Here are some tips to follow if you've just booked the services of an exterior painter for the first time.

Tell them in advance if there are any outdoor features near your exterior walls

It's important to let the exterior painter know if there are outdoor features near the walls you're going to have them paint. You should do this in advance so that they have time to prepare for painting the wall surfaces beside these features. For example, if there is a large bush near one of your exterior walls, the painter might need to cover it with some netting to gently compress it and create some space between it and the wall so that they can access this area and paint it.

Likewise, if there are trees near your walls whose branches grow very near them, the painter won't necessarily have to lop them but might need to use some rope to tie and bend them away from the wall. Finally, if you have flowering plants near your walls whose delicate petals might get ruined if paint drops fall on them, the painter might need to bring extra plastic sheets with them to cover and protect these plants. Giving the painter a heads up about these nearby features will ensure they bring all of the things they need to protect or adjust them with them when they arrive.

Try to avoid going out or coming in via their work area

If possible, you should try to avoid going out or coming into your home via the exterior painter's work area. For example, whilst they're painting the walls near the front of your home, you should use the back door. Whilst your exterior doors won't be unusable when the painter is near them, they might have to move their materials and their mobile scaffold out of your way each time you need to walk through one of these doors.

This will mean they'll have to climb down and spend several minutes helping you to enter or exit before they can go back to painting the walls. If you disrupt them in this manner repeatedly throughout the project, they might have to extend the project and spend an extra couple of hours more than they had expected to finishing off the painting of these walls.

Furthermore, if you pass through their work area often enough, rather than using another door, there's a greater chance that you'll stand on a paint-saturated brush and ruin your shoes or that a stray drop of paint will land in your hair or on your clothes. As such, it's best to let them work uninterrupted if you can.

Reach out to an exterior painter for more information.