Siding Painting in Ardmore, OK

Siding painting in Ardmore, OK renews wood clapboard, fiber cement, vinyl and metal siding with a finish built for long hot summers. Safe Choice Painting washes the walls, scrapes loose paint, primes bare spots, caulks open joints and brushes or sprays two coats. Original clapboard on older Highland Park and McLish homes gets the same careful prep.

A town of single-family homes

Ardmore is mostly detached houses. Census estimates count about 78 percent of the city's housing units as single-family detached homes, with mobile homes making up roughly 4 percent. That means a lot of siding facing a lot of sun, and every house has its own mix of materials. A 1920s bungalow may have wood lap siding on the body and wood shingles in the gables. A 1970s ranch may pair brick on the front with wood or hardboard panels on the sides and back. A newer house may have fiber cement throughout. We look at each material before we pick primer and paint. Hardboard panels from the 1970s and 1980s need extra care at the bottom edges, where they swell if water sits on them; swollen edges are sealed or pointed out for replacement before painting, since paint alone will not stop the swelling.

Wood clapboard on older homes

In Highland Park, laid out from 1915 to 1920 and mostly built by the early 1930s, and in the McLish area just to the east, about half of the homes still show their original clapboard or brick. Old-growth wood siding is dense and holds paint well, but decades of coats can build up and crack. We scrape and sand to a sound edge, spot prime bare wood with an oil-based or bonding primer, and fill nail holes and checks. Split or soft boards are pointed out so you can decide on replacement before we paint. For the history of the neighborhood, see exterior painting in Highland Park, Ardmore.

Heat on the south and west walls

Carter County's all-time high is 115 degrees, set on August 2, 1896, and summer afternoons well above 100 are part of most years. The south and west walls of a house take that heat head on. Paint on those sides fades and chalks first, and dark colors get hot enough to stress vinyl and open up joints in wood. On those walls we steer toward colors and paints rated for strong sun, and we avoid painting siding while it is hot to the touch, because paint that dries too fast does not level or bond well. Summer work starts on the shaded side and follows the shade around the house.

Vinyl, fiber cement and metal

• Vinyl: cleaned well and painted with a vinyl-safe paint in a color within the manufacturer's range. See vinyl siding painting.
• Fiber cement: cleaned, caulked at butt joints only where the maker allows, and painted with a quality acrylic.
• Metal siding on shops and barns: rust sanded and primed with a metal primer before the topcoats.
• Wood: more detail is on wood siding painting.

Before and after the siding

Every siding job starts with a wash; see pressure washing in Ardmore. Trim, fascia and soffits are usually done in the same visit; see exterior trim painting in Ardmore. Brick fronts are covered on brick house painting in Ardmore. For whole-house work, start with exterior painting in Ardmore, and the general guide is siding painting.

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• Siding painting
• Exterior painting in Ardmore, OK
• Painting in Ardmore, OK
• Exterior painting