Nine steps, in this order

On an exterior that means running a hand across the siding to feel for chalk, checking the top edges of horizontal trim and the underside of soffits where water sits, looking at the sills, and finding out whether the shaded elevation has mildew or dirt. Those are different problems with different fixes.

On an interior it means looking for nail pops, cracked drywall seams, previous repairs that were never sanded flush, water stains that will bleed through, and any bold color that is being covered. It also means finding out what is actually under the current paint, because a glossy surface and a chalky one need different treatment.

The scope that comes out of this says what is included and what is not. If something is excluded, it says so in writing rather than being discovered later.

Inside: furniture to the middle of the room and covered, floors protected, switch plates and hardware removed rather than cut around, doors taken off where they need to be finished properly.

Outside: plants covered, walkways and driveways protected, and the neighbor’s property considered, which on a narrow lot is not a courtesy but a requirement.

Salt film, chalk and general grime come off with a proper wash. Mildew does not. Mildew has to be treated and rinsed, because pressure alone removes what you can see and leaves the rest, and it grows back up through the new coat within a season.

Then the house dries all the way through. In Hampton Roads humidity that takes longer than people expect, and it is the step most often cut to keep a job on schedule.

There is no benefit in stripping a surface that is bonded well, and no way to save one that is not. The judgment is where the line between the two falls, and it is made surface by surface rather than by a rule.

The important part is what happens at the boundary. Every scraped edge gets feathered so the step between old paint and bare substrate is sanded to a taper. Skip that and the ridge telegraphs straight through the finish, and you can see exactly where the scraper stopped from across the street.

Inside, sanding is about flattening previous brush ridges on trim and knocking the sheen off anything glossy so the new coat has something to key into.

Nail pops get set and filled. Cracked drywall seams get taped properly rather than skimmed, because a skimmed seam reopens through fresh paint in the first season of the house moving. Old plaster cracks get opened out to a V and filled, for the same reason.

On exteriors, damaged wood gets addressed before it gets painted. Paint over rot is paint over rot, and it buys about one year.

Everything filled gets sanded flush. A patch you can feel with a hand is a patch you will see in raking light for the next ten years.

Inside, the joint where trim meets wall is what makes trim read as crisp or read as tired. It gets caulked and tooled so there is a clean shadow line rather than a gap.

Outside, every joint where two materials meet is a place water can get behind the wood: trim to siding, trim to brick, butt joints, the cut ends of boards. Old caulk that has gone hard and split gets cut out rather than painted over, because painting over split caulk hides it for exactly one season.

Bare wood and fresh filler, because both are porous and will drink an uneven amount of finish. Chalked surfaces, because a finish coat over chalk is bonded to powder. Water stains, smoke and tannin-bleeding woods like cedar and redwood, because they need a blocking primer or they come through the finish, usually in the first year.

Bold colors being covered, and glossy surfaces that need adhesion. Priming selectively is not a shortcut. Priming nothing is.

Cut in by hand at the ceiling line, the trim and the corners, then the field is rolled or sprayed. Then all of it again.

Two coats is the standard and it is what a job is quoted against unless you have asked for something else. Where a customer has specifically hired us for a one-coat repaint or another limited scope, the written scope says so and the signed contract governs that job. The scope is the document that decides, which is why step one exists.

The first coat seals the surface and evens out whatever the primer left behind. The second coat is the finish you live with, and it goes down on something that is already uniform, so the color reads the same in the corner as in the middle and the sheen stays even under raking light.

The first coat is allowed to cure before the second goes over it. On a humid day that means waiting, because a second coat over an uncured first traps it.

Including the elevation nobody looks at from the driveway. Anything you point at gets fixed before the crew loads the truck, not on a return visit that has to be scheduled.

Then the house gets put back: hardware refitted, switch plates on, furniture returned, and the site cleaned.