If your interior trim is currently stained or varnished, you most likely have what is known as “stain grain wood”.  Stain grain simply means this wood product accepts stain.  The grain does not allow paint to properly penetrate or adhere to the surface.  With proper preparation, however, we can paint your interior trim into a lighter more modern color.  Painting the usually dark natural wood color of your interior trim can take years off the look of your house.

Step 1; Masking & cover up

A great tape job improves every step of the project.  With our precision masking techniques, we are able to spray oil paints inside fully occupied homes!  We take the cover up very seriously knowing that a great tape job contains our materials and also allows us to increase our application speeds.  We also seal all the tape.  This means closing the gap between the tape and the surface where some paint may seep under the tape.  we seal this areas with clear sealants to produce 100% perfect lines with zero tape penetrating under the tape.

Step 2; Sanding to increase adhesion

Because we are dealing with stain grain wood, we need to take some extra steps to enhance adhesion.  We start by sanding down all surfaces.  This initial sanding is used to clean  finely etch the surface to allow our primer to penetrate and bond with our wood product.  Sanding dust is removed using a shop-vac equipped with a fine dust collector bag and a suction brush.  We brush and vacuum to make sure all the dust is lifted off the surface and removed.

Step 4; Oil based primer

Oil based primer is sprayed and back brushed or backrolled as needed.  Everything will be sanded once primer is dry and all brush or roller marks will be removed. Back brushing or back-rolling is necessary to force the primer into any cracks or gaps or any other area where we feel the primer needs additional help to ahere.  Bigger gaps or cracks are caulked once the primer is dry, sanded, and dust is removed once again.  If any wood-filler has been used to fill the grain, it also is sanded and primed at this step of the process.

Step 4; Painting

We apply 2 or 3 coats using a 210 fine finish paint spray tip.  This is a RAC X switch tip and the very best available in the market today.   The double orifice of this tip allows us to work with lower pressures, reducing overspray and producing a tighter, more consistent fan pattern which results in that  perfect, glass-like finish.  We sand using fine grit paper between coat.

Our paint of choice for any interior trim project is The Benjamin moore Advance.   This amazing new material is a Low VOC alkyd paint which performs exactly like the traditional oild-based paints but it is water clean-up!

 Step 5; Clean up

We leave absolutely nothing behind.  Once all the masking materials are removed and after our final inspection, we vacumm all carpets and steam mop all the floors in our work area.

Thank you for considering Elegant Painting®

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