Tips & Tricks from the Professionals at Peterson Painting

Having been in the business for years, we get questions all the time from customers on the best ways to upkeep or maintain their new paint. After investing in a high-quality paint job, many people want to make sure the value never fades. At Peterson Painting, not only do we offer a warranty to all of our customers, but we also want to educate every person we work with— giving them the tools they need to succeed!

TIP: We recommend downloading and/or printing this to keep for future reference!

Maintaining Your Interior & Exterior Paint

Keep Your New Interior Paint Job Looking Spotless

Cleaning Your Surface

If you spill or splatter onto your new paint job, use water on a cloth or rag to wipe off the surface. If that is unsuccessful, then use a cleaner with ammonia (Formula 409) and spray the cleaner onto the sponge or rag and wipe. Ammonia based cleaners are also good to clean dirty surfaces.

Touch-up Tricks for Your Interior

If you need to touch-up any of the areas we’ve painted we recommend you use the touch-up paint provided and follow a “less is more” philosophy, i.e. touch-up the smallest area possible. If you do not get the “blending” desired, you may need to apply the paint to a stopping point, i.e. paint 1 wall or a whole length of baseboard, etc.

Getting Additional Interior Paint

Take the container we’ve left with you to the paint store to identify what you need (this helps so even the most recent hire at the store can get the order correct). Our office usually has records of what we’ve used. If you contact our office we’ll be happy to affirm the colors we’ve used and if you ask, will tell you how you can get a discount on future paint you need.

Sustain the Pristine Finish of Your New Exterior Paint

Cleaning Your Surface

Periodically, you may want to wash the dirt or dust off of your home to help maintain the luster of the new paint job. This can be done with power washing or using specific cleaning products made for exterior building materials.

Peeling Paint

Areas that receive repeated exposure to water or snow (window sills / foundations) may need to have maintenance done every few years. In that case, scrape the old paint off, spot prime with a top-line primer and touch-up with the paint provided.

Touching Up Your Exterior

To touch up your exterior, you can follow the same steps as our interior recommendations.You may need to apply the paint to a stopping point (i.e. a whole window sill or length of siding, etc), if you are not getting it to blend very well. Paint will fade over time and doing a whole length of siding or window sill will help minimize any differences between the new paint and existing.

Getting Additional Exterior Paint

Much like interior paint, you can take your container to a paint supply store, or contact our office for details on which exact color and specifications you need.

How Often You Should Repaint Your Exterior

Did you know that the average amount of time an exterior should be considered for repainting is 8 years? Now there are many factors that go into how frequently an exterior surface should be repainted (the exposure of the property to the elements, the quality of the preparations, the quality of the paint used, etc.) but if you’re watching every few years you should get an idea of the rate of deterioration. 

It is normal to have to repaint areas of “high exposure” (window sills, foundations, regularly used doors, etc.) every few years. A “watchful eye” will benefit your property (and your pocket book) so that you do not have to invest more money into a large re-paint that you could have done in several rounds of “maintenance painting”.

Let Peterson Painting Assist Your ‘After the Job’ Needs

Not sure where to start? Where to go for the best materials? Or, perhaps you’re worried about taking on the maintenance of your new paint job. No worries! Contact us today and let us help you keep your paint looking spotless!