Want to quickly improve your curb appeal? Try adding a fresh coat of paint to your exterior windows! These will make the front of your house pop and lend the appearance of a newer looking entrance to your home. Just make sure you select trim paint because it is tough and therefore specially formulated to last long in any weather.
Tools and Materials
What do you need on hand for this project? Grab yourself a plastic putty knife, a bucket of trim paint, a roll of painter?s tape, a package of TSP cleaner, and a bucket of putty and you?ll be good to go.
Prep Your Window
To begin, you want to scrub the working area with TSP cleaning solution and rinse it clean with water. Then, scrape off the loose paint and window putty from around the edges of the window, brush it clean, and sand it smooth. A trick to help the new putty stick better is to brush the wood you exposed with linseed oil. Next, roll the new putty the other direction to remove any imperfections still there. Now you?re all set!
Let Putty Dry
Once your putty has been applied you can open the window and pull the top down until it?s relatively three inches from the sill. After that, push the bottom sash up until it?s also nearly three inches from the top of the window frame. Allow this to dry for as long as the bucket states so you don?t have any sticking.
Time for Paint
Before painting your window, be sure to prime any bare wood. If there are any muntins (pieces in the window grid), start with those. Following that, paint the horizontal pieces and then the vertical ones to create smooth results. You want any brushstrokes that run across the grain to be covered by the ones running with it.
Now you can move back the sashes so you can paint anything you couldn?t reach before. After the window is painted, open it slightly so there is a one-inch gap at the top and at the bottom. To keep them from sticking, you should move the sashes a few times.
At this point, you can paint the stops and jams, but not the tracks the windows travel in, because the paint build-up could cause the windows to jam.
Finally, you can paint the window casing, covering the nearby siding with painter’s tape. Now your windows are ready for incoming visitors.
Pro Painters, your Houston painting contractor, is full of skilled painters who specialize in Houston exterior painting and would love to help with your windows. We know all the tricks of the trade to cover those hard-to-reach spots and ensure none of the paint sticks and causes tearing, so if you?re worried about the task being too difficult to handle on your own, give us a call today.
