Your home’s exterior is the first thing anyone sees when they walk or drive by, and what greets you every time you return. It’s only natural that you want your home to look its absolute best. But maintaining your exterior isn’t all about appearances. A durable paint job and clean surface will also help protect your home from the elements. No matter how you slice it, painting your home’s exterior every 5-7 years (on average) is a smart investment, as long as it’s done properly.
At All American Painting Plus, our attention to detail, use of high-quality materials, and team of experienced professional painters allow us to completely revamp a home’s appearance and make it last a long time. It all starts in the way we methodically plan each project. To give you an idea of our process, let’s go over how we plan your home exterior paint job.
Starting With the Big Picture
Exterior painting jobs range in size and scope, but they’re all relatively large undertakings. It can be easy to get lost in the weeds. So, we start by looking at the bigger picture, working with you to determine the scope of the job. In most cases, the project will involve painting every side and most surfaces of the home’s exterior. But, in other cases, you might only want a certain part of your exterior painted or touched up. We’ll make sure we get a good idea of your needs, desires, concerns, and expectations before we dig further into the details.
Getting an Up-Close Look
Then, we’ll schedule a time to visit your home and meet in person. This is where the big picture starts to come more into focus. Our estimator will walk around your home with you, checking out every exterior surface we’ll be painting, and answering any questions you may have as we move along.
Like your home’s interior, its exterior might need quite a few repairs. However, because the exterior is exposed to wind, rain, sunlight, and more, the damage is often more severe. As we walk around the perimeter, we’ll also be keeping an eye out for rotted wood and other repairs, both major and minor. We take our time during this part of the planning stage so we don’t miss anything, and so that we’re on the same page. We don’t want to run into any surprises once we get to work, and neither do our customers.
Itemizing Every Aspect
The “Plus” in our name indicates that we’re more than just a painting company. So, as we’re crafting an estimate for the job, it’s more than just a painting estimate. We’ll also include the things that need fixing before painting begins, which we’ll have discussed with you beforehand. We’re very intricate in how we create this estimate, too, making sure to itemize every part of the job, line by line. We’ll even delineate between fixtures that definitely need replacing, might need replacing, etc.
Sending the Initial Estimate
After our thorough walkthrough and estimate formation, we’ll send an official estimate to you within 48 hours. You’ll have the opportunity to ask us any questions regarding the items and prices. Once you’re happy with the estimate and send back the signed acceptance form and deposit, we will choose the best dates to get started.
Introducing the Crew
We enjoy building strong relationships with all our customers and maintaining a strong line of communication at every step. If possible, our exterior painters and foreman will introduce themselves before starting work on your home. If you’re there while we’re working, someone will always be available to answer your questions or address concerns.
Preparing the Area
You don’t want paint to fall on your shrubbery, lawn, or garden. This is why we’ll make sure to cover anything that can’t be temporarily removed from the area with plastic, and move everything else to a safe location. We’ll also place plenty of drop cloths on the ground.
Pressure Washing Your Home
To ensure the best possible paint job, we always begin our exterior painting process by pressure washing your home’s surfaces. This helps rid the surfaces from dust and dirt, and also removes any mold or mildew that may have taken hold. Paint also adheres more strongly to clean, smooth surfaces, so this is a crucial step that every exterior painting contractor should take.
Sanding, Scraping, Spot Caulking, Priming, and Repairing
Of course, additional steps must be taken before we can begin painting. These include sanding down surfaces, scraping away old, loose paint, caulking trim and other places that need it, and priming certain areas for painting. We’ll also take the time to repair or replace rotted wood and fix any other aspects of your home’s exterior included in our estimate.
The Painting Part
Once we’ve ensured that your home is clean, sturdy, and smooth, the painting part of our exterior house painting service can finally take place. Some contractors use sprayers to apply exterior paint, but at All American Painting Plus, we mostly use rollers and brushes. This may take longer at times, but it tends to result in a more even, better-looking coat in the end.
Cleaning Up
Any messes we make are entirely on us, so we handle all of the final cleaning once the job is done and the paint has dried. The foreman will do one last walkthrough around your home to make sure everything has been done to our home painting standards. We’ll also remind you that all of our work is reinforced by a two-year warranty.
Making Sure You’re 100% Satisfied
The job isn’t truly done until the customer is completely happy with the outcome of our work. We’ll make sure this is the case before sending the final invoice. If not, we will address your concerns and come up with the right solution.
Exterior painting is a big part of what we do, but just one of the many painting services we offer. To learn more about all that we do, give us a call at (703)-620-5563!
