How to get paint to adhere to edges of woodwork

An odd title maybe but this is a great tip to get paint to stick to the edges of wood such as fascia boards and skirting boards.

You may of noticed when you paint square edged trim such as skirting boards or exterior fascia boards that the paint doesn’t cover so well on the edges, this is simply because there isn’t much of a surface for the paint to adhere too.

So how do I get paint to stay on the edges of woodwork?

Simply you need to make the area larger for the paint to stick too, this is simply done by using sandpaper and rounding the edges off so giving a gentle curve, you will find the paint adheres much better to a curve than a sharp square point.

Fascia boards

This tip is especially important for exterior fascia boards, have you notice how your fascia boards always start to peel at the bottom edge? This is because the paint film is thinnest here and over time the weather gets in and the damp starts to lift the paint off and even worse your fascia starts to rot.

Climbers and Ivy can damage your house

Climbers and ivy growing up a wall or your house can look very idyllic but you could be heading for costly repair bills if left to grow.

This post comes after decorating an exterior of a property recently. The walls were rendered and needed re-painting with masonry paint. One wall had in the past had ivy growing up the wall but had been removed.

The main issues was that when the ivy was pulled off the wall it took some of the old masonry paint with it, and left lots of the ‘suckers’ from the ivy. The wall looked ‘hairy’ and after my best efforts scrapping and pulling all the bits off, I couldn’t remove all of the old ivy from the wall, luckily it was in an area which could not be seen, which is, I guess why the ivy got a hold in the first place. After painting, the wall looked OK although you could see where the ivy had been.

If you have ivy or any climbers climbing up your walls be aware they could potentially damage your house, many climbers will pull the mortar out of the brickwork exposing gaps between the bricks where water can get in, also any evergreen climber that has leaves on all year round can trap water against the wall and create damp indoors.

Climbers can also, if allowed to, will get behind fascia board and under soffits and even lift roof tiles.

So it maybe a good idea, to consider how these plants can affect your house before planting climbers against your house walls.

What are fascias, soffits and bargeboards

Fascias and soffits boards are the part of the house that you most likely don’t look at very often, if at all. Just to explain, the fascia and soffit is the area of your property that the gutter is attached to. The underside is known as a soffit and the part with the gutter attached to it, is the fascia.
Bargeboards are fixed to the gable end of the roof to protect the roof rafters. They are just as important as the fascias and soffits and need to be painted regularly.

What should I paint them with?

If your fascias and soffits are wood and not Upvc then at some point you will need to have them painted, you can paint them in a woodstain, such as Sadolin, or Gloss such as Dulux Weathershield or an exterior satin, again by Dulux. It really depends on your preference.
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