How to Paint a Garage Door

For many of us, our garage door faces the street, and it’s what everyone sees. All it takes is a fresh coat of paint to boost your curb appeal. Learn how to paint a garage door in this Ace Hardware video:

When you’re doing any kind of exterior painting, weather factors like temperature, humidity and rain do play into it, so you need to pay attention to the weather forecast before you begin. Direct sunlight is also problematic. If you’re going to be painting your garage door during the heat of the day and the sun is bearing down on it, you may not get the best results, so timing is everything.

Start by washing the garage door with a house wash using any kind of mild detergent. Typically you would do this the day before painting, but if you’re doing everything on the same day, use beach towels to wipe the door dry.

If you have an automatic door opener, unplug it and pull the safety release chain so you can move the door freely up and down by hand. Inspect the door and scrub down any rust spots with a wire brush or sandpaper and do any patching.

Once prep is done, apply an exterior paint and primer starting with the top panel, then lift up the door and do each panel going all the way down. Depending on coverage, you may want to apply two coats.

After you finish painting, do a quick inspection of the door and use a utility knife to carefully cut away any paint drips between the gaps so they don’t dry together. The following day, you can use some sandpaper to brush it off and finish it all up.