Exterior Paint Tools

Ladders

• Unless you're 8 feet tall, you'll need ladders to paint even a one-story house. Six- or 8-foot step ladders get you up to the gutters on a one-story house. For anything taller, you'll need extension ladders. The most common extension ladder lengths are 16, 24, 28 and 32 feet--residential painters rarely need to use a 40-foot extension ladder because most homes are not that high. Ladders may be wood, aluminum or fiberglass. Wood ladders are not very common and are very heavy. Aluminum ladders are the ladder of choice for most painters, because they are strong and light. For working around electrical wires, choose a fiberglass ladder.

Ladder Safety Tools

• Painting can be a physical and dangerous job, because you're often working on ladders or on roofs. Ladder levelers allow you to safely set up an extension ladder on uneven ground or a slope. One style is a wedge-shaped fiberglass leveler, with nonskid feet that dig into the soil. Push it into place, set your ladder on top of it and you're good to go. Other ladder levelers attach to the legs of your ladder and are adjusted to the slope. Ladder hooks attach to the top rung of a ladder, so you can hook it over the top of a roof and stand safely on the ladder while painting a second-story level above the roof line.

Airless Sprayers

• Airless sprayers make quick work of large areas of siding or decks and are also handy for hard-to-paint surfaces, such as wrought iron railings or shutters. Small inexpensive handheld sprayers are fine for smaller projects, but would be slower than doing it by hand when painting an entire house. Airless piston-pump sprayers, even light-duty ones, are suitable for painting any size exterior residential project. For commercial use or a sprayer that will hold up with thousands of gallons being pumped through it over the course of a painting season, most professional painters choose a larger gas or electric airless sprayer that will pump at least one-third of a gallon per minute.

Masking Tool

• If you're going to spray paint or stain, you have to mask adjacent surfaces. This can be a time-consuming task if you're doing it by hand with a roll of masking tape and last week's newspaper. Slide a roll of tape and a roll of masking paper onto a hand masker, which allows you to apply the tape and paper precisely and very quickly.

Brushes and Rollers

• Don't skimp on quality with paint brushes and rollers. When properly cared for, a good paint brush will last for years; it also holds more paint and allows you to paint a straighter line with fewer uneven brush marks. Unless you have very narrow trim or a lot of intricate detail to paint, a 3-inch brush should be sufficient for an entire exterior. Choose sturdy roller frames instead of flimsy ones and spend the little extra money on a lambswool roller cover instead of a cheap synthetic one. Don't use a roller tray when rolling paint. Buy a paint roller grid and a 5-gallon bucket and work from that. It's much easier to move around as you work, holds more paint and won't dry out quickly.