Hiring a professional to paint the exterior of your home may seem a bit expensive, but a painter's services can be well worth their cost. Painting any surface of a home isn't always as easy as you might assume, and using the wrong types of paints, tools, or techniques can mean seeing that paint chip, peel, or fade very quickly. To ensure you end up with an exterior painting job that looks its best and lasts as long as possible, note when it's especially good to rely on the services of a professional house painter.  

Rusted areas

Your home's metal railings, downspouts, light fixtures, and other such features may have developed rust over the years, and thoroughly removing that rust before painting those features can be very difficult. If you don't remove the rust completely, however, it can continue to grow and spread, pulling and bubbling your new paint along with it.

Rust also weakens metal, so a rusted porch railing or downspout may bend or give way under certain weight. Having a professional remove that rust before painting those features will keep them strong and secure, and ensure their new paint looks its best. 

You're drastically changing the colour

Changing a home's exterior colour from something very light to something dark, or vice versa, may require special prep work and specific types of paint. If you don't paint over the current colour with the right primer, for example, or if you don't use paint with enough pigment to cover the old colour, your new colour may be very dull and not what you expected! A professional painter will know how to cover the home's current paint colour properly so that the new colour is true and as bright or as deep and dark as you expect. 

Painting brick

A brick home may require special tools and prep work, as brick is very porous and may easily absorb paint, causing the new colour to look spotted and dull. The uneven surface of a brick wall also calls for special rollers or sprayers, so that the paint reaches those recessed mortar lines without adding too much coverage to the brick itself. 

A professional housepainter will also know how to cover over the current brick's various colours and shades, toning down dark bricks so that they don't show through the new paint. This will ensure the colour doesn't look splotchy and uneven, but is bright and true to the shade you've chosen.