Category — Painting

Painting the exterior of a house is no easy task. It is often riddled with unforeseen problems and hard to find solutions. Contractors do exist, however, that can ease the burden and make the experience as hassle-free as possible for the homeowner by utilizing their skill and experience in the field.

Exterior house painting has been baffling homeowners for decades as they try to figure out workable solutions to the problems that often arise. With a strong push towards do-it-yourself projects, many have now begun to regard painting contractors as unnecessary or obsolete. However, once most homeowners begin to paint the house themselves, they quickly regret their decision and opt for their local exterior house painting contractor. Contractors will be skilled in their craft and can leave the project looking spectacular, better than any amateur job could possibly look. With no real reason to paint the house oneself, other than perhaps saving a few bucks, homeowners are strongly encouraged to hire a painting contractor to perform the work, as they will leave the project looking its very best.

Many different aspects of the project can turn out to be riddled with miscues and problems. This can mean a lot of different things depending on the homeowner you ask, but there are usually complex issues that arise. With such a project, homeowners are better served hiring a house painter to come and do the exterior house painting for them. Not only will it save the homeowner precious time so that they can accomplish other daily or home improvement projects, but it may even save them some money. Most people do not see hiring a contractor as a means of saving money when they can easily do the work themselves. Unfortunately for many, the work does not come as easily as they had expected. The project, as mentioned earlier, may be littered with unforeseen problems or may require the completion of side projects before one is able to move on to the bulk of the work.

The experience a contractor can bring to an exterior house painting project is unparalleled among amateur painters. They have usually been there and seen it all regarding house painting projects and the problems that are often associated with them. Taking on these complex projects oneself can prove to be a faulty move. Of course, there are those homeowners who have had experience in exterior house painting and show no reserve about painting their own home. This works out perfectly for these people as they are skilled and experienced in painting and can provide themselves with the paint job they desire. Those who are not skilled or knowledgeable in the field should not attempt this complex of a project alone.

So, when it comes time to paint the exterior of your house, do the smart thing and hire somebody who knows what they are doing. When the contractor finishes in a timely manner and provides the home with the best possible paint job, you will be glad you did.

More information on College Works Painting estimates for your home is just a click away.

Having your home repainted can be a little overwhelming and scary. First, you have to decide whether you should complete the project on your own or have someone else complete it. If you decide to hire someone for the job, you then have to go through the process of finding the right person for the job.

Hiring a contracted painter can sometimes turn into a drawn out process. There are plenty of stories out there about home owners being ripped off by someone they hired to complete an exterior house painting, so you are probably wary of hiring just anyone for the job. You should know however, that there are many legitimate contracted painter choices out there that are eager to be hire to complete your exterior house painting and that will complete the project at a professional level. With this said, you should always do your homework before hiring someone for the job.

It can be fairly easy to find a contracted painter that is legitimate and professional, you just have to know what signs to look for when you are meeting with a potential painter. Make sure that the painter you hire is when that has shown promptness from the first time that you contacted them. This means that they either answered your first phone call, or they returned your call in a timely manner. If you sat around for a week waiting for a callback from a potential contracted painter, this is a good sign that they do not take their work very seriously and you would probably be better off not hiring them for your exterior house painting. Also, the contractor should be on time or early for every meeting that you have with them. If they keep showing up late and making you wait, this is also a sign that you might want to look elsewhere for someone to hire.

Before narrowing down your search to a few painters, you should have an idea in mind on how much you expect to pay for the home painting and how much projects like these on a house of your size normally cost. If you do not have a general idea of how much a home painting costs for a house of your size, you find yourself being ripped off by a dishonest contractor, just because you did not do your homework. A professional contracted painter will probably have a standard pricing system and will be able to give you reasons behind the price that they are quoting for the project.

A legitimate contracted painter should also be able to give you a general timeline as to how long the project should take. Someone with training and experience in this field should be able to at least guesstimate how long it will take them to complete your paint job.

In the end, go with the painter that you feel best about, chances are they are legitimate and will complete your project at the professional level that you deserve.

More information on College Works Painting community benefits is just a click away.

From time to time, big things happen within any given industry. The development of new products or techniques can change the way the world works, thinks and acts. The painting industry is no exception. With the creation of the PDCA’s Forum for Excellence in Craftsmanship, big changes are coming and an industry with a bad reputation has a chance for redemption.

Hey, it’s no secret that almost anyone can hold a brush or roller and move their arm up and down. But when you’re paying someone to paint for you, you should expect more. Just because a person can afford a brush, roller, and an ad in the phone book, does that qualify them to work in your house? In my twenty years of experience, I have found that most people assume that the level of craftsmanship from one contractor to another is even across the board, or at least similar.

Actually, that is not the case. All too frequently, homeowners choose a contractor based on a price that may be totally unrealistic, for the expectations that they have for the job. They do this based on an assumption that they are simply comparing different prices for the same level of skilled craftsmanship.

A craftsman is defined in Webster’s dictionary as “one who creates or performs with skill or dexterity especially in the manual arts.” In thinking about the last painting job that you paid for, does this definition fit the people that you paid for that job? If not, you are not alone, in fact the painting industry has gotten a bad reputation and most people see painters as being well, less than professional. Folks, I have to tell you, that reputation has been well deserved for the most part. You see, there is no regulation placed on the painting industry. There are no minimum requirements for business knowledge, product knowledge, or for that matter, common sense. While I personally am not a huge fan of government regulation, I do see the value of regulations within a given industry. In most cases, these regulations level the playing field and ensure a minimum level of craftsmanship within that industry. In the absence of regulation, the painting industry has gotten this bad reputation.

If you think that craftsmanship, and craftsman training is not really important, remember that many coatings and their accompanying reducers, thinners, and activators are considered hazardous waste. While these chemicals certainly do have an immediate effect on those using them, you might be surprised to know how much thinner or leftover paint could be dumped in your backyard or in your septic system during a project. Did you know that it is illegal to throw leftover paint away with your household trash? Even latex (water based) paints pose a hazard to the environment if not disposed of properly.

Years ago, when it was still considered honorable to work with your hands, all painters had to go through some sort of training before they were ever allowed to hold a brush at your home. The apprentice would have to master the arts of masking, sanding, caulking and preparation first. This might take up to three years, before ever holding a paint brush. Today, things are different, and for the most part the apprenticeships have disappeared. I mean hey, anyone can paint, right?

The Forum for Excellence in Craftsmanship aims to change that mindset. We are tasked with the creation and documentation of “Standard Operating Procedures” or as we call them SOP’s for every type of preparation, masking, and painting. These will be specific directions for what to use, how to use it, where to start and how it should look when it is finished. We will also have contractor’s tips and tricks for making the jobs easier. These SOP’s will be a major part of the painting industry’s resource materials and in effect, will be used as the beginnings of a new effort for apprenticeship training. Now, every company will have at their disposal a written list of “how to” to use for training as they see fit.

The PDCA (Painting and Decorating Contractors of America) is in part funding and promoting this effort, but surprisingly did not have a hand in its creation. The Forum was created out of a need for training by a group of contractors that believe in the importance of craftsmanship and the investment in their workers. Our task is huge, and will take years to compile, but is certainly worthwhile. Now that the forum has gotten some ink to paper, the PDCA is extremely interested in the benefits of the SOP’s and intends to mesh them with their new estimating programs, and technical manuals.

I can’t think of anything more important for this industry at the moment, and once again I feel blessed and honored to be a part of it. As a member of the Board of Directors for the Forum for Excellence in Craftsmanship, I hope to do my part to change the industry as a whole.

http://www.beachpainting.com

You love the way wallpaper looks, but you know you can’t handle those huge strips of paste covered paper. Besides, if you decide you don’t want to keep the wallpaper once you put it up, it is so time consuming and messy to remove. So, do you just settle for painting the walls a solid color? Before you decide to give up on your dream for beautifully patterned walls, you may want to take a look at pattern paint rollers.

There are quite a few different patterned paint rollers available, with patterns ranging from simple geometric designs to ivy vines. Some of them are better suited to creating borders, while others are perfect for painting entire rooms. People also use these rollers to make interesting designs on large pieces of furniture, such as armoires or bed headboards.

The Rollerwall Design Painting and Decorating System allows you to create the look of wallpaper patterns with your desired paint color and the patterned roller. If the pattern doesn’t look right, you can wipe it off before the paint dries. When you decide you are tired of that pattern, you can just paint over the walls with a fresh coat of paint and create a whole new effect with a different patterned roller and paint color.

If you’ve used stencils or standard patterned rollers before, you’re probably thinking that there is no way the job is that easy. What about those globs of unevenly applied paint that make the pattern blurry? However, the Rollerwall products are designed to keep the paint from being too thick or thin. A traditional roller cover is rolled in the paint. Then the patterned roller is snapped in front of the paint filled roller. As you roll the wall, the paint filled roller applies paint to the patterned roller in an even, blotch free layer, which is transferred to the wall’s surface.

Another thing you may be wondering is whether matching up the pattern is as hard as matching patterns along wallpaper seams. It actually is easier, because the wallpaper is so awkward to move into place when it is such a long, sticky strip. The Rollerwall roller is designed so that you can match the new strip of paint with the previous one by using a special guide on the roller. All you need to do is make sure that your first pass with the roller goes straight up and down so that the next strip can line up easily.

Real marble can be extremely expensive. But with faux painting techniques, you can create the look of marble at a price that you can afford. You don’t even need to be a professional painter to get great results!

Getting Started

Spend some time looking at pictures of real marble slabs before beginning your faux painting project. This will help you get a better idea of what will work for your surface. These days you don’t even have to travel to do that. Just do a search online for “marble” and you can find websites that give you a variety of pictures. There are a number of different methods used to create the look of marble. However, if this is your first faux painting project, intricate designs may be too much to tackle. Additionally, busy patterns can sometimes compete with other elements in the room. If you are going to apply this finish on a wall, then consider a marble look that has less veins that softly blend into one another. Your colors should match the existing room decor.

Tips for Marble Faux Painting Projects

The popular colors used in marble faux painting projects are burnt sienna or dark grey on a pale ivory background. When creating a faux marble finish, you’ll need at least two colors of glaze. If you are working with black background, however, shades of white and green are best.

Adding texture to your base coat of glaze can be achieved by lighting dabbing the area with a balled up plastic grocery bag. Tone variations can be created by lifting off excess paint with a natural sea sponge.

Veins can be added to your work with a fine paintbrush, but you may also want to experiment with the different looks provided by making veins with a goose or turkey feather. If you want to make a stencil to guide your work, tear a strip of poster board and paint along the jagged edge.

Consider spending some time perfecting your technique first, on a sturdy sheet of poster board. However, don’t be overly critical when trying to correct mistakes in your work. As a natural material, real marble is seldom perfect. Diverse looking veins in regards to thickness and intensity is important. Therefore, even a few minor mistakes can help give your faux painting project a more realistic appearance.

Working with a Faux Painting Kit

For those who are just learning about faux finishing techniques, investing in a faux painting kit can be a smart move. A kit gives you all of the necessary tools in one convenient location, plus detailed instructions to guide you through your home decor project. Even though many home improvement stores are limited in the variety of kits you might find, the internet is a great place to purchase one right for you. There are websites that show you the basics of faux painting which you can incorporate in achieving a faux marble finish, even if it is not included in the kit.

Into the 21st century, painting is an ongoing river of creativity. It would be, ostensibly, difficult to imagine a wall without paint. When a thin layer of paint is applied to a wall it converts to an opaque solid film. So basically, what you see is what you get. But when you apply the Rag Rolling technique to your paint job, not only do you achieve a soft, textured effect on a wall, you even add depth and excitement to an otherwise bland surface. This article will explore the different techniques used in creating that lustrous, textured look that can only be achieved with rags.

Now let’s get the terminology out of the way first. Rag rolling and ragging are two different things. Rag rolling is rolling or ragging paint on; and ragging is rolling or ragging paint off. The finished product is totally different, however. I’ll cover this in a minute, but before I do, please make a note of this: to see the effect you like best, use a piece of cardboard to try out both methods.

Essentially, the principles of rag rolling and ragging are pretty much the same. What will create the difference between the two methods are the shape of the rag and the shape it creates on the wall. Between the two techniques, you will get the appearance of a vertical pattern with rag rolling, whilst ragging will appear sharper in texture-more arbitrary, if you will.

Preparation is easy. With both techniques, you’ll want to ensure that the rags you use are wrung first before you apply the rag onto the base coat on the wall. It is important that all of the excess paint–or water in ragging–is removed from the rag if you want to get the best effect. Have several rags to work with, and pour glaze onto a paint tray where you will be dipping the rags into. Give them a good soak. You will be using one rag at a time, so place the extra rags in a bucket and place a lid over them to keep them moist.

Rag rolling paint on involves rolling paint onto the base coat. You need to use both hands to do this properly. The technique is simple: just roll the rag down from the top to bottom of the wall. When the impressions fade, get another rag from the batch you prepared earlier. Make sure you overlap each strip as you continue to roll.

Ragging paint on involves applying a soaked and crumpled rag onto an already glaze base coated wall. Ragging can create a scattered effect, thus in order to achieve a concentrated effect, overlap areas when you apply the paint. Dip the rag, wring it, and then dab it onto the wall. When the color gets lighter, just dip it again and continue dabbing.

Rag rolling paint off is a technique that involves working with a freshly glazed surface and simply applying a wet-with-water but wrung rag to roll the wet paint off. Use a clean rag once your rag gets saturated with paint. Simply apply glaze in small sections and continue rolling the wet paint off. If you want a more subtle effect, wet your rag with water and wring out before rolling paint off. Once the rag becomes saturated with paint, start again with a clean rag.

Ragging Paint Off is similar to ragging paint on, except in this technique you dab the paint off. For a more subtle effect, wet the rag, wring out the excess water, and crumple the rag. And when it’s saturated with paint, use a clean rag.

Creating illusions of fabric, stone, wood and other natural surface materials can be easily achieved using faux paint techniques such rag rolling and ragging. It is the way you apply these techniques to the wall that determines the texture. Whether you rag on or rag paint off, you will get a textured look in the end, but to see the effect you like best, try using a piece of cardboard to try out both methods first.