Diverse Painting

Protecting your home from mother nature is of extreme importance. That's why painting the exterior of your home right, is a sure way to your home's longivity. Depending on what area of the country you live in, your home can be subject to experiencing drastic weather changes, whether it hot, scorching hot, windy, wet, cold, or freezing, your home, if properly painted should be protected. The reason why you hear some paint contractor say, "80% of painting your home's exterior consist of prep". Well guess what, there 100% correct when it comes to painting the exterior of your home. Preparing your home can be the most challenging step in painting a house, especially starting April 1, 2010 when the EPA (environmental protection agency) would require any painter, painting a home built before 1978 to be certified. There are certain steps that should be taken before painting. All surfaces must be cleaned. Normally your house can be cleaned using a detergent such as TSP ( trisodium phosphate), but I recommend using T.S.P. and bleach for removing any mold, that you may overlook. TSP and bleach can be mixed (1/2 cup of TSP with 1 part bleach to 4 parts of water), then let set for 5-10 minutes, then rinsed off with water. All loose paint must be scraped properly. This is where that new EPA rule comes into affect. The conventinal way is to use a paint scrapper and scrap, which I don't recommend that at all, if your house was built before 1978, may contain lead paint and if you have children this can be a very, very, very serious matter. What I would recommend is first go up to your local paint or hardware store and purchase a lead testing kit, there pretty cheap, you shouldn't spend more than $10, then test the area's your painting. Secondly use 4-6 mil plastic to lay down on the ground around the area your scrapping before you start removing any loose paint. Finally, with a spray bottle (full of water) in one hand and a scrapper in the other wet the surface as you scrap. This eliminate any dust particals. Make sure you wear a protective suit, eye google, and shoe covers. If you leave the area where your plastic is, take off your shoe cover's. Keep the area contained. Caulk all cracks. Use a top-quality, water-based, all acrylic, or siliconized acrylic caulk or sealant if prolonged contact with water is not anticipated. These caulks are flexible enough to adapt to minor fluctuations in the substrate (e.g. the surface that has been caulked), stretching in gaps that widen slightly over time. They also adhere to a wide range of exterior suface's. Paint do not adhere to pure silicone caulk, so please don't use it. You should be ready to apply primer and paint, unless you buy primer and paint in one. Most major paint brands carry a paint that also has priming properties. Also, a good feature that most major paint brands offer is paint that has the ability to to be applied in cold weather, as long as its 35 degrees and above, your ok. The paint that we recommend using is Sherwin Williams Duration.Duration® Exterior Latex Coating is the result of advances in acrylic technology. Duration uses PermaLast® technology
to provide you with the most durable and longest lasting coating available for protecting the outside of your home. VinylSafe™ Color Technology allows the use of many darker colors on vinyl siding that cannot be made in most other coatings.
Performance
• One Coat Protection