Power Washing Wood Siding Before Painting

Pressure washers often eliminate chipping and peeling paint leading to exposure of bare wood.

Power washing wood siding before painting.

Clean the entire surface with soap and water or a pressure washer to remove any dirt and grime that s built up over time. This process of cleaning and drying your home before painting will ensure that the paint job lasts much longer. Power washing is a good way to remove old lacquer and dirt from your property providing a clean base for exterior painting although you might want to do all the work in one swoop the professionals at sharper edge painting say there s a grace period between cleaning surfaces and applying new paint. If you are painting a non wood surface you can begin work as soon as it appears dry.

Preparing exterior wood for painting isn t difficult but it does require some prep work to ensure that your new paint has a smooth stable surface to adhere to. This will prevent cracks patches discoloration and additional problems when the paint dries. The same holds true of washing your house s siding before painting the very best results will be achieved by hand washing with soap water and brushes. There are ways to safely clean your house before painting using a pressure washer including using lower psi pressure washers widening the spray and standing at least two feet back.

The exact procedures you will use depend on the condition of the old stain and the type of new stain that will be applied. Potential of siding damage water injected under siding or dirt remaining on house. The jet from a pressure washer can remove. There are several considerations before getting started.

Once dry you can begin painting. Painting without pressure washing. Whether it is white or red cedar or clapboard or even alaskan yellow cedar it is still wood has longitudinal pores running its length from butt to feathered edge on a shingle as well as on cedar clapboard. But realistically it is very difficult and time consuming to wash an entire house by hand and a pressure washer can do an adequate job in a manner that is much much easier.

But there is good reason not to powerwash a wood sided exterior. Pressure washing is the fastest and most effective way to wash a house before painting it as long as you do it properly and don t rely on it exclusively. If you do enough dirt is likely to collect to. I can assume there is instant dissent with the title of this story.

Wait until all bare wood feels completely dry to the touch. 1st cedar is a relatively soft wood. You don t want to trap moisture under the paint. Wood siding dries more slowly than vinyl or aluminum.

Because of this your best bet is to wait a full day before painting unless you are working on a metallic plastic fiberglass or vinyl surface.