How Often To Paint Your Home’s Exterior

When doing maintenance for a home, it’s helpful to think of every part of the house as being on a separate timer. Your roof will need to be replaced every so often. Your hardwood floors will have to be sanded and re-stained at certain times, as well. For the exterior of your house, it will need to be painted on a schedule that will depend on the type of siding you have along with other factors. Thankfully, HardiePlank, a brand of fiber cement siding, provides a long time between finishes.

Types of Siding

When asking how often to paint your exterior, it’s not as simple as finding a one-size-fits-all number. Depending on what type of siding you have, this number of years can vary quite dramatically.

Wood siding may need to be repainted every three years! There are also problems with rotting and insects that will make maintaining a wood exterior more difficult. Aluminum siding, as well as stucco, should be repainted every five years on average.

Fiber cement, especially HardiePlank, can go 10 or even 15 years between paintings. It needs to be primed and given more than one coat and done by a professional, as with any painting job.

Climate

Another factor that can affect how often one should paint their exterior is the weather. Hotter climates can cause paint to crack and fade. Brutal winters can also have a harsh effect on a paint job. Here in the Raleigh Durham area of North Carolina, we have a reasonably moderate climate for three of four seasons, but the summers can be extreme some years.

While extreme temperatures do cause expanding and contracting of wood and other materials, fiber cement like HardiePlank does not fluctuate in this way. This stability helps keep the paint job healthy for even longer instead of cracking.

Professional application and materials

Another very important thing to consider is having a professional service applying the paint. HardiePlank needs to have proper priming and the right number of coats of paint if you want a job that will last a decade or more.

Using a lighter color of paint can help extend the life of the paint. Darker colors can be affected by sunlight more, causing fading. Also, choosing the right quality and type of paint will have a major impact as well. Robert Gordon Services is an elite preferred remodeler of the James Hardie Company, producer of HardiePlank fiber cement siding. Those in the Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Morrisville, Chapel Hill, and greater Triangle areas can call us at 919-250-8038 to discuss installing HardiePlank or having it repainted.