We paint house and building exteriors across South Bend, Mishawaka, Granger, Osceola and Roseland. Siding, trim, soffit, gutters, doors: whole exteriors or the parts that have gone first.
An exterior in northern Indiana takes a beating that an interior never does. Freeze and thaw, driving rain off the lake, and a hundred degrees of temperature swing between January and July all work on the same coat of paint. Almost everything that decides how long a repaint lasts happens before any color goes on.
What we paint outside
Wood, fiber cement, aluminum and vinyl siding; soffit and fascia; gutters and downspouts; window and door trim; garage doors, entry doors, porch ceilings, columns, railings and shutters. Detached garages and outbuildings as well, and commercial frontages.
You do not always need the whole building. South and west elevations take the most sun and weather and often fail years before the rest, and repainting those alone is a legitimate job rather than a compromise. We will tell you honestly if the other sides can wait.
Preparation, which is most of the work
- Power wash and treat the surface with TSP, so the new coat is bonding to the building rather than to dirt, chalk and mildew.
- Scrape back everything loose and feather the edges, so the boundary between old and new paint does not telegraph through the finish.
- Prime and caulk any exposed wood. This is the step that keeps water out, and it is an easy one to skip.
- Mask and protect what is not being coated: windows, roofing, foundations, walkways and planting.
Bare wood left unprimed is a common cause of early failure. Wood moves with the seasons and takes up moisture through any opening, and a finish coat on its own is not doing the same job a primer does, so trouble can start underneath and show later as peeling, often along the bottom edges of boards and around trim.
Then we paint
Sprayer, brush or roller depending on the surface, allowing proper drying time between coats so the final coat is uniform. We use Sherwin-Williams products. Afterwards we clean up and leave the property as we found it.
Dry to the touch and ready for a second coat are not the same thing, and neither is the same as cured. Recoating too soon can leave a finish soft, or blocking against a door frame in the first hot week. Humidity and temperature both stretch the interval, so we work to conditions on the day and to the product’s own guidance.
Season and weather
Exterior work here mostly runs spring through fall. Coatings need surface and air temperatures to stay within range while they dry, and overnight lows in late fall can undo a coat applied in perfectly pleasant afternoon sun. Rain on a fresh coat is worse than rain the day before.
That means exterior work is weather-dependent in a way interior work is not, and a schedule sometimes moves. We would rather tell you a job is waiting for a dry window than put a coat on in conditions that will not let it hold.
What affects the price
Size and how much of the building is being painted, the condition of the existing surfaces, how much scraping and timber repair is needed, the number of stories, and access. A two-story house with sound siding and a bungalow with failing paint on every elevation are different jobs at the same square footage.
Access is the factor people forget. Steep grade, a conservatory roof, mature planting against the wall or a neighbor’s fence three feet away all slow the work down more than the extra height does.
We would rather come and look than put a number on it over the phone, and the estimate is free. Request an estimate, or read more about how we handle exteriors. You can also see deck painting and staining in South Bend or everything we do in South Bend.