Photon Createur

Preparing to paint the exterior of one’s home is often a task that is underestimated by most homeowners. If you’re thinking of just adding another coat of paint on your existing paint without even knowing what type of product was previously applied or what type of paint you need, the entire job might be for nothing.

Fortunately, there are a lot of great tips for you to follow that would help you paint a truly beautiful home exterior. The following Highlands Ranch house painting recommendations should help you get through most of your tasks in no time.

The Most Important Preparation Work

Before you do anything else, it’s important to get all the old paint off and use sandpaper to remove even the finer, innermost layers that are left, after you scrape the old paint off.

Take great care of how you deposit and dispose of the leftover paint. Some types of older paint can have ingredients that are harmful to the environment and can also make you or your family sick, if you breathe in its dust. As a result, it’s highly recommended that you first lay down some special plastic or cloths that you can use to remove the debris, before getting started.

Once you remove the old paint, fix any damaged areas and apply the primer, all you have to do is select the right type of paint for your home. Be advised, however, that this is probably the hardest, as well as the most crucial step of them all. Choosing your new paint will not only determine the price/value ratio of your investment. It will also determine how long your new paint job will last and how much maintenance work it will require for the future.

Choosing the Right Type of Paint

Depending on what you’re looking for, there are a few great types of paint you can use. The two most well-known are oil-based paint and water-based latex paint. While both have their own unique advantages, acrylic latex paint seems to have the edge according to most experts.

If you’ve struggled in the past with oil-based paints, you might want to consider some alternatives. Oil-based products are much more difficult to use than other types of paints, and they also dry more slowly and are notoriously difficult to clean up, should you ever need to repaint your home again.

Unlike oil, water-based acrylic latex paint is far easier to apply, and it dries more quickly. Moreover, this type of paint is much easier to remove. If you want to paint over it, that task will not be too difficult either.

Nevertheless, oil-based paint has its benefits too. For instance, if you want durability, oil-based paint can provide it. Once it’s dry, water can’t damage it or make it fade. Moreover, should it be subjected to storms, hail and other elemental challenges, oil-based paint can retain its form and color more efficiently.

Ultimately, you have to decide for yourself what you want and need. If you need additional help with choosing the right type of paint and making sure you can apply it properly, simply contact one of your local contractors for additional support.

The growing interest toward organic produce has increased the interest and the demand for organic fertilizers as well. While in terms of efficiency, many natural fertilizers offer the same increase in yield as synthetic substances, going organic has lots of important benefits over man-made chemicals used for adding nutrients to soil – here are some of the most important ones.

Improved Soil Structure

When added to the soil, organic fertilizers start releasing their nutrient content slowly, providing the plant exactly the amount of nutrients that it needs, but feeding the plants is not the only thing done by organic fertilizers. During the decomposition process, natural fertilizers break down into minerals and other elements absorbed by the plants and into fiber and other hard components that stay in the soil and improve its ability to retain water.

A Favorable Environment for Healthy Microbes

Rich, healthy soil is home to various microorganisms that are essential for making nutrients available for plants and that can thrive only in the presence of carbon. Most synthetic fertilizers do not add carbon to the soil, which means that they disrupt the balance that allows the microorganisms to proliferate and to do their job, while carbon is part of the chemical make-up of any organic lawn fertilizer.

A Sustainable and Environment-Friendly Way to Feed Plants

Organic fertilizers are made from all-natural materials, usually organic waste, including poultry waste and other by-products of animal husbandry. Using natural fertilizers is an excellent way to make the most of material that is already there, produced by animals on a daily basis in large quantities and it is also a fertilization method that reuses natural materials. The process makes sure that no toxic chemicals build up in the soil over time and no greenhouse gases are generated during the decomposition, which also means natural fertilizers can be used over prolonged periods without any concern.

Natural fertilizers release their nutrients slowly and steadily, which means that they do not pose the risk of damage potentially caused to the plant’s roots and leaves by overfertilization.

Making Your Own Natural Fertilizer

Organic fertilizers can be bought, but you can also make your own easily. As the raw material used for making organic fertilizers is organic waste, you can easily make your own fertilizer by collecting the organic waste produced in your household into a large bin. Vegetable and fruit peels and cores, egg shells and other types of organic matter are all great for making compost, the ultimate natural fertilizer. The material needs to be collected in a bin and will need to be watered and turned over from time to time. There is one thing, one aspect that makes the usage of self-made organic fertilizer somewhat more complicated than the usage of synthetic fertilizers: it may take up to a year to obtain your own, free, high-quality fertilizer. However, you can also speed up the process to a certain extent, by adding worms to your compost bin – they will break down the organic matter faster than it would break down on its own.