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Throughout this prep process, you may discover wood that is spongy to the touch and has excessive cracks. There are several methods and tools for removing peeling paint including hand scrapers, power scrapers, chemical strippers and heat guns. It’s tedious work, but it is extremely effective and gives you the most control. Tanya Christian joined Consumer Reports as a multimedia content creator in 2021, bringing with her more than a decade of experience in the home and lifestyle space. Over the course of his decades-long career, Bob Vila has helped millions of people build, renovate, repair, and live better each day—a tradition that continues today with expert yet accessible home advice.
Secrets Paint Pros Won’t Tell You

Chemicals and solvents found in paint products can emit toxic fumes known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Carbon-containing substances create noxious fumes during the painting process. These compounds have long been added to oil-based paints to improve their hardness and increase drying time. Many acrylic and latex paints also contain VOCs to a lesser degree, although the trend is toward reducing or eliminating the compounds to offer a healthier painting experience. Duramax contains FlexShield365 technology that’s designed to increase its resistance to weather extremes, such as high winds and driving rain, while offering a measure of mold and mildew resistance. This house paint is a 100 percent acrylic latex formulation, so it effectively covers hairline cracks in existing paint for a smooth surface look.
Cornflower Blue + White + Green
It’s perfect for painting wood siding where you’re not scraping and sanding down to bare wood. After pressure washing all the surfaces, I let everything dry for 24 hours. Then I scraped all the peeling paint off the flat surfaces using a carbide scraper.
Buttercup Yellow + White
You’ll be living with these colors for the next decade, if you’re lucky, so try not to let anything (your contractor’s schedule included) rush your decision. Read on for insights on some of the most popular homeowner questions when it comes to painting home exteriors. A light neutral with a whisper of green undertone, this color pairs effortlessly with deep blue. This cool muted hue crossed with a deep mossy green brings the colors of nature to your home exterior. As seen in here, an off-white exterior lets this lush green front lawn and pillared entryway take center stage. It’s definitely an expense, but the time cut off the job is worth it, especially on a surface like these shakes.
Even a little cloud cover can completely change how a color looks, turning it from a nice sage green to more of a '70s avocado. Watch how the color looks over the course of a few days or a week. That'll help you decide what exterior paint color combination works best for your style and home.
Exterior House Colors You’ll Love
The low-VOC house paint contains mildew-resistant additives and mildewcide, so it is well suited for use in humid areas. In our search for the best exterior paint, we only considered options from the top paint brands. Certain factors, including durability, longevity, and weather resistance, determined which paints stood out above the rest.
White Brick + Pale Pink
Alkyd primers are best for bare wood because they cover bleed-through from wood knots better; be sure the label states that the primer is designed to stop bleed-through. For years, there’s been a lively debate about the supremacy of oil-based or water-based paint. Oil-based products, which include alkyd paints, clean up with mineral spirits.
Wrapping Up the Best Exterior Paints
19 Popular Exterior House Colors for Fall 2023 - Family Handyman
19 Popular Exterior House Colors for Fall 2023.
Posted: Fri, 08 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Use the photo and video visualizers to "virtually" apply paint colors for a preview. Deciding which paint to use has gotten much easier now that acrylic latexes have pushed oil-based paints almost to extinction. The binder is what holds the pigments, mildewcides and other solids that form the actual paint film. Look for latex paint with an all-acrylic binder, which is inherently more weather resistant than vinyl or vinyl-acrylic. Many paint companies use a modified acrylic for their interior lines and all-acrylic for premium exterior paints made to endure the elements.
But if lead is present—a strong possibility in houses built before 1978—you need to proceed with extra care. To lay any doubts to rest, you can send paint chip samples to a lab, such as Macs Lab’s Home Free; for about $38, they’ll give you a definitive answer. Get the latest This Old House news, trusted tips, tricks, and DIY Smarts projects from our experts–straight to your inbox. Exterior paints have improved significantly in the last several years. In the past, very few formulas would be aesthetically intact after nine years. Today, most paints resist cracking and fading so well that they could last longer than a decade.
It dries quickly (under an hour) and is both a paint and primer in one. Another high-quality exterior paint is SuperPaint Exterior Acrylic Latex by Sherwin Williams. This Sherwin Williams paint is also available in over 100 colors and is mold- and mildew-resistant. Blue gray is a versatile color that would suit many home styles. With another color, like a bright white, you could highlight soffits (the underside of the eaves of the roof), door and window frames. For the trim, you could choose a third color to act as a contrast for the main color.
Oil-based paints have the longest useful life, but tinted water-based paints are less likely to fade. Acrylic paints are also a viable option since this type of paint is capable of resisting extreme weather while never losing its pigment. Acrylic is a binder that allows latex to flex slightly, making it less likely to become brittle and crack and, therefore, able to better repel rain. Sherwin-Williams’ Emerald Exterior is a self-priming paint that produces a smooth, flat coat and does not require a separate primer application. One gallon can cover up to 300 square feet and provide a strong, resilient surface that discourages dirt. If the right house paint is used, the results can look fresh for a decade on a stucco surface and as long as 7 years on siding.
For this Michigan home, Liz Hoekzema selected Rock Bottom by Sherwin-Williams. It works nicely with the walnut, oak, soapstone, and marble materials used outside and inside the house. Learn tips before you buy, how to prepare, getting the right tools and clean-up tricks.
We will conduct your video estimate within the timeframe you select below. You will need to be in your home and on a mobile device with a rear-facing camera that is connected to your home’s wi-fi. Below you will find some examples all created with the above virtual house painter tool, myPaintColors. Use the tool yourself to upload a picture of your home or get some inspiration from the samples below.
Loved by many homeowners, beige goes equally well with the green of a healthy lawn or the trees of a more natural setting. Because it’s neutral, you can match beige with anything from darker shades of brown to the brightest hues on the color wheel. With this earthy color as a base, exterior house color schemes are nearly limitless. From traditional to modern, these exterior paint color schemes will instantly boost your home's curb appeal. It helps to consider trim color as well, since some paint color combinations hold better appeal. It almost goes without saying, but you should also always select a good quality exterior paint.
Zinsser has mold- and mildew-inhibiting ingredients to protect exterior wood, as long as the surface is clear from any existing mold or mildew before painting. The paint offers good coverage and, like many Rust-Oleum products, blocks stains from bleeding through. It comes in a tintable semi-gloss sheen that repels dirt and moisture. Landscaping is another way to add contrast and visual interest to a monotone exterior. The color scheme you select can change the overall look and feel of your home's exterior aesthetic.
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