Painting - painting a brick home for first time

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12-12-00, 06:15 AM
My wife and I are about to purchase a new home that has a brick exterior. We are going to do some remodeling work that will include an addition with vinyl siding. My wife is not very fond of the yellow/brown brick and prospects of matching siding with it and so we are considering painting the brick and getting a matching colored siding on the addition. My questions are: 1) How difficult is it to paint a house that has not been painted before? 2) Is this something we could do ourselves and if so where would we get information on how to do it? 3) What is the approximate cost of doing so (it is a 2 story cape cod)? 4) How often do you have to repaint once you have commited to painting a house?


12-12-00, 12:32 PM
ebosley,

There are people that will say to never paint brick, argueing "Why paint a virtual maintenance free surface?" I agree to an extent, I say if you can't stand to look at it or if it is unsitely then paint it. Just be very sure it is what you want, once it is painted, it's painted.

What you would want to do is first rent a pressure washer and wash the entire surface to be painted, (even the driveway, porch, deck while you have it :) ) Hand scrubbing any oil or grease with a de-greaser and rinse. After that dries thoroughly (at least one day) you would want to roll on an exterior masonary primer, caulk any cracks with a paintable latex caulk, smooth with a wet finger and clean any mess with a wet rag before in "skins", then paint with the quality exterior paint of choice.

The cost and amount of paint is going to depend on the choice of paint and sq. footage to be painted, any of the pro paint store will figure this for you if you give them the sq. footage.

How often will depend on the quality of the paint, paints come with guarantees from 6 years to 20 years, Sherwin Williams even has a lifetime warranty paint called Duration, it is self priming, so the extra money spent on this paint will save you cost of the primer, priming labor, one coat coverage and is it guaranteed for as long as you own your home. Be sure to follow the directions for the lifetime warranty and it must be applied by the home owners (no contractors).

I recomend useing quality paints and tools from pro paint stores, it does make a difference.

Hope this helps,