the face of the siding on the second coat, as this will be faster than cutting in and rolling. Paint as much from the ground as you can comfortably paint too, as this is faster and you will maintain a wet edge between painted sections.

Paint from the ground what you can

It is faster to paint from the ground without going up and down the ladder. The problem is that it can be difficult to paint from the ground if the siding is high off the ground. A solution to this is to paint from the ground everything you can comfortably reach with an extension pole, and pant from the ladder anything that is too high to do with the extension pole.

Schedule your painting by the sun

Paint the south side first thing in the morning before it gets too hot. The west side should also be painted in the morning before the afternoon sun gets to the west side of the house. In the afternoon, you can paint the east side of the house, after the sun shifts over to the west side. The north side of the house will usually be without direct sunlight for most of the day, and is the most flexible when it comes to scheduling the painting.

Painting horizontal siding with a brush

Start at the top of the house and work your way down, painting form one end of the house to the other. You will paint out two or three pieces of siding at a time from one end to the other. Use a 3” or 4” wall brush. One of the best brushes to use for exterior siding is the semi-oval wall brush. The oval shape holds a lot of paint, meaning there is less dipping into the pail and more brushing paint onto the siding.

Brush technique

When working from a ladder you will need work out of the original paint (gallon) bucket, or another suitable paint pail. The bucket should be no more than half full (about a half gallon), and attached to the ladder via a ladder hook. Dip your bush into the paint and tap it once on the inside of the pail to remove excess paint, then bring it to the siding. Brush the paint out, then smooth it down with the tips of the brush. Paint about a 3 or 4 foot length of siding,, then paint the next piece down the same way. Paint the underside of the siding as well as you go.

Once you have painted out two or three strips of siding, move the ladder over and repeat. Paint out the next section the same way, only this time you will finish smoothing the paint with the tips of your brush toward the previous painted section. Blend the new wet paint back into the previous (hopefully still wet) paint.

Paint sheen

Flat paint is the easiest to work with on large areas like exterior siding. Flat paint is less likely to show lapping and sheen variations than sheen paints

Painting horizontal siding with a roller

An ideal way of painting horizontal siding is rolling it out horizontally. That is, you roll it sideways - in the direction of the siding. The best type of roller to use for this is a small mini roller with a “covered end”. Rolling out the siding with in this manner will allow you to paint the siding with a roller almost exclusively without the need for a brush. The covered end will paint the underside of the lap siding as you roll out the face of the siding. You may need a brush “here and there” to cut in spots that the covered end can’t do.

Painting the siding with a roller is the most uniform method of applying paint and joining two painted sections together. The roller is less likely to show “lapping” because the painted sections are blended more evenly with a roller.

Related Articles: Painting With Extension Ladders

Paint Scrapers

Lap marks

If you overlap paint that has already set up or dried, you will get a lap mark. Lap marks will appear as either shinier or flatter in sheen than the rest of the painted surface. The color of the lapped areas will look a little different in color too.

Avoid lap marks by maintaining a “wet edge”. You need to join wet paint into wet paint to prevent lapping. Avoid painting in the sun. The south side of the house which is always in the sun, will need to be painted early in the morning, before

How to Paint Exterior Lap Siding

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