Fall Exterior Painting

We are concluding a large exterior project this week

and were fortunate to have some excellent dry days

for painting last week. Temperatures were in the high

40's low 50's with one day reaching 64 in the sun.

The great thing about Sherwin Williams' Duration is its

ability to cure at low temperatures (2C). This enables

a sound adhesion to the surface and proper film

development to the coating. Sometimes, cold weather

painting is preferable to hot and windy conditions, because

the paint has more time to "wet" the surface and longer

dry times lead to better penetrating and adhesion, without

unsightly lap marks.

We generally conclude exterior painting by November 1st knowing

full well we could still see an Indian Summer period of temps in

the high 60's-low 70's in late October.

Airless Spray / Production Rates / Painter Fatigue

Airless Spray Painting Advantages:

Quality of finish - a sprayed finish done correctly looks

much better than brushed and rolled. Lap marks are completely avoided.

Speed of application: A standard 10 x 10 surface can be spray

painted in under 4-5 minutes compared

to 15-20 by brush and roll methods.

Time savings ? Mask time notwithstanding, a time

savings of 2/3rds can be realized.

Safety on ladder: One hand free to hold ladder means greater

safety and comfort

We spray painted Palladian windows and bay box

window surrounds in under 10 minutes

which would have taken 2-3 hours to brush paint.

Operator Fatigue: Airless spray makes painting

a breeze and turns hand fatigue and carpal tunnel

issues into a non-event. Anyone who thinks scraping,

torching/scraping and brush painting windows does

not takes it toll on someones' hands and arms is badly

misinformed !

People are generally shocked and surprised that

once we mask a window we can paint it in under

1-2 minutes with a sprayer, but let me tell you

when they see the quality of the finish they are

blown away by it ;)

Surface Preparation

We cannot emphasize enough how important proper surface

preparation is to a lasting and pleasing paint project.

We spend 85% of our time on a job preparing surfaces to accept

coatings and finishes, and make sure we do every

project right the first time. The difference between

a good paint job and a great paint job is spending

time on correcting poorly aged surfaces, replacing

damaged or rotted surfaces, allowing 2-3 passes

with wood fill and sanding smooth, spot priming

or entire surface priming and choosing the right

weather and conditions to apply coatings.

If you are being quoted low prices for your

paint project, BE VERY CONCERNED, as I can

assure you the most important surface preparation

steps are being minimized or worse, avoided.

ColorScapes avoids direct coating application prior

to rainfall and when bad weather is expected in the days

during project work.

Under all circumstances, we avoid the use of oil based coatings

on any of our projects due to surface tension failures and

film embrittlement over time. High solids acrylic latexes

are excellent performers in all conditions and touch up

and clean up easier and do not require solvents on site

and disposal of hazardous wastes.

Surface Prep