Tips for Making a Porch or Step Visible

My daddy passed away in May 2008. However, there was much leading up to when he passed away. It was a difficult time for many years as in the summer of 2002, his left leg was amputated below the knee due to an infection that somehow got into his leg from complications from Charcot's foot. His right foot ended up being a Charcot's foot, too, but he never had to have it amputated. He wore a big boot on that one. Then, he had diabetes and a lot of other health problems related to it.

When we learned that he would need a ramp, some really good friends of mine came and built the ramp for him. However, the porch was not something that was ready for him. He needed to be able to see the porch. I did not know this, and I had no planned on doing this home improvement project by myself, I ended up doing it myself.

Thankfully, while it was not a comfortable time doing the project because the weather was not, it was not a difficult project.

Preparation

It was important to be dressed in clothes that could get dirty. It mattered that if they got ruined, it was okay. Then, two large paintbrushes and two smaller detailing paintbrushes were needed for the project. The paints used were gray house paint and yellow house paint. It was also important to have a hose and a broom to prepare.

The Project

The porch needed to be painted so my Daddy could see the edge well. The first thing that needed to be done was to clean the porch. This meant moving things that were on it and it also meant spraying and sweeping away any twigs, leaves, seeds, and piles, and ants from the porch.

The next step was to paint the entire porch gray. Thankfully there were no certain ways to hold a paintbrush or to stroke it to paint the porch gray since it did not matter if there was a certain direction to the brush strokes in the paint. The only part that mattered was that the coat of paint seemed flat so it would not cause anybody to trip.

A smaller detailing brush was used to get parts of the porch that were lined against the planters on the side of it.

The gray paint then had to dry.

A straight yellow line had to be painted with a smaller detailing brush to mark where the yellow line would be painted at the edge of the porch to mark it as the edge. Once this was done, the bigger brush for the yellow paint could be used to paint in the yellow from that line to the front edge of the porch. The front face of the porch also had to be painted yellow so it could be seen.

The smaller detailing brush used with the yellow paint was used to paint the part of the porch that touched the sidewalk path so the path was not painted yellow.

That paint was left to dry.

Results

While the porch may not have looked "pretty" like some people like for homes, it definitely helped. The edge of the porch could now be seen with a little bit of light in the dark night. Painting a porch this way, or at least with some type of a bright color at the edge is a good idea if the edge needs to be seen so people do not trip on the step.