How To Clean Exterior Wood Before Painting
There are several ways to accomplish this.
How to clean exterior wood before painting. According to experts the easiest method for cleaning exterior surfaces is pressure washing. Soak a sponge or scrub brush in the cleaning solution. Before painting new wood sand all surfaces and edges lightly to smooth the grain.
Exterior painting requires a clean surface before beginning. Step 4 Rinse the surface with a sponge or rag soaked in clean water or with clean water from a garden hose to remove any residual cleaner. The water pressure in a power washer is typically somewhere between 2200 and 3500 psi which is a far cry from the amount of water pressure in your garden hose.
Since you will be repainting removing mold with a heavy-duty cleaner such as trisodium phosphate and bleach is appropriate. In order to get a smooth paint finish you have to make sure that you remove the oils dirt and grease that has become lodged on the surface of the door. To mix add 14 cup of TSP and 14 cup bleach to 1 gallon of very warm water.
As such you should wipe the old wood surface with a mixture of 1 cup bleach 1 cup trisodium phosphate TSP and 2 gallons water. Scrub at the wooden surface to kill and remove mold and mildew. Reason for this wait is dried paint is much easier to scrape than wet.
Key tip is allowing exterior to properly dry 24 - 48 hours before any hand scraping begins. Steps to take for cleaning wood before staining is similar to painting. Use a cleaner specifically designed for cleaning siding and always check the label to make sure its safe for wood.
Before painting wood siding fill large holes and gouges with a two-part resin filler such as Minwax High Performance Wood Filler. Power washing is one way to clean a homes exterior. Mix a second solution of half water and half bleach and apply it to the surfaces.