Exterior Painting in Citrus Heights, CA

An exterior repaint in this part of California is a job about heat and UV, and the schedule matters as much as the product. Sacramento Valley summers run long stretches above 100 degrees, and a west-facing wall in the afternoon is considerably hotter than the air around it. Most coatings should not be applied to a surface much above 90 degrees: paint that goes onto a hot wall skins before it can level or bond, which is exactly what produces lap marks and early peeling.

The practical answer is to follow the shade around the building rather than working straight through from one end to the other. That takes longer than the alternative and it is the only way to get a film that lasts through the next several summers.

Preparation is washing, scraping, caulking and priming, in that order. Washing matters because a valley summer leaves a fine film of dust and pollen bonded onto stucco and siding, and paint applied over that is bonded to the dust rather than to the wall. Scraping takes off anything that has already let go. Caulking closes the joints where water gets in — around trim, around windows, where two materials meet. Priming goes on every bare patch.

Failures almost always start at the edges rather than in the middle of a wall: fascia boards, the underside of eaves, rafter tails, and the sill line under windows. Those are the areas worth looking at closely during the estimate, because some of them need repair rather than recoating, and finding that out after the scaffolding is up helps nobody.