How to Paint Exterior Wood Trim

About This Video
Need to do some painting around the house? Here's a short, step-by-step video that shows how to prepare the surface and paint exterior wood trim.

Rate This Video	Saving Rating...
Overall Rating		(20)

Comments on "How to Paint Exterior Wood Trim "

Video Transcript for "How to Paint Exterior Wood Trim "

David Lupberger on How to Paint Exterior Wood Trim: Hi, I'm David Lupberger with ServiceMagic.com. Today we're going to review how to patch, prime and paint exterior wood surfaces that need repair. In this case you'll see that this is a south facing wall, which means there's a lot of direct sun. It's also where water and snow piled up against, in this case, the paint starts to peel. These are the things you'll want to watch out for and repair, because that paint is the thing that protects the surface underneath.
Lupberger: Let's review materials you're going to need. You're going to need a scraper, sandpaper, wood filler, in case there's any imperfections in the wood. Primer, paint, here's my brush to apply the primer. And then a small roller and paint tray, because when you're doing touch up painting you may want to cover an entire surface so it doesn't look like a patch.
Lupberger: Let me show you what I mean. The first step is to scrape any loose paint from the surface. Because if you paint over that loose paint; it's going to peel off again in a matter of months. The next step is sanding, because I want to sand the surface, to make sure all that loose paint is removed and that I have a smooth surface.
Lupberger: I just saw in the course of my sanding that there's a gap in the wood here. This needs a little bit of caulking. Before I go any further, I want to come back here and caulk that gap and I'll do that before putting on the prime coat.
Lupberger: First thing I want to do is take the surface and wipe any dust off the surface so that the surface is as clean as possible. Now I'm going to take my caulking gun and go ahead and fill that gap. So as you apply caulk, a varying amount can come out. So I'm going to run by with my finger to make sure it's a very clean seal. In this case I used a latex caulk, and that will be dry in about 20 minutes.
Lupberger: The next step in the process is applying the primer. I've shaken the primer to make sure it's mixed. And now, I'm going to put a bit of primer on my brush and I'm going to start to cover all the exposed surfaces. I'm using a white primer because I'm covering a white surface. If I was painting a dark piece of trim I would actually tint the primer to match the exterior surface. And you'll see that when you finish this with a coat of paint that a dark color over white will take an additional coat. So by tinting the primer you save yourself one step in the process.
Lupberger: Now let's go to the final coat. I've shaken the paint can and am pouring the paint into the tray so that I can work with a roller to really cover the entire surface. Let's go ahead and look at this final coat. You'll see I put down a drop cloth I did that because I was a little careless earlier and I let some paint drip when I was putting on the prime coat. So this time I'm being careful, I'm going to put that little drop cloth underneath where I am painting.