Here are a couple of tips for homeowners who have hired house painters to paint their house's exterior.

They should clear out the areas that are within a metre or so of the exterior walls

One step that every homeowner should take in the days before the house painter is due to start working, is to clear out the areas that are within a metre or so of the exterior walls. While most people know that they will need to temporarily remove things like wall trellises and exterior wall ornaments from the walls themselves, many do not make enough space for their house painter's equipment and supplies in the areas that are near the walls.

For example, when painting a house that is more than one storey, a house painter may need to use a scaffold, which could take up a few feet of space beside each wall. If the ground on which they need to put this scaffold is littered with plant pots, children's toys, gardening tools, garden furniture or other items, they'll have to move these items out of the way themselves (or ask the homeowner to do this) before they can set up their scaffold and start painting. This could delay the beginning of the painting project by an hour or more, depending on how much stuff is in the areas beside the exterior walls. Furthermore, if there are items that cannot be easily removed on the first day of this project and the homeowner hasn't taken the time to remove them beforehand (for instance, if there is a patio table that is bolted to the ground), this could make it hard for the painter to access some parts of the wall and they might need to postpone painting these spots.

They should wait until the wall paint has cured before having the house painter paint their windowsills

When a homeowner hires a house painter to repaint their home's exterior walls, they'll often decide, as an afterthought, to have the exterior windowsills painted as well so that the sills complement the new wall paint. If a homeowner wants to have this work done, they should wait until the wall paint has cured before they select and have the painter add paint to the windowsills. The reason for this is that although exterior wall paint can feel dry to the touch in a day or two, it can take up to a month to cure. During this time, the paint will often continue to darken and its true colour will only be apparent after the curing process is complete.

As such, by waiting until the wall paint has cured, the homeowner will be better able to select a colour for the exterior windowsills that looks good with the true hue of the wall paint. If they choose a sill colour based on the partially-cured wall paint and ask the house painter to apply it before the wall curing is finished, the sill paint they choose may not complement the wall paint.