5 Pro Tips for Avoiding Painting Mistakes

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Make Sure to Follow Extension Ladder Safety

Extension ladders can be very dangerous. “I had a buddy break both his arms by falling off of a ladder,” says Kobriger. In this instance, his buddy hadn’t noticed that the rung lock hadn’t latched. “He shifted on his ladder a little bit and his whole ladder started sliding. He had to jump.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 22,000 ladder-related injuries occurred in 2020. So while it seems like common sense, any time a ladder is involved, you have to take the time for ladder safety. “I have kids. I wanna live,” says Kobriger. “I don’t want to get hurt, you know.”

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Invest in Safety Equipment

“I’ve seen painters do the craziest stuff… [like] putting a bucket underneath the [feet] of the ladder so you can line your ladder up,” says Kobriger. “There’s tools out there that do those same things that make it safe.”

Kobriger uses a lateral ladder leveler to help level out the ladder when working on roofs touching up exterior trim paint or other uneven surfaces. Instead of trying to be creative, check out solutions that are already available and have been safety tested.

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Prep is Half the Job and Equally Important

Exterior paint prep can include sanding, scraping, caulking, priming, or power washing. Essentially, it’s all the steps involved in getting the surface ready to paint. Sometimes it takes days to make sure a house is ready for paint, but all the setup is essential when making sure the finished project is beautifully done.

It was a lesson Kobriger learned early on in his career. He was painting a house with cedar siding but misunderstood exactly what the siding was.

“Because of that, I used the wrong product.”

It rained that night. When he went back to the house the next day, everything looked beautiful— except for the giant bubbles of water in the paint! Water got behind the paint because it hadn’t adhered to the wood. In this case, the cedar was treated so it wasn’t permeable.

“I peeled it all off and started over,” said Kobriger with disdain in his voice. If he had known, he would have prepped the surface with a primer or used a self-priming paint that adheres to the surface, so a treated wood wouldn’t have mattered. Make sure to examine the surface to map out what is needed to prep.

And know that prepping is just as important as painting.