Role of primer in house painting

All too often house painting companies skip this very crucial step when painting exteriors. Unsuspecting home-owners can not tell the difference between a well prepared and primed surface, and a paint job that produces substrate protection for only a short period of time. It is important that you hire only reliable and established painters who have proven themselves over time. Drive by and see some of their model homes, contact references, and learn how long the painting company has been around.

House painting and wood rot

Raw wood is constantly trying to return to nature (rot). Wood surfaces breath and have a natural humidity of ten to fifteen percent. This humidly level fluctuates based on air humidity. When exposed to high humidity, dead wood will capture some water from the air. Living plants have microscopic pockets of water, but in dead wood, these pockets are consumed by fungai, and the walls between the pockets open up. This allows more moisture to be absorbed in the wood, providing more humid wood, which is more favorable to rapid growth of fungi, thus accelerating the decay of the wood.

Role of Primer in Exterior House Painting

Priming is mandatory for exterior surfaces in our damp climate. Primer acts as sealant. It covers water stains, oil stains, and any other material that be be present on the substrate. Wihtout primer, your wood siding is exposed to the elements. Primer is an under-coat applied before painting. Priming improves adhesion, increases durability, and is an excellent protector for exterior substrate. As paint dries, it undergoes chemical reactions. Water evaporates from paint as it cures. Primer controls the curing pace of finish paint and allows it to cure slowly while the chemical reaction is taking place.

Applying Exterior Primer

Primer should never be sprayed on. Having a thin, sprayed layer of primer sitting on the surface offers little to no protection. Brush and roll method is recommended to ensure proper penetration, even spread, and better adhesion.

Please feel free to call, email, or text us if you have any questions about our procedures, or any of our do-it-yourself articles. We are not just a business, we are here to help.

never before painted surfaces – Because this home was previously stained, applying primer to the entire exterior is the only durable option.

By Elegant Painting

MyHouse@Eelegantpainting.com

Phone: (425) 242-4646

Woodinville painters – Color Chemistry and house paint

How to choose paint colors that reflect your lifestyle

By Elegant painting® – Woodinville Painters

Exterior house painting is not something you think about often. Unlike interior painting, most home-owners consider exterior house painting when the current condition of the paint-job is poor, and not when they get bored with the color. While a fresh paint-job offers great protection and preserves your exterior surfaces, it also communicates your character, taste, and your lifestyle.

Before choosing colors, here are a few questions every home-owner should consider:

Why are you painting the house?

Are you just bored with the color? Is your current paint in poor shape? Do you need fresh coats to protect the siding against the elements? Is your home being prepared to go on the market? How happy are you with our current paint colors?

House painting as resale preparation

Exterior colors play an important role in preparing a house for resale. Keep in mind tastes vary. What appears absolutely beautiful to you, might be so unpleasant to a potential buyer that they even may walk away from the property. Most buyers decide on a house at first sight and color effects our cognition in unpredictable ways.

When choosing house colors, in preparation for placing a house on the market, it is important to choose neutral colors that appeal to every taste. Here, the idea is not to attract buyers with your unique custom colors, but to try and avoid repelling anyone due to taste variation.

Choosing paint colors that appeal to you

If you have no intentions of selling the house, then you are free to choose colors based on your very own personal taste. all paint brands produce most of their paints in thousands of different colors. So where do you begin?

Whats your favorite color?

Everyone has a favorite color. Take a quick trip to your local Benjamin Moore store and check our their swatches. Try to narrow it down to 5 colors, and grab some swatches. Spend a few days looking at them. Be sure to look at the swatches in different lighting conditions. We recommend looking at the swatches in the shake and keeping in mind that we have very few sunny days.

Swatches can be deceiving

Paint swatches are produce via printers and they are on paper. It is always best to see the actual paint, on the actual surface that will be painted. If you are working with Elegant painting, narrow down your search to 5 colors, and email them to us. We would be happy to stop by and paint large patches of your chosen colors on the siding or trim. We may also have have recommendations on colors similar to your choices, but more suitable for exterior.

Please feel free to call, email or text us with any house painting questions. We are not just a business, We are here to help!

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Exterior painting professional Preparation techniques

Exterior Painting Preparation

Painting Preparation is key to a durable, professional paint-job that can withstand our damp Northwest climate. Elegant Painting uses the following professional Preparation techniques to prepare exterior surfaces for painting. This process removes any loose or chipping paint and mildew, leaving the substrate ready for primer & paint.

Steps:

Power washing

Washing is the first step in any painting job. After moving items, such as patio furniture, planters, garbage cans, etc. a safe distance away, we wash they house by first soaking each wall, then we apply a mixture of TSP and bio degradable house bleach to any visible mildew and water-stains. The solution is then allowed sixty seconds to activate and washed using Honda power washers. The tip of the wand is kept a safe distance away from siding to prevent damage. Windows and doors are rinsed from an even further distance to prevent water entering the house. After the wash, we rinse all exterior surfaces to remove any debris before they dry.

One of our painters uses a disk sander to remove lose paint from a verge board in Sammamish, WA

Sanding & Scraping

After allowing sufficient drying time, our painters remove any peeling or chipping paint. We start by using Makita disk sanders to remove not only paint that is currently peeling, but also anything that we feel might peel anytime in the future. The Makita disk sanders remove loose paint as well as any early stages of dry-rot that might be developing underneath, leaving the substrate ready for primer.

Masking and cover-up

Elegant Painting gurantees, in writing, that our painters will complete a thorough masking and cover-up job and will not slop paint on any surfaces; windows, plants, walkways, driveways, patio furniture, deck, etc.

Primer before caulk

AFter all the sanding dust has been removed, KILZ oil based primer is applied using brush and rollers. We used brush and rollers to ensure proper penetration into the substrate.

Caulking

Caulking is done after the primer has dried. Much like paint, Caulking materials adhere best to primer. We caulk all gaps, cracks, nail-holes, and joints.

By Elegant Painting