Building a Home: Exterior Paint

Acrylic latex caulk and painters putty were used to fill gaps.

Things were starting to happen quickly again. The last piece of siding had barely been hung when the paint crew arrived. They brought painters putty and a couple cases of acrylic latex caulk, no paint. They went about filling all the holes, gaps and crevices that might give water access to wood. As I found out, preparation is 90% of painting (5% is spent chain smoking). Filling holes, clearing surfaces of loose debris, putting plastic over windows takes time. In all, they spent two days just preparing the house to be painted. Video of house being prepped to paint.

The paint was delivered in three – 5 gallon buckets and two – 1 gallon cans. One of the buckets was opened and a paint sprayer went in. After a couple hours, the entire house had been painted. They would spend another whole day painting the trim around the windows, doors and columns. The color we used was called White Umber. We had seen it on another house our contractor was building and it had just enough black in it that your eyes didn’t hurt to see it in full sunlight. White is also good in hot, sunny climates because it’s highly reflective and helps keep energy costs down. Video of house being painted.

17 gallons of paint.

Siding gaps filled with caulk.

Paint sprayer