Home / Maintaining Paint on Fences, Gates, Garages and Sheds in Pasadena

Keeping Paint Up on Fences, Gates and Outbuildings

By pasadena house painting journal

The house usually gets the attention, but a typical Pasadena lot has plenty of other painted surfaces: a detached garage off the alley, a garden shed, a pergola over the patio, wood fences along the property lines, and a driveway or side gate. These structures are often built more simply than the house, sit closer to soil and sprinklers, and have fewer overhangs to shelter them. As a result, their paint often wears out faster. Because they are easy to overlook, problems can go unnoticed until a gate post rots through or a shed door swells shut. A little regular attention keeps them sound and keeps the whole property looking cared for.

Why outbuildings wear faster

Several things work against the paint on secondary structures.

The house itself gets most of the attention on pasadena house painting journal, but the smaller structures around it wear faster and are covered here.

• Little or no roof overhang. Many sheds and garages have shallow eaves, so walls take rain and sun directly.
• Ground contact. Siding and trim on outbuildings often run close to soil or pavement, where splashback, damp soil and irrigation keep the bottom edge wet.
• Simpler construction. Outbuildings frequently use thinner materials, less flashing and fewer sealed joints, which leaves more entry points for water.
• Exposure on all sides. A freestanding fence or pergola has no sheltered face. Every surface, including tops and ends, is exposed.
• Less frequent inspection. Structures at the back of the lot simply get looked at less.

Detached garages and sheds

Treat a detached garage or shed as a small house. The same zones apply: wall surfaces, trim and fascia, doors and windows, and horizontal surfaces such as sills. The areas most likely to fail are the bottom edge of the siding, the base of door frames, and anywhere a gutter is missing or overflowing.

Garage doors deserve attention on their own. Wood carriage-style doors, common on older Pasadena homes, take full sun and get bumped by cars and bins. The bottom rail, which sits closest to the driveway, is the usual first point of failure. Check it for soft spots and peeling each season. Steel roll-up doors can dent and scratch, and any break in the finish can lead to rust, so touch up scratches with a primer and paint suited to metal.

Keep soil, mulch and firewood away from the base of walls. Wood siding should have a clear gap above grade, and stacked materials against a wall trap moisture and invite termites.

Pergolas, arbors and trellises

Pergolas and arbors are almost entirely exposed wood, with many horizontal surfaces and cut ends. Tops of beams and rafters collect water and debris and take direct sun, and their end grain absorbs moisture. Climbing plants keep surfaces damp and shaded, and their tendrils work into joints. When you inspect a pergola, look closely at the tops of beams, the joints where rafters sit on beams, the ends of every member, and the base of posts where they meet footings or pavement.

If vines cover a structure, plan maintenance around them. Cut plants back before painting so every surface can be reached, and consider whether the structure can be repainted in sections as the plants are pruned.

Fences

Fences are the largest painted or stained surface many homeowners own after the house. They take sun on one face and shade on the other, get hit by sprinklers, lean against shrubs and are built from boards cut to expose plenty of end grain. The fence line also often divides your lot from a neighbor's, so any work involves the other side too. Before repainting or restaining a shared fence, talk with your neighbor about color, timing and access.

The decision to paint or stain a wood fence affects its long-term maintenance more than any other choice, and posts at ground level are always the first area to watch.

Gates

Gates move, and movement stresses paint. Hinges, latches and the edges of the gate itself wear with every opening. Wood gates tend to sag over time, which opens joints and lets water in. Metal gates, especially wrought iron and steel, are vulnerable to rust wherever paint is chipped, and rust spreads under the paint film if it is not treated. The bottom rail and the ends of pickets, where water collects, usually go first.

Keep hinges lubricated and adjusted so the gate does not drag or bang. A gate that rubs the ground or slams against its post will chip its own paint far faster than weather does.

Hardware is part of the painted system too. Hinge straps, latch plates and drop rods sit on top of paint and trap water beneath them, and the paint under a hinge is often the first to lift on a wood gate. When a gate is repainted, removing hardware so the surface underneath can be prepared and coated gives a longer-lasting result than painting around it. Rusty screws and bolts are worth replacing with corrosion-resistant fasteners at the same time, since they will otherwise stain fresh paint within a season or two.

Setting priorities

With many secondary structures, it helps to rank them. Start with anything protecting something valuable, such as a garage housing a car or a shed holding tools, and anything that is structural, such as gate posts and pergola beams. Rot or rust in these can lead to failures that cost far more than the paint. Next come surfaces that are visible from the street, since they affect the look of the whole property. Last are surfaces that are sound but faded or dull.

Materials and lead-safe practices

Many detached garages and fences in Pasadena are as old as the house, and on properties built before 1978, their paint may contain lead. Scraping and sanding on these structures raise the same concerns as on the house, and the soil beneath old painted fences and outbuildings can hold paint chips from decades of weathering. Wet-scrape, contain debris on plastic sheeting, and clean up thoroughly. Contractors must follow the EPA lead-safe rule on target housing, which covers work on structures that are part of the property.

Keeping outbuildings on the maintenance schedule

The simplest way to keep secondary structures from being forgotten is to add them to your twice-yearly walk-around. Walk to the back of the lot, check the garage and shed, walk the fence line on both sides if you can, open and close each gate, and look up at the pergola. Note the condition of each and record when it was last painted or stained, with the product and color. These structures rarely need attention at the same time as the house, and tracking them separately lets you spread the work across seasons.