Paint is one of the most important features of your home. Color brightens up what would otherwise be an average building, gives it character, invites the eye, improves curb appeal, covers up flaws, protects building materials like wood cladding, and more. The list goes on and on.

But paint isn’t perfect. While outdoor paint in particular is chemically designed to protect against UV sunlight damage, moisture damage, and extreme temperatures, you may need to hire a painting company in Atlanta from time to time to give your house a face lift. A new coat of paint will make your home look newer and more modern.

But what causes paint to develop strange flaws, like bubbles under the surfaces, peeling, or harsh cracks? Here are the most common causes of these paint flaws–issues that professional painters see every day.

Cracks

Cracked paint looks terrible. It can make the surface of the wall itself seem fractured and old. Cracked exterior paint can even make your entire house look old and in disrepair. Cracks can happen for many different reasons.

Mud cracks, or collections of interconnected cracks that look like cracked soil, can be attributed to poor painting quality. A painting contractor knows that you should always clean and dry a surface before painting it, and knows just how to apply a thin enough coat for total coverage and color richness. Amateurs can make mistakes like painting on a dirty wall or applying too much paint, which will eventually cause it to crack.

If you spread paint too thin, you’ll end up with thin, hairline cracks. Use stiff coating or apply a greasy finish, and you’ll end up with scaly cracks that are a huge eyesore. Trust in professional home painting services to prevent these flaws.

Peeling

Paint peeling is a common feature of abandoned buildings. But this unsightly feature can happen to your current home if you fail to paint properly. Damp, poorly prepared, and un-primed surfaces will peel away paint. Dirt, dust, and other contaminants can also cause peeling.

Why does this occur? When a wall isn’t prepared properly, even high-quality paint won’t bond with the surface appropriately. Over time, the paint will harden. While the paint should harden, if it has nothing to bond with, it will give way and peel down as gravity pulls it off the surface. Professional painting surfaces know why peeling paint happens, and will work to prevent it.

Of course, peeling can occur when a paint job is very old. Little can be done to prevent this, so it will need to be repainted. Paint doesn’t last forever.

Bubbles

Bubbly paint can make your walls look infected or burned. Nobody wants this. Never paint on dirty, wet, or warm surfaces, or in humid conditions, which can cause specific areas of paint to harden away from the surface, rather than directly against it. You should also understand that latex and oil-based paints have different applications. Sometimes one is appropriate, other times, one type will bubble on a wall.

If any of the above problems have occurred on your home, especially the exterior surfaces, hire a painting company in Atlanta to fix, re-prepare, and repaint your home. A professional team can make your home look good-as-new.