Painting wood

Changes in the art of wood-finishing has come about through the rapid progress in the development of quick-drying, very permanent, nitrocellulose lacquers which are new finishes derived from the realm of magic and mystery.

Present-day lacquers contain varnish-gums in addition to nitrocellulose, and dry so quickly that they are practically dust-proof; yet they set slowly enough so that they can be applied with little training by use of either a brush or a spray-gun.

The student wood-finisher in the school, the arts and crafts painter in the home who wishes to refinish old furniture, door toppers, or woodwork, and the professional painter will all find new and helpful hints and much practical information about lacquer and its use.

While it is true that the emphasis has been placed on new materials and processes, mention should be made of the fact that the entire field of wood-finishing, including wood-filling, shellacking, and enameling has changed.

Many microscopic studies have been made of the reaction of various finishes, especially wood-fillers, in the pores of several kinds of wood. Many technical difficulties were encountered in attempts to prepare photomicrographs of wood filler in the pores of wood, but nevertheless some interesting information was secured.

Some new and very valuable paint-pigments, such as lithophone, titanox, and "extenders," such as asbestine, are now used rather extensively in the paint trade since they were developed. For many purposes these new materials can be used to advantage. The person who applies paint at the present time has a wide field to choose from in selecting pigments, extenders, colors, drying-oils, and thinners, and needs information about these materials.

Another very fundamental characteristic of wood-finishing is that it is treated as a science as well as an art. It is for this reason that a rich background of related science is given in connection with the descriptions of the materials and the methods of using them.

The chemical formulas of the substances described are usually given, and some of the chemical and physical reactions of the materials are pointed out for the benefit of the amateur, the apprentice, or the master painter who may lack a thorough scientific background for his trade.

Experts gather information about wood finishing with meticulous care through visits to some of the best paint, varnish, and lacquer factories in the United States in order to obtain up-to-date, reliable information. A very careful study has also been made of the writings of scientists on this subject, on everything from finishing wooden bar rails to wood fireplace inserts.

In the industrial-arts departments of schools, wood-finishing and painting have often been taught in connection with woodworking, but at present there is a strong tendency toward the establishment of separate courses in which the informational aspect of wood-finishing and painting can receive proper attention.

The industrial-arts departments of 30 years ago gave little attention to wood-finishing, and attempts were made to finish articles in dusty woodworking shops; now separate rooms, after the universal practice of industry, will be found in all schools where serious work in wood-finishing is done.

Painting woodwork

There is no rule which says you must paint woodwork white, or strip it, or color it to merge with the walls. In a room whose walls, window frames and doors are in the same neutral color, you could paint the skirting board a clear contrasting color. This will define the line between the floor and walls. Trim colors that contrast with walls and ceilings might suit your style in one room, while a more subtle color change might be right somewhere else in the house.

You can liven up plain, flat walls by adding moldings so as to create panels around the room. For best results, make sure you keep your working area within the proper temperature range recommended for the paint. All interior woodwork that has been stripped, from baseboard to dining room tables, needs to be primed with either a standard acrylic wood primer. After that you can paint on it with oil-based flat eggshell, gloss, or acrylic paints.

Most interior woodwork looks best in an eggshell finish, as high-gloss paint can have a rather bleak, deadening effect. If your plan is to paint walls, ceiling, and trim, then it’s best to get the trim painted first, along with the room’s windows and doors. Paint woodwork in small sections. Keeping a wet edge to avoid lap marks.

A wide range of broken- color effects work well on woodwork, but ideally you should use oil-based paints as latex has little durability on wood. Stains add color to wood while allowing its natural grain pattern to show through. Varnishes are clear finishes that form a tough coating over stain. They are available in a range of finish sheens from satin to high gloss. At the end of a project, combine all of the leftover paint of the same color into as few cans as possible.

Gloss painting

As a painting contractor for many years, I have witnessed many blunders by well meaning homeowners who simply don’t understand just how unpredictable gloss paint can be on interior walls. In an effort to achieve durability and scrub ability, many sprint off to purchase satin or gloss paint without taking into account the hurdles that will shortly become very noticeable. With their dreams of rich color tones that gloss paint affords and the scrub able persona of the paint, some homeowners reason they simply can’t go wrong.
Most painting contractors would agree that one could certainly make a suitable line of reasoning for using paints with sheen; then again most homeowners are not aware of the problem to using glossy paint on their walls.

Below are problems coupled with using gloss paint.

1. One of the most widespread problems with using gloss paint is it causes minor defects in your walls to become detectable. Defects that are veiled by flat paint suddenly come alive when using satin or gloss paint. If you receive a fair amount of sunlight through windows in the room, it will be even more perceptible. Sheetrock tape joints that are faintly raised or depressed can become evident. Uneven texture in the walls can become visible, etc.

2. Paints with a sheen are notorious for causing a halo effect around trim. When walls are rolled in a room, the roller nap leaves a different texture than what a brush leaves when cutting in wall paint around doors, windows, baseboard, and crown moldings. Light reflects differently from the texture left by the brush than from the textures left by the roller nap. This is a very annoying problem that can ruin the appearance of your freshly painted room.

3. If you are planning to paint gloss over existing flat walls, you really need two coats of paint to avoid flashing (unevenness of sheen throughout the wall). Two coats improve consistency of sheen and enhance color tone. This of course, increases your cost.

If you must have sheen on the walls, then follow these suggestions

1. Use very low sheen paint. The use of eggshell, or satin sheens will help minimize the above problems associated with gloss paints.

2. Prepare your walls very well. Some of the problems may be beyond the scale of what you or the painter you hire can do. A sheet rock contractor may be your best preference for major wall repair.

3. Always cut your walls in first using a brush. Then proceed to rolling the walls. After the walls have been cut in with a brush, then roll the wall paint with a roller and nap within a quarter of an inch of your trim. Alternatively, you can apply blue tape to all your trim which will allow you to roll up to the trim. This will go a long way in reducing the halo effect. Additionally, obtaining a smaller roller frame and nap will allow you to reach tight areas a standard size roller can't reach. If you touch your trim with the roller, then clean the paint off the trim with a cloth immediately.

Concrete paint

Many home owners report that their concrete does not look as good as it first did, and indeed some concrete looses its looks and become cracked and dimples and rust stains. This look damages the house look and many find it to be plain ugly, the solutions that people apply to this problem is usually covering the whole concrete surface with different thing, mattress and clothes from all materials, but covering the concrete does not solve the problem just provides a temporary solution you need to remove once it starts raining.

The real solution for this problem is using concrete paint. You can use concrete paint to cover the whole surface and make it look completely different, the paint will help you change the look and you can also add some sand to the paint to help prevent problems like slipping or falling on the concrete because of water or cracks, the paint will make these problems disappear.

Whenever talking about changing or replacing concrete we are talking about an expensive work that will almost surely take some time and effort that might disturb the family living in the house for some time, this is why the concrete problems should first try to be solved by a quicker and

simpler solutions, the concrete paint solution is much shorter and easier than redoing the whole area of the concrete. The only thing you need to do is visit a shop and decide on the color that you want, buy the other necessary things for this project, find some free time and paint your concrete.

There is also place for creativity when painting your concrete, you can buy a few different colors, make a plan of how you want to paint it and paint geometric shapes, different patterns, words and letters, colors that correspond to the house colors, swirls and circle shapes and check board shapes. You can also use templates for these shapes, you will need to make or get durable templates and use them to give your concrete a unique look.

The only important thing you should bare in mind is that before painting the concrete you will need to examine all the concrete surface to make sure that it is clean and dry, in any case you should clean the whole surface to make sure that no oil stains or water is not present on the surface because concrete can hold a lot water. You can clean the surface by using a broom on the dry surface and then using a broom and some strong cleaning produce, washing like you do at home, and then using water to wash away the soap. Once the concrete is clean and dry the painting can start.

Commercial painting

When you are looking for the best commercial or house painting contractors, it is important to consider the types of services they offer. While looking for such services, you might as well consider how these services and the techniques will be helpful in painting your homes or offices. Generally good house and commercial painting contractors are certainly capable of offering you various types of painting services. Hence, you may be eager to know the types of services that these painting contractors offer.

Exterior Wall Painting Services

You may agree that your eyes are commonly known to be the windows of your soul. This proverb may be applicable to your home or office as well. With the help of commercial painting contractors, you can make your home or office very attractive with quality exterior wall paints. When you have a very well done quality exterior of your office, more people or clients will show lot of interest in your establishment resulting in more business and higher image. In essence, a correctly painted facade can make your office standout from other buildings and attract the attention of many passers.

Interior Painting Services

When you have to remodel your office or your home, interior painting is one of the services that you have to make use of. The commercial or house painting contractors will be more than willing to provide such services. They may agree to do most of the interior painting work which may include activities ranging from the removal of all fixture and all hangings from the walls to the repairing of cracks and nail holes.

By hiring a commercial painting contractor, your remodeling work becomes easier because they are equipped themselves to remove all furniture before starting the actual painting work and rearrange them again once the painting work is completed.

Patching and Repairing of Exterior and Interior Using Special Plaster

Another service that the paint contractors offer is the patching and repairing of exterior and interior walls using special kind of plaster or wall filler. These are very commonly used in complete remodeling jobs. In many remodeling jobs, this type of work is included in the scope of work of the commercial painting contractor. This type of special work seems complex and such work is undertaken by commercial or house painting contractors who have good skilled workers.

Painting of Flat Roofs

If your home or office has a flat roof, these are also have to be painted in any given point of time. The commercial or house painting contractors will be able to carryout such work. However, it is important to note that flat roof painting is not just applying paint and such work include complete repair of cracks and other defects before painting. Some times repairing flat roofs may involve application of waterproofing. It is important to note that flat roof painting is a specialized job which you need to obtain the services of a professional or commercial painting contractor. By employing a commercial painting contractor for flat roof painting work, you are assured of high quality workmanship and a guarantee of long term performance of the finished product.

Painting services

It is a nice feeling to go into the brand new workplace - the whole thing is clean as well as it is more contented place to work. But, over time, without being notice, space becomes "used"; scrapes and the dirt might appear on the walls - as well as it have the negative impact on workplace.

There are lots of studies, which show how environs can affect the employee's aptitude to work. Something as easy as the wall color has shown to affect the productivity, attentiveness as well as the amount of time used up at the workstations. Fewer accidents happen in the brighter workspaces, as well as need for the extra lighting is abridged.

The simple fresh coat of the paint might help to accomplish lots of of these objectives - amplified productivity, security as well as reduced costs - in the very cost well-organized way.

The advantages don’t stop there. The customers, suppliers as well as investors take notice of the workplace. More professional look of the well-painted breathing space might have the positive effect on perceptions as well as their desire to do the business with your corporation. If you own space as well as are trying to sell or else lease it, the fresh coat can also increase the property price.

How to take care of your painting wants and run the business at same time? Hiring the specialized commercial painting service might relieve lots of headaches involved in the repainting workspace. They offer advice on that colors will work finest and how the job be done with least interruption to the business.

Finding the correct commercial painting service can be easy if you look for following:

The established company – Lots of painting services move toward and go plus don’t care as much about job that they do. Ask for the customer testimonials plus see the examples of company's work. Establish the companies desire to make certain your wants are met as well as your are satisfied with work – this way they get additional business.

Enough of staff to do job correctly and in the timely way - For large or else the small jobs - you don’t want the 10 people painting the 250 square foot place of work; or else two people painting warehouse. You require knowing job will be done rapidly, professionally and by the certain time.

Free quotation - If they recognize what they are exactly doing, they can accurately estimate the costs devoid of too much attempt - as well as stick to prices they quote.

House painting

If you are the typical home owner, it probably seems like projects with your home are constantly piling up. These projects always seem like they continually need to be completed, such as having the exterior of your home repainted.

House painting projects are usually completed in the warmer months. The time of year this is will, or course, depend on the area that you live in and your climate. The summer time is the prime time to have a house painting completed because it is the time that a painter can complete the project at the most professional level.

It would not make much sense to try completing an exterior home painting during the winter when it is snowing outside because not only would the cold weather cause problems with the house painting, the moisture would ruin any progress that the paint contractor made on the home. Along with this, an exterior home painting will usually be put on hold during times that it is raining. If this happens, your house painting could extend beyond the original time frame that you and your paint contractor discussed. There is not much to be done here, though, as the painter can not exactly control the weather.

Call your paint contractor as soon as you know when you would like the house painting completed. Calling well in advance of the time you would like the exterior home painting completed will help ensure that your painter will be available. If you wait until the last minute to call, you are taking the risk that the paint contractor will already be booked up. If this happens, you will have to decide whether you should wait until they are available or if you should call around and select another painter for the job.

Another option if your contractor is already booked up for you would like the job completed is to ask them if they know of any other painter that they would recommend for the project. They have likely had to turn away home owners in the past due to a booked up schedule so they have probably been asked this question in the past and may have a few potential painters in mind. If they do not have any one in mind, you could also try asking your neighbors and friends if they have a contractor that they would recommend. If your neighbors have had a painting completed in the past, they would likely have an idea of who you could call. Along with this, if they weren’t happy with the outcome of a previous painting, they could tell you who not to hire for the job.