Painting Wood Trim and Exposed Rafters

By the time the first rafter tail is scraped back to bare wood, the real condition of the house is on the table. Exposed rafters, fascia and trim take the weather first on older Long Beach houses, as the notes at long beach house painting amplified radio describe, and painting them well is mostly a matter of order.

Scrape, probe and sand

Run a putty knife along every rafter tail and press a screwdriver tip into the end grain. Soft wood gets cut out or filled with an epoxy patching compound before anything else happens. Loose paint is scraped to a firm edge, then the edge is feathered with sanding so no ridge shows through the topcoat. Gloss that is still sound gets a scuff sand so the new coat has something to grip.

Caulk and spackle in the right places

Caulk goes into joints that move: where fascia meets the rafter tail, where trim meets siding, and where a casing meets the wall. Spackle goes into nail holes and shallow dents, never into a joint. Filling a moving joint with spackle is how a clean repaint cracks open by the next winter.

Prime the bare spots

Every patch of bare wood gets primer before the finish goes on. Oil based primer blocks tannin bleed from older redwood and fir, and an acrylic latex primer works on trim that is already sound and only needs a bond coat. Primed ends of rafter tails last longer, since end grain drinks water faster than any other part of the board.

The order the parts are painted

High parts first, low parts last. Rafter tails and fascia come before the walls, so drips land on surfaces that are still to be painted. Then the trim, then the body, then the sash and door. Cut in the trim edge with a sash brush, and use a small roller with a short nap on flat boards so the texture matches the factory finish.

Finish coats

Satin or semi gloss enamel suits exposed wood, because it sheds water and wipes clean. Two coats go on, with the first allowed to dry fully before the second. Near the coast and the Los Angeles River, mornings stay damp, so the crew waits for the surface to dry before the first brush stroke.

Checking the work

After the last coat, sight along each fascia board for runs and thin edges. Check that every joint still has an unbroken bead of caulk, and look under the eaves, where a missed spot hides until the first rain.