How precise are we?
Some photos of our razor sharp lines.
Painters near east side
Sample progress report from an actual project in Redmond/Fall City WA
This Classic Northwest home is being prepared to go through a major Elegant Makeover. This house belongs to one of our all time favorite clients who we have known for many years. We painted the interior about 6 years ago and refinished the decks in 2009. Now it is time for the exterior to go through what we like to call…..An Elegant Exterior Makeover!
Power washing was completed on June 3, 2013. We were able to remove a large number of bee’s nests and massive spider webs. We also removed any of the previous stain that was in poor shape. Luckily we were able to accomplish this task without any water going inside the house through any of the doors or windows.
Next step of this project begins on June 13th, 2013. Plan is to Mask off all windows, roof, decks, patios, and driveway, and prime all exterior surfaces, including eaves, porch ceilings, dormers, and trim. for this paint job, we will be using an oil based exterior grade primer to seal, protect, bond, and produce a workable surface.
Once the primer is dried, we will have some fun installing window trim on all windows. We will be using 1×4 pre-primed spruce, attached with 3.5 inch 16 gauge finish nails. Then the nail holes will be filled with “HM Ready Exterior” and edges caulked with our Benjamin Moore Morelastic adhesive. At that time, we will go through every square inch of each wall, and fill any cracks, gaps, joints, etc.
Looks like we will be going with some shade of grey. Like all our exterior projects, we applied several popular Benjamin Moore samples for our home-owner to live with for a few days, and view in different lighting, and different times of the day.
By the end of our first day, we managed to mask all windows, mask roof, front porch, and deck, and apply a coat of oil based primer to about 70% of the house.
Priming complete! Since this beautiful house has never been painted before, we applied one solid coat of oil based primer on every square inch of the siding and eaves.
As always, we did a thorough job of cover-up. So far, zero primer on any plants. We take covering-up very seriously. A flawless and durable paint-job looses all of it’s value if there are drops of paint on plant, decks, or patios.
We used a roof pad to place a ladder on top of the hot tub, this is a piece of plywood with a 4″ sponge glued on the bottom to spread the weight and protect the surface.
By the end of day #2, we managed to install trim on about 70% of the windows, and unmask front windows. The rain finally stopped by the end of the day, allowing us to finish priming the siding 🙂
Once primer was dry, we went through every square inch of the siding and caulked any imperfections. Caulking must be done after primer. Similar to paint, caulking materials adhere better to primer than they do to the previous finish. These imperfections include cracks, nail holes, dents, bumps, bruises, or anything else that might allow the wood surface to hold moisture. Butt-joints are not caulked to allow the siding to move freely in changing temperatures. The only time we caulk butt-joints is when it has been done previously and we have no choice but to repeat the mistake.
Window trim Installation is complete and colors have been selected. 100% chance of rain tomorrow….We cleaned up well knowing we will be rained out tomorrow and are now hoping to complete most of the painting on Friday and Saturday.
We finally had some nice weather and made some great progress. We now expect to finish this project on Monday June 24th. Plan for Saturday: finish the house. Plan for Monday: Finish doors and deck.
This photo shows how effective back-rolling is. The effect is not just cosmetic. While the sprayer lays the paint on top of the grain, the roller forces it into the grain, making it one with the surface, Making it difficult for the siding to release the paint as time goes on. We believe this method adds 3-5 years to the already durable Benjamin Moore paint job. Corners, where the roller may not reach, are back brushed to make sure all surfaces receive the same treatment.
As always, we apply 2 coats, whether it is needed or not. Both coats are back-rolled to ensure an even spread.
Thank you for choosing Elegant Painting
MyHouse@elegantpainting.com
ELEGANT PAITNING®
11717 NE 144th pL
Kirkland, WA 98034
Phone: (425) 242-4646
An overview of exterior edges; which is painted what color.
When it comes to edges and corners, exterior painting is a bit different than painting inside. Painting the outside has more in common with production painting and its purpose is preservation of the substrate as well as adding appeal to the home. Elegant Painting follows standard procedure and applies all paint products according to manufacturer recommendation.
This 1×4 pre-primed spruce board is designed to hide the joint between siding pieces. In most modern homes, this piece is used to create a sealed connection between siding pieces and also serves cosmetic purposes. If your home already has plenty of trim in the front, you may avoid the “busy” look by painting the corner pieces same color as the siding.
When the downspout is installed directly on top the trim piece, a portion of the corner trim is visible under the downspout. This small portion is painted body color to improve precision and avoid an unsightly stripe behind the downspout.
Since most siding is butted right upto the door casing, and the siding is often caulked into the casing, painting only the face of the trim is the only way to produce a neat and straight line. Other options include painting door and trim same color as siding to make them all disappear a bit, or paint door and it’s trim boards all trim color to make them stand out.
Downspouts are usually painted the same color of the surface they are attached to. If a downspout is installed on a trim piece, it should be painted the color of the trim piece, but sometimes a downspout runs down the siding and it should be painted siding color to help make it look less visible.
Not every home has posts or pillars, but when they do, we try to ad an elegant touch by painting any trim on the surface. Painting the metal flashing the body color is one way of adding our elegant painting detail signature to any home.
How do we know which edge should be painted the interior color and which edge exterior? Here’s a simple method; Stand outside and open the door. The edge you see from the outside should be painted the exterior color. If the interior of the door is being painted, simply repeat this method from th