How To Prepare Soffits For Painting With Roller

Knowing how to prepare soffits for painting, with roller or airless sprayer is your painting resource. Discussing soffit preparedness for painting using high quality paint roller, brush, or paint sprayer.

Proper prep of soffits, as most of these surfaces highest portions of your exterior. Therefore, in preparation of soffit surfaces generally requires ladders, adequately reaching an arms length, properly tending to these surfaces.

Since soffits are the widest trim surfaces you'll be painting, using a roller or an airless paint sprayer usually works best.

Preparing  Soffits For Painting With Roller, Or Sprayer On Home

Preparing soffits for painting with roller, or paint sprayer on your home requires several important steps. These steps will ensure you achieve maximum life with any outside paint you intend using.

• Inspect soffits for paint color discoloration, and/or deterioration
• Refastening any soffits which may have dropped down
• Make any water leak repairs, from roofs, gutters, or drip edge flashing
• Power wash, allowing to dry
• Scraping any loose paint
• Sanding to feather edge
• Caulking 90 degree wood joints
• Priming bare wood areas
• Painting soffits with rollers 3/8", 1/2" roller skin
• Using a 9", also 4" paint roller painting soffits in half the time

Laying our steps below, having painted thousands of soffits, as a painting contractor employing hundreds of painters over several years. Giving you our same steps we instruct our painters prepping each home we paint outside.

Inspecting / Refastening Soffit Material

Actually, when I am onsite, walking property, providing a free written paint estimate, I always look up, viewing soffit area. Sometimes, soffit plywood has loosened up, dropping down, including fasteners, making them uniform once again. Large cracks like this can invite any number of insects, small animals, or birds making a nest inside.

Determine Soffit Deterioration / Making Necessary Repairs

Next step I look for is any current paint discoloration, plus any deterioration. Soffits are underneath, out of sun's rays, protected by weather. However, if there is any decay, there must be another reason. Water is painted wood's worst enemy, which must be coming from above, either from roof, leaking gutters, or gutters inside drip edge flashing.

If this weakening due from gutters, being out of our scope of expertise, we suggest a gutter company handling this water problem fixed before we paint. After repairs are made, whether it be new gutters, flashing, or roof drip edge, no more rotting or decay will continue. Making absolutely sure soffits are in a prime position, before any further prep is made.

Gutter cleaning goes in unison with soffit inspections. If water is causing marks on fascia, dripping under to soffit areas, clogged gutters can easily cause this leakage.

Power Wash Soffit Substrate

When all water issues addressed (if any) we lightly power wash, cleaning to remove any spider webs, wasp nests, bugs, insects which tend to make soffits home, underneath, out of the weather. Letting these surfaces under roof-line completely dry back out, typically 24-48 hours.

Scraping / Sanding / Caulking / Priming

After soffit areas have completely dried back out, all improvements have been made, we scrape any loose paint mils away that has lifted up. This is important because any new paint will only bond to whatever it's applied to. If flaking paint is not removed, new paint will keep chipping away as original paint coating.

Once scraping any loose paint is removed, great time to sand to feather edge. Followed by using a premium latex painters caulk. Sealing all cracks where soffits join each other, also where they are attached to fascia.

Painting Soffits With Rollers

Lastly applying a high bond primer to bare wood surfaces, using a quality paint roller.

These steps to take making sure your soffits are prepared correctly, for many years of satisfaction. All preparations made before final exterior paint coating is applied.

Giving you ease, using premium paint rollers, generally with a 3/8" or 1/2" roller skin, 9" wide rollers work well with primers, also for final exterior paint coatings.

Another good tip many painters use painting soffits is a 4 inch wide paint roller with either a 3/8" or 1/2" roller skin. These hold a lot of paint, making soffit painting a breeze, compared to a brush.

However, good to have a 3" sash brush handy as well, in same cut bucket. Painting smaller soffits is much easier using a roller/brush method. Painting soffits in half the time using this roller!

This roller allows you to screw on an extension pole, painting harder to reach areas.

Painting soffits with a roller also works best when soffit color is different than main color of home. Typically soffits are same color as field, main, or body of home.When they are same color, best using an airless paint sprayer.

However, in some instances, soffits, fascia, also gutters are trimmed out, with trim color. If soffits different than field color, this makes perfect sense using rollers.

Many Other Best Exterior Painting Steps To Follow

Other best exterior painting steps to make have been mentioned in previous articles, I urge you to familiarize yourself, if doing this work on weekends. If wishing not tying up several weekends tending to soffits, another option would be hiring a professional painting contractor with painters, handling all this w/o you having to get up high on a ladder.

Hope you enjoyed reading best steps how to prepare soffits for painting, with roller, & if so, please like, share, and/or comment!