Why do I need an estimate to paint my house in Broward, Dade or Palm Beach County?

If you’ve lived in South Florida for more than 2 days then you know about how tumultuous our weather can be. We go from a 95 degree extremely sunny day to a small monsoon 5 minutes later and then sunny again 5 minutes after that. The humidity is instantly palpable when you walk outside and your glasses will fog up in a second.

What’s so bad about South Florida weather and its impact on Exterior House painting jobs?

• The intense sun causes your color to fade faster than it would in colder and less humid conditions.
• Humidity also causes discoloration and in severe cases can cause white spots.
• The constant switch from extremely hot to sudden rain reduces the lifetime of your exterior paint job and can cause the paint to eventually crack or get a white chalk layer to build on top of the paint.
• Painting in high humidity makes it more difficult for the paint to adhere and dry properly.

Having an estimate in hand from a company you trust makes the process a lot easier even if you are not ready to paint right away, our estimates are good for a year from the day we provide you with one. Meaning we uphold the price we give you for an entire year.

If you are not ready to paint it is always a good idea to maintain the paint on your walls by pressure cleaning them once a year using low pressure to prevent lifting up the paint but also prevent any mold or dirt from sticking to the paint.

We always provide our clients with three different house painting prices and let them choose the paint that best fits their budget and goals.

Getting a house painting estimate from us does not mean you are obligated to do the job with us. So its best to have one in hand before your annoying association sends you that letter that you have to re-paint your home.

Exterior House Painting Process in South Florida

Make sure the company you are considering hiring has:

• License and liability insurance
• Worker’s Compensation
• Referrals
• Employees not sub-contractors
• Warranty
• Proof of material purchase

Our process for exterior house painting has been refined for close to 20 years now.

We started Millennium Painting and Pressure cleaning originally in Broward county and expanded to Palm Beach and Dade county as demand grew. As a family owned and operated company, we like to make sure that we are providing the highest possible quality service and materials at a fair price. Being in business for close to 20 years now we have a good grasp on what makes for the best exterior house painting process to achieve the greatest results.

Our exterior house painting process in steps:

• Pressure clean all walls, trim, gutters and doors. We use a detergent solution on the areas that have excess mildew, algae, dirt and salt deposits.
• Remove failing paint and rust with hand scrapers on flat surfaces and wire brushes on rusting areas.
• Apply one coat of sealer/primer.
• Fill all structure cracks with elastomeric patch.
• Joints and seams allowing exterior moisture entry will be caulked anywhere that wood meets wood.
• Windows and doors will be caulked with a top grade siliconized latex caulk where needed.
• All painting on wood trim will be applied by hand.
• Apply acrylic flat or satin latex paint to stucco (100% acrylic) (one coat)
• Apply satin latex paint to all trim, gutters, doors and bands (100% acrylic) (one coat)
• Colors of your choice (up to 2 colors included)
• Tape and paper will be used to protect any areas where tarps are impractical.

Additional important tips:

Make sure the company you choose uses high quality paint. we like to offer our clients 3 different quality grade paints from Sherwin Williams. We offer A-100, Superpaint and Resilience, they’re listed in order from average to best. Superpaint has been our favorite to use and it’s what we recommend to most of our clients.

Prepping is very important, make sure the painters are clean, tidy and that their taping job is near perfection. This will ensure that the rest of the painting process flows fluently.

Don’t choose the cheapest company, choose the best company for the job.

Follow this advice to achieve picking the best possible colors for your home.

A few points to consider before starting:

• Be conscious of the texture of your wall, whether it is smooth or textured or you have brick or stone plays an important role in picking a color and finish.
• Find out if your HOA (homeowner’s association) has color schemes that they require you to choose from and their guidelines for which schemes you can choose depending on your neighbors color schemes.
• Consider the pros and cons of choosing a light color or a dark color scheme.

Smooth Wall considerations:

The benefit of using a flat finish on your smooth walls is that it will hide most structure imperfections. although it may look fine to you before painting, if you apply a satin finish it will show the imperfections of the wall since it is almost impossible for the contractors to construct a perfectly flat wall. As soon as the sun hits it the shine in the satin finish will cause the wall to show the imperfections by the shadows that the imperfections reveal, meaning it’ll look darker or lighter in different areas. The house pictured below is smooth and the white color has a flat finish while the doors, accents and trim have a bluish gray color with a satin finish.

Textured wall considerations:

There are many benefits to using a satin finish on your textured walls. The color will look more vibrant due to its shine when the sun hits it. A wall with a satin finish is also easier to clean and maintain. Satin walls prevent the paint from getting chalky faster, the best way to maintain your paint is to have the walls pressure cleaned at low pressure at least once a year.

Do you have an HOA (home owners association) ?

Normally, if you have an HOA then you already know what a pain it can be dealing with their guidelines. Before starting your search for colors, contact your HOA to see if they have schemes and guidelines they might require for you to paint your home. Some HOA don’t care about what colors you choose but most have schemes and guidelines that they require you to follow. You don’t want to pay twice to paint your house so make sure you and your HOA are on the same page.

PROS and CONS of LIGHT colors

Pros of light colors:

• Your house will appear bigger with a light color
• The accent second and third colors if chosen correctly allow for an impactful contrast
• paint color holds up longer since dark colors fade faster
• House temperature will be slightly cooler

Cons of light colors:

• Paint gets dirty faster
• can appear dull and boring if not paired correctly with an accent color

PROS and CONS of DARK colors

Pros of dark colors:

• A dark color completely changes the aspect of the house making it feel like a new home
• More color schemes are available with darker colors
• dark colors can sometimes hide imperfections or accent structural pieces

Cons of dark colors:

• Color will fade faster
• House will be slightly warmer than a light color

Additional Tips:

Consider that painting a 1 story house a dark color will make it look smaller while using a light color will make it look bigger and a bit more modern. this also applies to a 2-story home but its difficult to make a 2-story home look small. Apply paint samples on different walls on the house to see how the color looks on different walls and see how they look dry at different times of the day. You can make a relatively boring house look modern and awesome by painting the front door a bright red or a dark blue.