Your garage door can make or break the entire appearance and impression of your home. Thus, it’s crucial that you pick the right paint for your garage door to make your house look consistently great. Here’s how to find the perfect paint for your garage door!
Exterior and Interior Paint
The first rule of thumb you need to keep in mind is the difference between exterior and interior paint. While both types of paint tend to incorporate the same materials (pigment, solvent), they’re intended for separate purposes. While interior paint is designed for easy cleaning without staining, prioritizing aesthetics, exterior paint prioritizes function, being formulated to resist the outdoor elements. Hence, exterior paint is more suitable for the longevity of your garage door’s paint job, making it less likely to peel or crack and look unsightly overall.
Appropriate Types of Paint
Most garage doors are painted with layers of either latex or oil-based paint. Latex paints are typically more popular among homeowners because of the various perks they offer:
- Less odor
- Less harmful chemicals are released during panting and drying
- Fast drying
- Easier application
- Easy disposal
Overall, in most cases, we recommend opting for latex paint when painting your garage door.
Your Garage Door Material
However, you can’t simply default to an exterior latex paint immediately, because the material your garage door is made of can impact how paint applies to it. Garage doors are typically made of materials such as:
- Vinyl, Composite, Fiberglass: Exterior latex paint adheres to these surfaces best, with proper preparation and priming beforehand.
- Wood: While you also use exterior latex paint for wood garage doors, you’ll need to do some extra steps before getting straight to painting. If you’re painting your garage door a lighter color, remember to use a stain-blocking primer to ensure your paint job results in the correct shade.
- Metal: Due to how oil-based paints protect the metal material from rusting more effectively than water-based latex paints, you should reach out for an oil-based exterior paint instead.
Pre-Existing Paint Jobs
The type of paint you’re painting over also makes a world of difference! Hence, before you get painting, you should identify the paint already on your garage door if any, to prevent any painting catastrophes from occurring. For example, using oil-based paint over latex paint can result in peeling, chipping, and other unpleasant mishaps. Additionally, you can layer latex paint over oil-based paint on a garage door, but you’ll need more primer and multiple coats of paint.
Colors for Your Garage Door
Of course, another important aspect of paint is the color. A great piece of advice to follow is to consider and incorporate the other accent colors your home features, to ensure the shades and hues don’t clash and become jarring. Additionally, you can never go wrong with neutral tones such as lovely whites, tans, and greys!
Looking to transform your garage door and home? Look no further than New England Overhead Door! Our garage door installation services provide top-quality garage doors, as well as a reliable “Design Your Door” tool that promises you a garage door that goes harmoniously with the rest of your house.