Post-Hurricane Painting Advice: Restore Your Home with Expert Tips

JMA Painters is a local painting company with locations in Lafayette, LA and New Orleans, LA where hurricanes are frequent. This gives us a hands-on understanding of the damage they can do and the recovery process. Hurricanes bring high winds and heavy rains with potential flooding, followed by power outages leaving a humid environment both within and outside of your home.

If you have experienced recent hurricane damage and your home or business is in need of new fresh paint, contact JMA Painters, your local painting company – we would love the opportunity to help you rebuild and get back into your home as quickly as possible. We also provide dry-wall services if structural damages have occurred. If you are looking to tackle the project yourself, read on for tips on repainting post hurricane.

DIY Tips for Repainting Post-Hurricane

If you are looking to tackle the project yourself, read on for tips on repainting post-hurricane.

Step-by-Step Repainting Guide

• Step One: Look For Structural Damage

Before considering painting your home or business after a hurricane, you first need to check for structural damage. You should repair all structural damages before moving on to painting. Painting will likely be one of the very last steps to getting your home back in order. Take a good look at plaster, bricks and wood to determine what repairs are needed.

• Step Two: Quotes

Contact a local painting company near you to assess the damage and offer a quote on the project. If you are doing the job yourself, you may still benefit from contacting a local painting company. Depending on the damage, some surfaces may need to be completely replaced and others may need way more dry time than you anticipated before getting started. A professional painter will be able to provide you with the information you need to get the job done correctly.

• Step Three: Prepare the Surfaces

One of the worst mistakes you can make when repainting after a major storm such as a hurricane is to paint over damaged or wet surfaces. The surfaces will need to be thoroughly cleaned and dried before you apply paint. If there has been flooding, it can take as long as 3 months for the home to fully dry. Remove dirt and debris and then re-inspect to ensure no further repairs are needed. JMA Painters highly advises you not to skip this step or you will find yourself contacting a local painting company to fix a worse problem than what you started with shortly down the road.

• Step Four: Prime & Paint

After your home has been cleaned, repaired and dried it’s time to prime. Whether you are working on the interior or exterior of your home (or both), a prime coat is important before applying the final color of choice.

Special Considerations

Painting in High Humidity

We can’t write a post on painting after a hurricane without mentioning humidity. In Louisiana, humidity can be a problem pretty much year around. During hurricane season, we see a bit more rain and storms passing through which ultimately means higher humidity levels. Humidity levels can be managed to an extent while painting the interior of your home, but it will be a bit harder to avoid when painting the exterior of your home. The good news is that the end of hurricane season and immediately following will be the best time of year for painting. Take advantage of those cooler months to knock out your painting project. For tips on painting during high humidity, check out a previous post: Potential Effects From Painting in High Humidity

JMA Painters: Your Local Painting Experts!

If you would like more information or would like a local painting company to come out and bid out your project, contact JMA Painters today!