Before and after: A lesson in how to paint brick exterior

When it comes to paint selection, you’ll need to carefully select the type of paint for the job, then, your preferred colour.

Which paint is right for a brick exterior?

You need specific types of paint when painting a home’s exterior.

Firstly, you’ll need a primer. For this job, Shannon used Taubmans 3-in-1 Prep sealer, primer and undercoat to prepare the surface.

For the topcoat, you’ll need a paint that can survive weather extremes. Shannon used Taubmans All Weather paint, which is water resistant and won’t crack or flake in the sun.

When you buy your paint, to ensure you’re getting the right type and amount for your job, it’s always easiest to chat to the paint experts in store.

Before starting, it helps to gather any supplies. This can include:

• Paint trays
• Rollers, brushes and extension poles
• Buckets (for water)
• Ladders
• Painter’s tape
• Drop cloths and tarps

Depending on the weather you may also want to deck yourself out with sun-safe supplies. However, do not attempt a paint job when the air temperature is below 10 degrees or over 35 degrees. 

Once it’s clean and dry, use your painter’s tape to cover up any door frames, window frames, edges and other details you don’t want painted.

Then you need to prime your surface. While surfaces require sanding, you can’t exactly do this with brickwork. So, you’ll want a good primer and sealer to make the bricks slightly less porous and to help the topcoat stick to the surface. Primer will also help prevent the colour of your original brick from showing through on your topcoat, especially if you’re going from a darker shade, like a red brick, to a light shade.

You’ve cleaned, you’ve prepped, you’ve primed — now it’s time to get painting.

When painting exteriors, Shannon prefers to use a roller as it helps achieve a more even finish. The surface area is quite large, so you don’t want to take a brush to the whole thing or you’ll be there forever, he warns.

When painting brickwork, use a large, good quality roller with a long nap fabric designed for painting rough surfaces. This will help you get into those cracks and crevices. Go over your largest areas first and don’t worry too much about technique — just aim for an even coverage. Then, focus on touching up edges and smaller areas that might require a brush.

If you’re really confident with DIY, you can also use a sprayer.

Shannon recommends doing at least two top coats for a good quality finish.

Want to see how it all comes together?

Mel’s family home on the Central Coast was taken from blonde brick to a chic coastal bungalow with the help of Shannon and Taubmans.

The best part? A fresh lick of paint on your exterior is estimated to add an average 5% to your home’s property price according to Consumer Reports. In a market like Sydney, where the average home is nearing $1.5 million, that means you could be adding more than $50k to your sale price!