How To Paint Vinyl Siding (Step By Step)

If your vinyl siding is in good shape, then giving it a new paint job is an easy way to spruce up the exterior of your home. And guess what—it doesn’t take a pro to be able to paint vinyl siding. There are no special techniques or expertise required to give your home a fresh and modern look. Let us walk you through a step-by-step guide on painting vinyl siding with great results, but first, let’s talk about why painting your vinyl siding might be a great option.

The Benefits of Painting Your Home’s Exterior

Just like painting your home’s interior, painting the exterior helps your home match your aesthetic and personal taste, among other things. Of course, it can be just plain fun to switch things up every now. Trends change and tastes change—but there are some legitimate benefits to painting your home’s exterior siding outside of just improving the look.

Boost Curb Appeal

Curb appeal is what makes your home attractive to a prospective buyer. If you’re thinking of selling your home, painting the exterior and fixing up the landscaping boosts your overall curb appeal and makes people stop and admire your home—making them more likely to buy. Or, boosting your curb appeal can simply be to win bragging rights against your neighbors, and who doesn’t love a little healthy competition?

Increase the Value of Your Home

If you want to sell your home, not only does sprucing up the siding boost the curb appeal, but it can also objectively increase your home’s value. Painting is such an affordable way to fix up your home that the return on investment is huge. In addition, if someone looks at your house with its fresh new paint job vs. when it was your dingy, off-trend siding, they may be more likely to pay more for your house.

Increase Your Siding’s Lifespan

A fresh coat of paint can also help your siding last longer. When painting, you’re adding a layer of protection against the elements and other things that could potentially damage or deteriorate the vinyl. For example, BEHR exterior paints offer UV protection, are antimicrobial and mildew resistant, protecting your siding even more.

Opportunity to Spot Damage

A roundabout benefit to repainting your current siding is the opportunity to spot damage up close. Before you paint, you will want to evaluate and clean off your siding to have a fresh surface to start with. This evaluation is when you might be able to spot insect or water damage you otherwise may have missed. Proactively finding and addressing these issues is essential to prolonging your home’s siding.

More Cost-Effective Than Replacing Siding

The cost to tear off and replace your siding can be incredibly expensive—far more expensive than some buckets of primer and paint. If your siding is in good shape and well within its expected lifespan, then refreshing it with some paint should be a no-brainer to save money. One gallon of paint covers about 400 sq. ft., and when you consider you may need or want two coats of paint on your 2,000 sq. ft. house, that cost still doesn’t add up to that of replacing everything with new siding.

Stay Up to Date on Trends

With painting, you have the option to stay on top of trends. Design styles and colors come and go like anything else in life. So if you’re painting your home’s exterior, it gives you a chance to change up its look as often or not at all—depending on what is trending for that season.

Exterior Color Trends for 2023

Exterior paint colors are going bolder than ever, with dark hues, white accents, and other fun color schemes. Here are some of the top trends for exterior color trends this year that we love to see and that might inspire your paint selection.

Light and Dark Hues

Gone are the days with neutral tones and safe color combinations. Instead, people are going bold with dark navy blue siding paired with white trim and dark-colored roofs. The stark contrast of a dark-colored siding and lighter trim and accents is a beautiful aesthetic and gives your home dimension and a look that stands out.

Earthy Tones

Earthy tones like browns, greens, and reds are a beautiful way to give your home a natural look that blends right into the landscaping. Earthy tones are really warm and inviting and allow using colors in a fun but less bold way. We love this Eucalyptus green from BEHR.

Beige

Yes, beige is back, baby! But more beige with a twist like this beautiful Baja sandy color that remains in that neutral area but with much warmer tones. Pair these darker beiges with stark white trim for a beautiful, timeless contrast.

Black

Black continues to trend upwards, and we love to see it. Whether you paint your entire exterior black or use it as an accent wall, it creates such a gorgeous feel that will stand out against the cookie-cutter houses in your neighborhood. Plus, black can go with just about any color accent you choose! It’s timeless and sophisticated, and we don’t see it going away any time soon.

Prepping for Your Exterior Paint Job

There are a few things you should do to prep yourself and your siding for an exterior paint job. This is a large multi-day project, and planning ahead can help avoid any surprises or emergency trips to the hardware store mid-paint job.

• Determine the square footage of your exterior. A can of paint should cover around 400 sq. ft. and you can estimate based on that. You’ll also want just as much primer (if necessary on dark colors). Be sure to plan on doubling your paint for a second coat.
• Thoroughly clean your existing siding using either a gentle 2:1 water and white vinegar mixture or for a tougher clean, a 1:2 powder laundry detergent and household cleaner mixture. These can help clean the surfaces free of dirt, mold, and mildew. And if you want to power wash the siding, try soft washing instead. It’s more gentle and has soaps that actually clean the siding.
• Purchase the proper paint that is made for home exteriors. These are usually made of latex urethane, specifically formulated for the outdoors.
• Apply your coat of primer and let it dry before you paint. Primer is necessary if your siding is faded, has become porous, or if the current color is darker than the one you want to paint over it.
• Lastly, try to plan your paint job for ideal weather that is dry and cool. Avoid heat and humidity.

How to Paint Your Vinyl Siding

Once your primer has dried, you’re ready to paint! However, there are a few key things to keep in mind as you venture into this unknown territory. To have a nice, even coat, follow these steps when painting your vinyl siding.

1. Get all of your painting supplies together. You’ll need short and tall paint rollers to reach all of the areas. You may also want to rent a paint sprayer, plus have a ton of brushes on hand for corners and edges. Painters tape may also be necessary when painting around window trim, vents, and other exterior elements.
2. Carefully apply a thin, even coat to the entire surface. Don’t cake the paint on so it drips—you will apply more than one coat, so thinner coats are better.
3. Allow the first coat of paint to fully dry before you start your second coat. Giving it a full 24 hours should do it.
4. Apply your second coat in the same way as you did the first. A nice thin coat should suffice, and when it’s 100% dry, you can determine if you need a third coat.
5. Voila! You have yourself a newly painted home that should last 10 years or more!

Of course, this is all easy to lay out the steps of how to do it: executing it is a lot more complicated. However, if you assemble a team to help and approach it with patience and diligence, you can handle it no problem. If you’ve ever painted anything before, you can handle this. The one difficult part will be reaching high areas of the siding, a stable ladder and paint roller extensions can aid in that no problem.

If you start evaluating your siding and notice some damage or find the siding to be in worse shape than you thought, feel free to schedule an inspection with our professional team of siding experts. We can help you determine if painting is the best route for you and encourage you on your journey to getting your home up to speed and looking as good as new. Reach out today!