How to paint Hardiboard exterior panels?

asha25

Hi all. I am wanting to give my home exterior a new colour for the ‘pop/wow’ factor. My house is small (11 x 12m) with mini orb features and large windows and sliding doors. This reduces the amount of painting indeed.  
I have a neurological condition which renders my balance (stairs and reaching up) quite difficult   I do have friends wanting to help me. Yay. I’m looking at an air spray gun to paint. 
what preparation (do I need to wash surfaces and prime or can I paint straight over)?

what option for a spray gun? I have the tape and drop sheets and PPE. 
Im going with Dulux colourbond Basalt. My windows, roof and Mini orb are Surfmist and white.

Will one coat be enough? 

JacobZ

Hi @asha25,

Thank you for your post and welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it is fantastic to have you with us.

The most important thing with a painting project like this is your prep work. 

You should give the exterior a good clean with a pressure cleaner to remove any dirt or contaminants that can affect your new paint's adhesion. One with a foam sprayers attachment like this Gerni 3600 1810PSI 1500W High Pressure Washer or Ryobi 1800W 2030PSI Pressure Washer is ideal. You can then use Gerni Exterior House Wash to foam up the house and then use clean water to clean it off. 

Once clean, fill any gaps with any nail holes or cracks with an exterior filler such as Poly Large Interior And Exterior Cracks Filler and No More Gaps Exterior Gap Filler along any seams. Sand the filler smooth and strike off the No More Gaps with a Wooden Pop Stick to get nice smooth beads.

Once clean, Dulux Ultra Deep Low Sheen Weathershield Exterior Paint is self-priming and can be applied directly over existing paint. Your existing paint looks to be in good condition but if any areas are flaking, they should be scraped off and sanded back.

Due to the smaller surface requiring painting, you should be fine to use a handheld paint sprayer such as this Wagner Flexio 575 Paint Sprayer, but a sprayer with a larger tank like the Wagner Control Pro 150 (HEA) Airless Paint Sprayer might make things easier as there's a good chance, you'll have to thin your paint and doing this in larger batches will make your life a bit easier.

Test the sprayer to begin with. If you find it is clogging up, you can add up to 100ml of water per litre of paint to thin it out.

Dulux advises 2 coats of paint on already painted surfaces like this.

You might like to check out How To Paint Your House’s Exterior for some further guidance.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Jacob