Your home is one of your most prized possessions, and put a lot of hard work into taking care of it. Your annual maintenance schedule probably already includes washing your siding, and tending to the exterior of your house. Normal wear and tear, and damage from weather extremes, can leave even the best maintained homes looking worn and shabby. Eventually Even the outside of your home is going to need a fresh coat of paint.

When it comes to painting the interior of your home, you have a little flexibility when it comes to cleaning. Primers, and paints with primers built in, usually provide good coverage for interior walls with very minimal cleaning before application. The same is not true for the outside of your home.

A thorough deep-cleaning is required before painting the exterior of you home in order to get the best results. While you can apply fresh paint to dirty siding, or flaky failing paint, it is definitely not recommended. You will get the paint to adhere, and the job completed, but you’ll find the paint will fail much sooner than if applied after a good cleaning.

To begin, you’ll want to gather all of the tools you’ll need. Washing the exterior of your home will require you to be working on ladders, so you’ll need to take a few extra safety precautions as well.

Tools:

  • Ladder(s)
  • Shop vac
  • Garden hose with spray nozzle
  • 5 gallon bucket
  • Heavy work gloves
  • Safety glasses
  • Hard-bristled brush with telescoping handle or extension pole
  • Wire brush with telescoping handle or extension pole
  • TSP (tri-sodium phosphate)

Mildewicide:

Once you’ve gathered all of your tools, you’ll need to complete an inspection of your siding. Start on one side, and work your way around your house. Repair or replace any damaged areas so no water damage occurs inside.

Cleaning:

Manually cleaning your siding is a time-consuming job. You should plan to tackle one side of the house per day. Start by dry brushing the entire side with your wire brush to remove dried mud, spiderwebs, bird or wasps nests. You can also use your shop vac for this step.

Working from top to bottom, mentally divide the side into three layered section. Gently spray down the top 1/3 with your garden hose, make sure to avoid spraying directly at windows or into any vents.

Mix one-half cup TSP per 2 gallons of water. Scrub down the wet section with the TSP solution. Let sit for 10-15 minutes, and rinse off with clean water. Complete the process a second time for best results.

Move on to the next section below and work through the same steps. When you’ve completed all sections, spray the entire side down at least once more with clean water.

You’ll need to let the siding dry for at least 24 hours before painting; 48 hours is best. Once the cleaning is done, and a few days have past, you’ll be ready for your house of a different color.