By Alex Bridges — Daily Staff Writer

Sprucing up home exteriors leaves owners with at least a couple of options.

But taking the do-it-yourself approach to any of them can lead to problems and cost more in the long run, warn several home-improvement specialists.

Owners often have to choose between repainting a house or putting up vinyl siding.

Price and personal preference usually determine what a homeowner decides to put on the outside, say most experts. Both options require optimal weather conditions, finding the right supplies — not always from the well-known, chain home improvement stores — and, in many cases, picking a licensed and insured contractor.

"In the long run it's cheaper for them to hire a good contractor to get it done and hey, go out on the golf [course] and golf, let the painter do the painting," said Jim Watson, owner of Watson Painting and Decorating. "People think all you have to do is go in there and paint."

"A lot of homeowners, they'll do all the easy work, but when it comes to high work and stuff like that, they'll usually call me," he said.

Some of Watson's work comes from homeowners who first try to do it themselves.

"I had this one guy go paint his house, calls me up and goes, 'Jimmy it looks good, but there's one problem: It's all peelin' off,'" Watson recalled, noting the homeowner applied latex paint over oil. "I've had a lot of them make mistakes and they call me up and sometimes I'll fix it and sometimes I'll say, 'You made your bed, lay in it.'"

Federal regulations limit the kinds of paint area homeowners can use. The Environmental Protection Agency banned oil-based paints, or alkyds, several years ago and supplies subsequently evaporated. Now homeowners primarily use latex.

Most area businesses that paint exteriors buy their supply from specialty shops such as Sherwin Williams rather than chain home improvement stores.

As with most outside home projects, the weather can dictate if painting or vinyl siding can move forward.

"I won't touch an exterior unless it's 45 [degrees] and above," Watson said. "If it gets below freezing, I don't mess with it. It's gonna ruin the paint."

High temperatures also pose a danger.

"A lot of times when it's too hot it'll turn your paint into what is called 'cottage cheese,'" Watson said.

Homeowners wishing to paint their houses themselves need to take care in the supplies they use. People should use a 5-gallon bucket with a 9-inch grid and a quarter-inch nap rather than a paint tray, Watson said.

Many DIYers pour the paint straight into a tray and start their project. But Watson warned that painters need to strain what they plan to use before they begin.

"All paint, doesn't matter if it's brand new, it's gotta be strained," Watson said.

The Web site www.askthebuilder.com also offers tips on house painting. In addition to scraping the paint, it advises looking for cracks where water can enter the "skin" of the home and using paintable caulk to cover these holes.

Painters must prime either bare wood or masonry surfaces, it recommends, and then covering the primer as much as possible with finished paint, preferably within 24 hours.

Painting older homes, such as those built in 1978 or earlier, comes with dangers because their paint may contain lead. Sanding or scraping can create toxic dust.

The Web site also suggests painters use a high-quality product, and should look for types that contain urethane and acrylic resins which act as glue part of the paint.

With any outside project, house painters recommend starting a project facing the direction from which storms or wind is headed. Askthebuilder.com advises that painters avoid doing the work in direct sunlight or on windy days if possible because the sun can create a skin on the freshly applied paint and cause bubbles to form in the substance. Wind dries paint too quickly and can stop it from bonding well to the surface.

So with the advantages and disadvantages of paint, should a homeowner put up vinyl siding on any house just because it may last longer and not require regular repainting? Some experts who install the product say not necessarily.

Vinyl siding has its advantages, and newer kinds don't fade as soon as they once did. Most also include a foam that helps insulate the material.

"Obviously you don't have moisture issues like you do with wood, rotting of the siding or peeling and cracking of paint," said Bill Joyce, owner of Winchester Home Pros.

"What most people are looking for these days is low maintenance, a lot of color options and improved energy efficiency," Joyce said. "When you put vinyl siding on it's going to last a lot longer than painting, where typically if you paint you gotta paint every couple years, vinyl siding can last almost forever ... say 20 years."

"It might cost a little more upfront than painting, but you're going to recoup it in the long run in less maintenance and better energy efficiency," Joyce said.

But if the house already has a wood exterior, cost would likely determine whether a person should use either paint or vinyl. Unlike house painting that some owners try to do on their own with limited success, vinyl siding requires a professional.

Most new construction consists of plywood commonly covered in vinyl already. Often, with remodeling, vinyl comes into play when a homeowner has become tired of repainting the exterior, according to Joyce. An owner may opt to pull off whatever material is on the house and replace it with siding.

"If you want to talk about a disadvantage, once you've picked your color, you've picked it," he said. "While you can change the color of your house by painting it, you can't paint vinyl siding. You're kinda committed."

For more information on vinyl siding, Joyce recommended people visit the Winchester Home Pros Web site and click on the siding link. From there, people also can click on the link to the Vinyl Siding Institute at www.vinylsiding.org.

*Contact Alex Bridges at abridges@nvdaily.com.