Tampa Bay painting guides

Your home was built before 1978 and the paint is chipping, peeling, or you're not sure what's under it. Stop sanding or scraping and test it first. If it comes back positive for lead, that's a job for an EPA Lead-Safe Certified crew, not a weekend project.

You find soft, spongy drywall, a large water stain, or a ceiling that's starting to sag. That points to an active leak or trapped moisture that needs to be found and dried out before any paint goes anywhere near it.

Stucco cracks are wider than a hairline, or they run diagonally from a window or door corner. That can be structural movement, not surface wear, and painting over it just hides a problem that's still getting worse.

Mold or mildew comes back within days of cleaning it, or it covers more than roughly 10 square feet. At that point it's a remediation job, not something a bleach wash and a coat of paint will solve.

You've got popcorn ceiling texture in a home built before 1980 and haven't had it tested. Don't scrape it yourself until you know whether it contains asbestos.

Exterior siding, trim, or fascia feels soft, rotted, or crumbles when you press on it under the old paint. Painting over rotted wood seals the problem in, it doesn't fix it, and it needs to be repaired or replaced first.