It’s springtime, so many associations are beginning to think about projects and maintenance for the upcoming year. While many of these maintenance procedures may make logical sense, one area of care may confuse many: paint maintenance.
For most people, HOA painting standards may seem baffling. They often require frequent paint maintenance to houses that may seem perfectly fine to a layman’s eye. But there are five good reasons that your association requires regular paint maintenance.
1. Maintaining fresh paint helps protect surfaces.
Paint provides more than pleasant, aesthetically pleasing colors to your property; it also protects the surfaces it covers, such as interior walls, wood, trim, doors, ceilings, and more. What’s more, paint can wear out. Factors such as sunlight, humidity, rain, rot, and general wear-and-tear can wear away your color. This can remove the protective coating it provides for the surfaces on your property.
2. Allows maintenance to check for signs of underlying damage
Flaking paint can often be an early warning sign of deeper issues. Multi-family painting maintenance strategies will allow professionals to appraise any peeling paint and investigate potentially more severe underlying problems.
The most common cause of flaking or peeling paint involves cosmetic issues, such as expired or poor-quality paint or improperly applied adhesive. However, it can also signal serious problems, such as water damage to walls due to leaking pipes. It’s a good idea to ensure homeowners are taking note of and reporting any paint issues that arise, even if it’s not a part of regularly scheduled maintenance.
3. Ensures professional, high-quality contractors
Multi-family painting maintenance guidelines exist to ensure that any paint job that is done is done by professional contractors. It’s widespread for HOAs to have a professional relationship with professional paint contractors. Whether the HOA directly hires a paint contracting company or provides a list of recommended contractors, it’s crucial to adhere to these recommendations. Paint maintenance isn’t as simple as choosing a color and slapping a coat of paint on your surfaces. Surfaces must be carefully watched and inspected before painting.
Some surfaces may require sanding and an additional primer layer before adding the fresh paint. Especially in an intentional community with multiple homes or units, consistent quality is essential, which is why most HOAs require using professional paint contractors.
4. Maintains continuity and property value
A significant reason that associations exist is to provide a valuable community and maintain a specific familiar aesthetic. Communities are planned and often abide by specific cosmetic standards that help boost the value of the community as a whole. Painting maintenance is essential in ensuring the community is preserved, and its value doesn’t fall. HOA painting guidelines provide that exterior paint is fresh and clean and that all surfaces are well-maintained.
5. Extends the life and quality of your community
As we discussed above, paint serves more than just a cosmetic purpose. It doesn’t just make your property look good; it also protects the surfaces and structure. HOA painting maintenance strategies will prolong the value and quality of the homes in the community. Regular maintenance significantly reduces the future need for repairs and will save the association money in the long run.
For many surfaces that see more wear than others, it is recommended to re-paint every two years. This may seem like a lot if the surfaces are visibly damaged or cracked and everything looks fine. But, visible or not, paint does regularly wear down. And to ensure that the quality of the home is maintained as long as possible and to avoid expensive repairs, regular paint maintenance is often required.
Important Note: Your HOA painting guidelines are there to benefit the community. And companies such as Performance Painting partner with homeowners and HOAs to provide the vital function of paint maintenance to ensure your home surfaces are protected and look new year after year.
