When is it time to repaint your home? Depending on many circumstances such as where you live and what kind of paint you use, the need to repaint can vary. At other times, you can just inspect the paint on your home and make a judgement call. Look at the picture below of a home front porch. Take particular note of the roof support posts in the foreground. From this distance do you think they need to be repainted?
HINT: If you can see what is behind the paint, it is time to repaint.
In the view above things look pretty good, right. So let's move in a little closer. See the pic below. Hmmm. Now something is suspicious. What are all those cracks?
In the pic below we see a closeup of a vertical crack in the paint and some of the many horizontal cracks in the paint. Clearly water can penetrate this vertical crack.
Another closeup below shows more cracks on these posts. And look in the middle. You can see a rectangle of missing paint material and the wood post behind.
ANSWER: Clearly, at this close-in picture you can see that these posts need to be resurfaced. Unfortunately, these posts have been allowed to deteriorate so far that simply re-applying more paint probably won't work. The old paint probably needs to be scraped down/off and the post wood needs to be coated with a primer before re-applying two coats of exterior paint. And next time, the homeowner should be more proactive and not allow the exterior paint to deteriorate this far before re-painting.
Thank you,
Richard Acree
Comments in this blog posting are the copyrighted intellectual property of Richard Acree, President, HABITEC Home and Building Inspections, LLC, and contributing members of the Active Rain Real Estate network, and are intended to educate and otherwise assist home owners, sellers and buyers, building owners, sellers and buyers, realtors, real estate investors, property managers, and lenders in the process of owning, buying or selling homes or commercial buildings. HABITEC is a residential (home) and commercial building inspection company serving Middle Tennessee including Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, Murfreesboro, Smyrna, Mt. Juliet, Hendersonville, Dickson, Belle Meade, Columbia, Spring Hill and more! In addition to building inspections HABITEC offers Environmental Services for mold assessments, radon testing and water quality analysis. Additional information about HABITEC can be found on our website at http://habitecinspections.com, or call 615-376-2753.
Richard Acree is the author of the HABITEC Home and Building Inspections Blog and founder of the ActiveRain Group Tennessee Home and Building Inspectors. All are welcome to join and see more blogs like this one.
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