Sun
Miami sun breaks down the binder in paint. First the color fades, then the surface turns chalky and powders onto your hand. Chalky paint has stopped protecting the wall underneath it.
Miami exterior guide
What the season does to your paint, and what to do about it.
Paint does not storm-proof a house. What it does, when the surface under it is sound and sealed, is keep water out of the wall. Here is how Miami weather breaks that down, and a ten-minute check you can do yourself every spring.
Four things working against your exterior
Sun, salt, rain, and six months of storms.
Salt air
Near the water, salt settles on every elevation and works into hairline cracks. It attacks metal fasteners and lifts paint from the edges of any crack it finds.
Rain and humidity
Wind-driven rain finds cracks in stucco and gaps around windows. Once moisture is inside the wall, paint blisters and peels from behind, and the fix is repair first, paint second.
Storm season
June through November, everything above happens harder and faster. A wall with open cracks going into the season is a wall taking on water for six months.
Every spring, before June
The ten-minute walk-around.
You do not need a ladder or a contractor for this. Walk the house with your phone, photograph anything that matches the list, and you already know most of what an estimator would tell you.
Exterior checklist
- Walk every side of the house in daylight and look for hairline cracks in the stucco, especially at window and door corners.
- Press a thumb on peeling or bubbled paint near the ground and the roofline. If it lifts easily, water has been getting behind it.
- Check the caulk around windows, doors, and where trim meets stucco. Cracked or missing caulk is an open door for rain.
- Push a screwdriver gently into wood fascia, trim, and door frames. Soft wood is rot, and it needs replacing before it needs paint.
- Green or black streaks are usually algae or mildew, not failed paint. Those want a wash, not a repaint.
- Rub a patch of wall with a dark cloth. Heavy chalk on the cloth means the paint has reached the end of its life.
Wash, repair, or repaint
Three different problems that look alike from the street.
Dirty, not failed
Streaks, algae, and grime on paint that is otherwise tight. A pressure wash brings it back, and we will tell you so rather than sell you a repaint.
Damaged underneath
Cracks, blisters, soft wood, failed caulk. This needs repair before any paint, or the new coat fails the same way the old one did. It is the most common exterior job we see in Miami.
Worn out
Chalking, fading, thin spots everywhere. The paint has simply done its years. Wash, spot-prime, and a full repaint with a product rated for this climate.
Timing
Before the season if it is failing. After, if it got hit.
Open cracks going into June mean months of water in the wall, so a failing exterior is worth sealing before the storms. If a storm has already been through, wait until the wall is dry inside and out, then repair and repaint. Either way, the estimate is free and written, and it says which of the three you are looking at.