Painting Tips :: Exterior Cladding & Rough Surfaces

Cladding and other rough surfaces may be especially rough to prep before painting—unless you enlist the help of a pressure washer. For information about all-important surface prep, click Exterior Surface Prep Tips.

Painting
For rough or irregular surfaces like wood, cement block, stucco, or brick, a brush is the best thing to use because it really works the coating into the surface. However, you could choose a long-pile roller cover and then use a brush to smooth the finish—that’s called "back brushing."

A 4-inch brush is the most popular for cladding because it fits the panels just right for one-stroke coverage. If you are staining your exterior cladding, Wooster has several Stain Brushes made for the job. They have a square shape and a stiffer blend of polyester to help you work the stain into the surface. Also, because stains are usually thin and runny, the polyester has full tips to hold the stain and lay it down evenly.

Let’s say you want to apply a thick-bodied paint or a waterproofing coating to your concrete block wall. Try the Masonry Coater™ brush. It has natural tampico fiber, like you’d find in many scrub brushes, that provides fast, thorough coverage and resists wearing down. The long pistol-grip handle reduces wrist fatigue to make painting easier.

For general guidelines on choosing the correct applicator, visit Choose a Brush or Choose a Roller.

Cleanup
To keep your paint applicators performing like new, follow the cleaning instructions on the Cleanup page. Painting that rough surface wasn’t so rough after all, was it!