Helpful Painting Tips

Ready to tackle a painting project? Here are some pro tips.

Touch-up Paint vs Fingernail Polish

A homeowner asked about touch-up painting for trim and kitchen cabinets – this explanation really clicked for her.

Nails usually follow a three step process:

Base coat
Color coat
Top coat (2X)
(Optional) Chip

When a chip happens there’s really no easy way to make that nail look like all the rest, is there?
She had no more questions.

You’ll notice how similar nail polish lingo is to painting lingo. Same process, really – primer, paint and, in the case of kitchen cabinets, very often a clear coat on top of everything.

Sure, you can apply paint to cover a chip, but it won’t look the same without a lot of extra work. Now, if you’re selling a house that might be OK – but keep this trick in mind when you’re buying, too. What at first appears to be a well-painted home may really be nothing more than clever touch-up work. That’s something that you’re likely to not see until you’ve lived in the house for a bit.

If you’ve got touch up painting questions, give us a call. We’re happy to help and there’s usually no chipped nails in answering questions.

Top 3 Things to NOT Caulk

Caulk kansas city painter crestwood — Sealing moisture out is perfect around doors and windows but sealing moisture in can grow mold and rot.

Caulk is, in terms of aesthetics, the most important part of prepping for exterior painting. It makes for a smooth, seamless appearance – no gaps between trim boards or hairline cracks in stucco. Caulk also protects from moisture infiltration.

Crack sealing (wood or stucco) should not be very noticeable. It’s often done poorly and looks like a finger dragged across a blob of caulk. Which is exactly the cave-man type of repair that is so common. Ideally, a detail-oriented painter will remove excess caulk with a damp rag for a neater appearance.

If you can seal moisture out you can also seal moisture in. So here are the top three places you do not want to seal:

Storm windows
Bottom edge
Soffits

Storm Windows

Sealing storm windows in solves one problem (heat loss / convection) and creates another, far worse problem (trapped moisture). Plus, there’s a much higher risk of damage on removal (say, for painting) of both the storm window itself and the window opening. There are usually weep holes or slots at the bottom edge of a storm window; they’re effective for water run-off but don’t help much with condensation. Sealing storms in leaves no path for condensation to escape. Please, be kind to your home and don’t caulk your storms in.

Bottom Edge

We’re talking about the bottom edge of clapboard siding and shake shingles. When (not if) moisture gets behind your home’s exterior sheathing it will need an outlet path or it will become a breeding ground for mold, mildew and wood-eating fungi. Yes, some siding boards may cup and warp; do not yield to temptation and caulk recklessly for the sake of appearance. You’ll solve one problem and create another – leave an outlet path.

Soffits

Your roof and gutters should be doing their job and directing water away. But sometimes they don’t and water goes where it shouldn’t. If you seal the bottom edges and joints of soffits and fascia trim you’ve effectively created a bathtub. Water will then travel where you don’t want it to or, maybe worse, it will fester and grow mold and mildew. As a general rule it’s best to follow the old adage “think like a raindrop” – if a raindrop continues its downward path will it wind up where you want it? Many contractors tout that they caulk “everything”, now you know that’s not quite the best policy. Want to know more about what not to caulk? Give us a call – we’d love to help.

Oil Paint – A Slow Death

house paint oil based kansas city — Oil paint has too many environmental downsides.

While skulking about in the parts of the internet where only Paint Geeks dwell, I came upon a post titled “My Opinion of Oil-based Paint“. As this defies all known logic in the residential paint world I, of course, read it.

It’s opinion, yes – and I disagree. Painters, like lawyers and other circus entertainers, often disagree – ask ten painters and you’ll get 12 opinions. What got my interest was a response to the original post from a PPG technical service rep.

The techno-quote is edited below, but here’s the gist:

Oil paint is smelly
Oil paint is bad for the environment
Oil paint cracks easily
Oil paint yellows
Oil paint requires solvent to clean painting tools

Now, there are some redeeming qualities:

It was great to use an oil and/or varnish that flowed and left a glass-like finish, but we were all writing a check we will probably have to cash later concerning our health.

Oil paint scrubs very well (but so does modern latex)
Oil paint flows very well for a smooth, glassy appearance (but so does modern latex)

Remember the geek in your Chemistry class? He’s now working for a billion dollar paint corporation and has devised a was to encapsulate oil molecules in water! This means that as the water in the paint dries what is left behind on your wall is oil paint. Same durability, more flexibility, better color retention, no fading, no chalking, no cracking. And soap & water clean-up. Yes, folks – this is truly Better Living Through Chemistry.

Here’s the edited comments from the technical rep:

Oil base paints have a tendency to oxidize become brittle and yellow over time due to the long chain chemistry in linseed oil and mineral spirits in most resins being used. Over time, the coating loses it ability to absorb UV and other attribute like elasticity resulting in hair line cracking. I am sure we all experience the lesson of painting the inside of kitchen cabinets with an oil base coating and closing down the lights when done, only to awaken to a coating that has yellowed. Alkyds/oil base coatings need to be exposed to UV light until thoroughly cured to avoid it turning yellow along with not being exposed to ammonia-containing products. High UV exposure – they also have a tendency to fade when used with dark color containing a lower LRV (Light Reflectance Values). That is not to say that back in the day I too also love it, however never realized the amount of solvent it took to create the product creating such high levels of VOC’s and once you take away the solvents the leveling and flow cease. It was great to use an oil and/or varnish that flowed and left a glass like finish, but we were all writing a check we will probably have to cash later concerning our health. With that being said, however I agree we do need some oil base coating in order to properly prepare lots of exterior/interior type substrates with chemistry that does not agree with water-containing coatings.

Tips n’ Tricks – Vinyl Window Trim Color

white wall tire vinyl window options Vinyl windows can be kind of tricky when it comes to trim colors – they are almost always stark white and generally cannot be painted (see below). Some lean to matching trim color to the vinyl – this gives a hospital-feeling white-on-white look that lacks visual interest. It also ranks a solid “Zero” on the Warmth scale.

The other end of the spectrum is the high contrast approach. This lacks subtlety and, just like whitewall tires, isn’t suited for most homes. Both white-on-white and dark-on-white are just too harsh a contrast for most tastes.

[Read more…]

How to Test Paint Colors

exterior paint colors kansas city painter crestwood painting Another update from Kansas City color consultant Diane Stewart at Color Sense Consulting. Exterior colors can be tricky and, as Diane points out, it’s tough to visualize what the whole house will look like from a tiny paint-store sample. Here’s Diane Stewart: