Cleaning Painted Wood Before Repainting

Painting season may be waning and you need to paint sooner rather than later.

Cleaning painted wood before repainting.

Primer helps paint stick and improves the coverage so you can dramatically change the color of the old wood if. If you have an oil based paint on your wood then i d clean them with tsp if you intend to repaint that wood. You want the absolute best adhesion surface for your paint. If mildew is a common problem on your exterior wooden surfaces consider repainting with a paint designed to prevent mildew.

In general it s not great idea to use water on your painted wood so dust frequently to keep from having to deep clean more than necessary. But as long as you don t use water. If there are creases or hard to reach small places on your wooden surfaces use a small scrub brush or toothbrush to clean it. But there is no point whatever in cleaning bare wood with tsp or latex painted wood with tsp.

It is important to remove any flakes from the surface via sanding or scraping before repainting. When the wood is clean and smooth use a latex based primer especially made for exteriors to prepare the surface for a new coat of paint. This is also a good time to scrape any old flaking paint off and to sand down old paint lines. Time is of the essence.

Painting over cracked paint is a bad idea. Before painting apply primer to the old wood surface whether it is indoors or out. If you do use tsp then i would also clean the residual tsp off the piece of furniture with a clear water wash or denatured alcohol. Painted wood takes a little extra care to clean but that doesn t mean it s impossible.

Paint cracking on walls and ceilings happens due to a variety of causes one of the most common being poor preparation of a surface prior to painting.