How to Touch Up Exterior House Paint for a Fresh Look

Before you start any exterior painting, survey the entirety of your home and take note of any areas where the paint may be failing, chipping, or flaking off. In some cases, it may be best to start fresh and invest in painting your entire home exterior. 

Underlying issues such as a leaking gutter, failed roof flashing, or a puncture in the asphalt roofing often cause these types of failures, so addressing problems at the same time as a touch-up paint job will help mitigate the amount of work you’ll need to do in the future. At the same time, look for any signs of water damage to the wood, bubbling paint, or areas that have been faded by direct sunlight.

The most important home painting tip for any DIY project is to adequately prep the surface before you take paint to it—and that includes removing any old paint that’s peeling or detached from the wall. 

If the area of flaking paint is larger than a picture frame, you might want to set up a paint capture system like a tarp or drop cloth. Flaking paint is notorious for mixing with mulch and plants as it’s removed, so taping plastic sheeting below your work space to collect as much of the detritus as possible is a smart move. 

As you remove the old paint, work slowly, wear gloves, and be sure to conduct a lead paint test if your home was built before 1978. You’ll also want to sand the edges of the remaining paint to make the hard edge of peeling paint disappear before you prime it.

If your siding shows signs of pollen, mold, or dirt, thoroughly wash it before evaluating the scope of work involved with touching up the exterior paint. There are many paint projects that simply need a good cleaning, so choosing a regular hose versus a pressure washer makes a huge difference in blasting off the paint and leaving bare wood behind instead of gently washing an otherwise intact paint system with normal pressure. Pressure washers can also be modulated and don’t need to be used at full strength to get the job done. 

If the paint is clearly old, be careful with the high-pressure washer as it’ll rip through flaking paint (or seams in the siding) and result in one big mess for you to clean up. Manually removing old paint—with a light wash afterward to get all the dust down— is usually the best strategy for dealing with flaking or peeling paint. 

Leave projects like cleaning the upper stories of your property to the high-pressure water system or hire a local power washing company to do the hard work for you.

If you’ve washed your exterior, let the siding dry out before priming and painting your house. For wood siding, you’ll want to allow at least two to three weeks of drying before touching it up with paint if you’ve used high pressure, which injects moisture into the pores of the wood. One of the most common reasons for bubbling paint is the presence of moisture content in the underlying substrate. Getting that right before sealing it all up is important to avoid similar repairs in the immediate future. 

If you’ve done a gentle cleaning without high pressure, you can start applying paint products within one week, assuming the weather stays dry.

Now that you have a clean, dry, and prepped surface in the touch-up spots, brush or roll on a high-quality primer. Applying the primer extra thick never hurts, and allowing it to dry between coats will ensure a uniform appearance in addition to thoroughly protecting the house, which is the focal point of these painting systems. If you find yourself needing to cover an entire wall, you might consider renting a paint sprayer rather than rolling or brushing by hand.

Once your primer has dried, it’s time to put the final layer onto the touch up spots. It’s often advantageous to paint an entire section to ensure the touch up paint blends in with the old, but if you’re working with a few small spots you’ll likely be able to fade the paint into the old work with a brush or roller. Taking the time to do two lighter coats instead of one thicker coat is a good idea, as you’ll have a cleaner finish and the top coat will dry faster.  

Of course, if you simply don’t have the time for a DIY exterior touchup job, you can bring in a local painter to help out.