How to completely renew the look of your front porch

With the sun shining bright and more free time on your hands, it may be time to get to work on that front porch renovation project you’ve been putting off for a while. Some light carpentry work during the summer is sure to boost your spirits and leave you with a fantastic result you can be proud of. So let’s get to it, follow these steps to revitalize your porch and make it shine as good as new.

  1. Clean it up

You can’t start working on it so long as you have things on it – temporarily move anything on your porch somewhere else. Sweep it up to get rid of dust and try to carefully remove all the dirt and debris on the surface, for a better final result.

Now, if your porch is made out of stone, feel free to use any cleaning solutions you’ve got around the house. Similarly, you can use your hose as it’s going to be much faster and you don’t have to worry about damaging the wood underneath.

The final step here is to remove the old coating of paint to make way for the new one. Keep in mind, any exterior painting project depends heavily on how well you prepare, before starting to paint.

2. Prepare the surface

Here is the time to use your primer, preferably two coatings for a wooden surface and one layer for concrete. Note: if you haven’t painted on the stone surface before, you will have to etch it with a special solution before applying the primer. It’s best to get a commercial painting contractor to handle this part, but if you’ve got the necessary protective equipment and knowledge, feel free to do so yourself.

When applying the primer, any old roller will do, with a handy brush to cover the spots not so easily accessible. Overall, this process shouldn’t take you too long but give it at least 6 hours to dry off before continuing with the process.

3. Get creative

While waiting for your primer to dry off, you can go and buy the paint you’ll want to apply if you haven’t yet. Choosing the right paint for a deck repair and restoration project is an art of its own. The main things to keep an eye out for is choosing a paint destined for floors and the different traits of the constituent materials. To make your front porch look new though, acrylic and epoxy paints are the way to go. Pick your favorite color – after all, it is one you’ll be seeing for quite a while.

4. Paint it out

Once you’re all set up, you can start painting. Use the roller from before, or whatever tools you have handy that you think would work best. When doing any exterior house painting, make sure that you’re not painting directly in the sunlight during hot weather, as we’ll be applying two coats. Taking too long to paint the first layer may leave it uneven and cause further problems down the road, making you have to scrape everything off. Find a nice time to start painting, put on some music, and you won’t even notice the time passing. Make sure to give the first coating the necessary time to fully dry, before continuing with the next one.

5. Finishing touches

Introduce some designs into your painting process, using stencils or anything you can come up with. That will help your porch look genuinely new and fresh in your eyes. Additionally, using any staining or finishes is not mandatory, but recommended for that perfect feeling of completion. Give it a couple of days then to fully be finished and enjoy your work. Well done.

That’s another exterior house painting project under your belt, making your house more of a home each time.

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