Exterior Painting in Potomac, MD

Both wall types sit on houses of the same age, often on the same street in the same 20854 subdivision, which is why the question gets skipped and why we ask it on every house out here. Cement plaster is mineral and alkaline, and it tolerates a masonry primer and a breathable acrylic masonry finish. A synthetic wall is already a coating system, and what we are putting on is a maintenance coat over an acrylic film, which means adhesion and flexibility matter more than build.

The mistake worth avoiding is reaching for the thickest elastomeric in the store and rolling it over everything. Heavy elastomeric on a wall that needs to dry outward does not solve a moisture problem, it locks it in. On a barrier type synthetic wall with no drainage path, a film that seals the face can turn a paint job into a sheathing repair a few years later.

So the coating gets chosen after the wall is identified, not before. On hard-coat we are usually looking at correcting cracks and recoating with a breathable masonry product. On synthetic we are usually looking at cleaning, spot repair of the finish coat, sealant renewal and a flexible acrylic that stays with the movement of the panel.

We put the actual product names in the estimate. Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore, and the specific line, so you can look it up rather than take our word for it.

Stone or brick at the base. Stucco above. Wood, PVC or fiber cement trim around the openings. Sometimes a run of composite siding on a gable or a metal roof over a bay window.

Each one needs its own preparation, its own primer and in some cases its own sheen, and they still have to look like one house when it is finished:

• Painted brick wants a masonry primer and a coating that passes vapor. Unpainted stone is usually best left as stone, and we will tell you that rather than sell you a coating.
• PVC and composite trim will not hold ordinary wood primer. It needs a bonding primer and, on dark colors, a product rated for heat build, because dark paint on PVC moves.
• Wood trim gets the rot cut out first. We do the carpentry ourselves, and replacement stock is primed on all six sides before it goes up.
• Galvanized and prefinished metal need degreasing and a metal primer, not a quick scuff.

Most callbacks on houses like these trace back to one substrate being treated as if it were its neighbor.

Three stories at the back over a walkout, a two-story entry mass, dormers, and a driveway that leaves the truck two hundred feet from the work. That is a logistics job before it is a painting job.

We decide early what gets reached by lift, what gets pipe staging and what genuinely can be laddered. Lift access on a large lot means checking the route across the lawn, checking the ground will carry the machine after rain, and agreeing where it parks overnight. On the gorge side of town the grade behind the house frequently rules a lift out entirely and staging goes up instead.

We set a materials point near the house rather than at the top of the drive, so nobody burns half a day walking. Paint deliveries come in with us where a supplier truck cannot turn around.

And we sequence by elevation. One face at a time, prepped, primed and finished before we move the setup, so the property is never fully surrounded by equipment and you keep normal use of at least part of the house.

The lowest three feet of a house here take a beating that the rest of the elevation does not. Deer browse keeps foundation planting chewed back, which exposes siding and trim that spent years behind shrubs and was never finished to the same standard. Bucks rub posts, pergola legs and fence boards down to bare wood in late summer. Add winter splash off gravel and mulch and a string trimmer working the same line every two weeks.

On stucco that band shows up as chipping and impact damage at the base coat. On trim it is bare wood and lifted paint. We prep it harder, spot prime everything bare, and on posts and rails choose a coating for abrasion rather than for how it looks at eye level.

Where the finish coat of a stucco wall has been knocked off at grade, that is a patch before it is a paint job, and patching stucco so the texture matches is slow work. We flag it at the estimate so it is not a surprise mid-job.

An exterior on a house this size runs into weeks. We would rather say that than promise a finish date we have to walk back.

Season matters in a specific way here. Properties down toward the canal, Carderock and Bells Mill sit low and shaded and hold dew well into the morning, so on those houses we start later in the day rather than coating a damp wall. Masonry coatings also want surface temperature, not air temperature, which in spring and autumn is the number people forget to check. Near the flood plain we confirm what restrictions apply before staging anything heavy.

You get a written sequence: which elevation in which week, what prep happens before paint, how weather days move the schedule, and what we need from you on access. Fredy Vargas walks every house himself before quoting it. Call 703-869-0593.