This week our crew has been doing an exterior trim-out on a home in Buford, just outside Flowery Branch. A lot of homeowners don’t realize you can paint just the trim on your house without repainting the whole thing. On a brick home, or a house where the siding still looks good, a trim-out is often exactly what it needs. Here’s what exterior trim painting in Buford looks like when we do it.
What a trim-out covers
When we say “trim-out,” we mean all the painted wood and trim around the outside of the house, but not the main walls. On the Buford job this week that meant:
- Soffits, the flat boards under the roof overhang
- Fascia, the boards along the roof edge where the gutters hang
- Door trim
- Window trim
Last week we finished another trim-out on a four-sided brick home with the same list: soffit, fascia, and door and window trim. On a brick house that’s usually all the paint there is, so a trim-out is the whole exterior paint job.
Why trim goes first in line for paint
Trim takes more of a beating than most of the house. Fascia sits right under the roof edge and the gutters, so it sees water every time it rains. Window and door trim has joints and corners where caulk dries out and cracks. When trim paint starts peeling, water gets into the wood behind it, and that’s where rot starts.
On a Buford exterior repaint last week, we found rotten wood where the trim meets the shingles. That’s one of the most common trouble spots we see. We took the rotten boards off and replaced them with PVC 1x6 trim before painting. We’re painters, not remodelers, so we only do that kind of repair when it gets the surface ready for paint. I wrote more about it in why we fix rotten wood before we paint.
The paint we used
On both of these trim jobs we used Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint Exterior in a satin finish. Satin has a soft sheen that looks clean on trim and is easier to wipe down than a flat finish. If you’re weighing your options, our paint sheens guide walks through the differences, and our Sherwin-Williams exterior paints and stains guide covers the products we reach for most.
Brush, roll or spray?
People ask this all the time. The honest answer is: it depends on the house and the day.
On the brick home, we brushed and rolled about 90 percent of the trim by hand. One section on the far side of the house needed to be sprayed. The morning we were set to spray, it was breezy, so we held off and waited for the wind to die down in the afternoon. Spraying in the wind is how paint ends up somewhere it shouldn’t, like a car, a roof or a neighbor’s yard.
Protecting the house, and the neighbors
Good trim painting is as much about what doesn’t get paint as what does. On the Buford job, every window was masked before we started so the glass stayed clean.
On the brick home, one side of the house sat close to the neighbor’s fence, and the only good spot for the ladder was in their yard. So we asked the neighbors for permission first. Before spraying that trim, we covered their fence and their golf cart with plastic.
We also follow a simple rule any time a ladder leans on a gutter: wrap the ladder ends in cloth. You never want metal on metal against a gutter. It scratches the finish and can dent the gutter. It’s a small thing, but small things are what separate a careful crew from a fast one.
Questions to ask before you paint your trim
If you’re thinking about exterior trim painting in Buford or nearby, here are a few things worth asking any painter:
- Are the soffits, fascia, door trim and window trim all included?
- How will you handle soft or rotten trim boards you find?
- Which paint line and sheen will you use on the trim?
- Will you mask the windows and protect landscaping, cars and neighboring property?
- Will you brush and roll, spray, or both, and how do you handle windy days?
Straight answers to those questions tell you a lot about how the job will go. You can see more of our process on our exterior house painting page.
Painting trim in Buford and around Lake Lanier
Buford is part of our regular service area, on both the Gwinnett and Hall County sides. We also paint homes in Flowery Branch, Braselton, Gainesville and around Lake Lanier. Whether your home needs a full repaint or just the trim, you get the same prep, the same Sherwin-Williams products and the same checks between coats. Learn more about our work on the house painters in Buford page.
Get a free estimate
If your soffits, fascia or window trim are peeling, or you just want your home to look sharp again, I’d be glad to come take a look and tell you straight what it needs. You can request an estimate online, or call or text 678-943-6720 for a free estimate.
Written by James Wheeler from Wheeler Painting exterior trim and repaint jobs in Buford and the surrounding area, October 2026.