The garage door is one area of the exterior of a home that can be a little troublesome to homeowners. A house can look very beautiful everywhere else, but then the effect is ruined by peeling paint on a garage door. This all too frequent occurrence happens because of all the use that a garage door gets. The constant up-and-down motion wears out the paint on the garage door much more quickly than the rest of the exterior surfaces. This means that homeowners need to be prepared to do some occasional touch-up painting on their garage doors. They can follow this guide to painting a garage door with ease.
Clean It Up
The first step to painting a garage door is cleaning it. The exterior surface of the garage door is constantly exposed to the elements, causing it to build up quite a coating up dirt and grime. The first step to get it clean is to give it a through soaking with a garden hose. Next, use a brush and a phosphate trisodium cleaning compound to give it a good scrubbing. Then, rinse it well with the hose and allow it to dry completely before moving on.
Sand the Door
This is the part of the painting process that most homeowners seem to hate, but it has to be done. Failure to sand the door will lead to the new paint peeling off in short order. Avoid this by sanding every square inch of the garage door. When the sanding is done, use a vacuum or brush to remove the particles that have been sanded off.
Paint the Door
Use a latex-based paint to achieve the best results on a garage door. Oil-based paints will showcase every little flaw in the surface of the garage door, so it is best to avoid them. If there are any windows, be sure to tape them off before beginning to paint.
It is best to divide the garage door into sections when painting it. Paint one section at a time, starting at the top of the garage door and working down towards the bottom. Completely paint all of one section before moving on to the next. Be careful when painting at the junction of two sections. It is important not to coat these joints too heavily with paint in order to make the paint job look even on the garage door.
Wait a day for the first coat of paint to dry, and then apply a second coat. Wait another day for the second coat to dry. The garage door will now look beautiful and be ready to use.
