So when it comes to having your house painted, don't just hire anyone as painting a house is more than throwing some coats of color on it. Why? To start, a professional will tell you that more than half the job is not painting all, it is prep. If the surface of your home isn't adequately prepared, then you are going to have a lot of problems down the road.

To start, if your house hasn't been painted in a while, it is most likely that the paint that does exist on it contains lead. Because lead paint is toxic and was banned in 1978, the removal of it means the aged paint has to be confined. A professional painter will most likely use thick plastic to catch the lead scraped from the home.

Using power tools, the paint can be stripped down to bare wood if needed. Hand sanding is required for sharp edges and difficult spots. Often a heat gun is used which softens the paint with hot air, so a handheld scraper can peel off layers like orange skin. A heat gun's temperatures can be adjusted from 250 to 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, the maximum recommended by federal authorities to minimize the risk of vaporizing lead. To protect the wood and prevent fires, professionals will set the thermostat at the lowest level that does the job.

Once the wood is bare, it can be patched with wood-epoxy putty. With the putty, it is molded and pressed into place.

Mechanical scrapers can sometimes rough up wood siding; therefore a paint crew may follow it with a sanding disk. Even the most assiduous scraping and sanding can't vanquish mold and mildew that have nestled in wood fibers, therefore many professional painters will use a bleach solution and stiff-bristled brush. Once the solution is allowed to sit for half an hour it is gently rinsed and hosed off.

Bad painters brush paint on bare wood. Good painters prime first. Some painters even pretreat bare wood with a paintable water repellent to keep the siding from absorbing moisture that gets past the paint.

But number one step before painting is the primer. A quality primer creates a sealed, consistent surface so paint spreads further and will be more uniform in color and sheen. If the surface has been previously painted, priming will help keep the previous color from showing though and it will help create a more uniform finish. A quality stain-killing primer also blocks stains and prevents them from bleeding through the topcoat. If you have ever tried to paint over a water stain, crayon mark or kitchen grease you know how important it is to cover these as well as possible. Primers should not be allowed to weather for many weeks before being covered with a finish coat as they were not made to withstand the elements without the protection of a top coat.

Professional painters will also look over your house for nails that have popped out of the siding. On clapboard siding, a nail set is used to recess the nail head about 1/8 inch below the surface of the wood. A coat of rust-inhibiting primer (unless the nail is aluminum or nonrusting galvanized steel), is often applied to the nails and once dried, the hole is then filled with spackle or putty.

Many houses are also missing key pieces of metal flashing that offer protection from rain and ice damage. Fascia boards should have metal flashing that extends from under the roof and over the fascias. This is especially important for directing water into the gutters. A professional will help you install this flashing or help you find somebody who can. Windows and doors should also have flashing, called drip edge. Typically this kind of flashing is installed during construction. Many older homes are missing this flashing and rely on the caulking to create a waterproof seal.

The condition of the paint on your house can indicate to the professional painter where potential problems lie. Peeling or blistering may point to water leaks. The existence of persistent moisture will cause peeling and can indicate where the house may have mold and mildew problems. Recognizing these trouble spots, a professional can pay extra attention to them.

So as you can see, painting the exterior of your house isn't as easy as it seems. If you want a job well done and years worth of protection, look at finding someone who is a professional.