How Soon Can You Sand Siding After Being Painted?

Check the Paint

• Simply touching the paint determines if the paint job is dry enough to begin sanding. However, there’s more to it than that, as other factors such as coatings applied, type of paint used and weather conditions all go into how well the fresh paint cured and how far along the drying process is. The more paint layers you applied to the siding equals more drying time, especially if you painted over an existing paint job and didn’t bother to prepare the area first. Also, more humid conditions, rain or overcast cloud cover all negatively affect optimal paint drying conditions. If any of these apply, wait until a few days of warm, sunny weather has elapsed before getting down to business.

Setting Up

• If all underlying factors described above are kosher, it is time buckle down and start the project of sanding the wood. For starters, you’ll need a handheld belt sander outfitted with 40 to 60 grit sandpaper, a more textured type of sandpaper that will make removing the current paint job much easier. You’ll also need a finer grit – about a 200 to 240 grit is recommended to make the underlying siding ready for another round of painting. Also grab a dust mask/respirator to keep from inhaling tiny dust particles and some safety goggles for your eyes.

Getting Started

• First, remove lighting fixtures to keep from damaging them, then use a pressure washer to rinse the siding on one wall of the house that you’ll be painting. After that, lay down drop cloths on the ground next to the wall to catch paint scraps to make cleaning up a cinch. Start at the top of the wall and begin to scrape paint from the siding; if this is too tough, some commercial paint softeners can be used to loosen the existing paint job to take some of the work out.

Finishing the Job

• After all the paint is scraped, you’re faced with two choices: to repaint or not to repaint. Either way, inspect the exposed wood on the siding and repair any nicks and cuts with a spackling compound that mimics wood. You can stain the wood with a mildewcide chemical spray (available at most paint dealers) that will also act as a barrier against moisture if you want a more natural look to the siding. Otherwise, you’ll need to prime the wood before repainting it.