Salt Air and Paint: How Coastal Conditions in San Diego Impact Your Home's Exterior

We don’t have to tell you just how beau­ti­ful San Diego is. Sun-kissed beach­es, gen­tle sea breeze, gor­geous weath­er year round… It’s why we live here, right? 

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, how­ev­er, the coastal envi­ron­ment can be incred­i­bly hard on your home’s exte­ri­or paint. This calls for a more spe­cial­ized, strate­gic approach to car­ing for your property.

So, what can you do? Aware­ness is the first step, along with the real­iza­tion that rou­tine care and main­te­nance is essen­tial, not elec­tive. Ongo­ing care helps to pre­vent major issues, keeps your home look­ing its best, plus offers the vital sur­face pro­tec­tion your prop­er­ty needs.

What Caus­es Your Paint To Break Down in San Diego?

Focus­ing on that aware­ness we men­tioned, here are the top 3 cul­prits to keep in mind.

• Salt Air — Refresh­ing? Yes, for you. But not so much for your home. That fine mist of salt­wa­ter that hangs over us on a dai­ly basis is extreme­ly cor­ro­sive, and your wood sid­ing is soak­ing up the salt and met­als like a sponge. 

• Mois­ture and Humid­i­ty — Hav­ing paint­ed numer­ous homes in the area, we know the dam­age trapped mois­ture can cause. Mois­ture get­ting caught between paint and the sur­face can lead to peel­ing, bub­bling, or even crack­ing. And let’s not for­get about mold, mildew, and algae, which thrive in these con­di­tions, lead­ing to dis­col­oration and damage.

• Coastal Sun­light - San Diego’s trade­mark sun­shine is a force to be reck­oned with. Its UV rays can be quite intense, break­ing down the pig­ments in paint, caus­ing it to fade faster. We’ve seen many vibrant exte­ri­or col­ors lose their lus­ter, look­ing washed out far before their time. It’s also impor­tant to remem­ber that dark paint col­ors can be even more sus­cep­ti­ble since they soak up and retain that sun­light and heat. 

How To Pro­tect and Main­tain Your Paint In San Diego

Our first take­away is to invest in rou­tine main­te­nance, as we touched on above. Don’t wait until paint fail­ure before call­ing your house painter… Annu­al inspec­tions are help­ful, allow­ing us to catch small issues before they grow, or make a local­ized touch-up or repair before it spreads. 

We also rec­om­mend pow­er wash­ing your home at least once per year. It doesn’t take long, but it pro­vides relief for your sur­faces from all that cor­ro­sive salt buildup. 

Our last tip is to work with a rep­utable San Diego painter. For the best val­ue, you need a paint job built on care­ful sur­face prepa­ra­tion, high-qual­i­ty prod­ucts, and a proven process. In oth­er words, don’t trust your home to just any­one, or be sucked in by an allur­ing­ly low esti­mate. You’ll pay a lot more in the long run. 

Have More Ques­tions About Exte­ri­or Paint­ing in San Diego?

Con­tact us at Chism Broth­ers Paint­ing. It would be our plea­sure to chat with you in detail about your home, needs, and goals.