Lehigh Valley Exterior Painting

 

Don't Let Your Lehigh Valley Home Lose Its Luster: The Importance of Exterior Painting with Ryan Amato Painting  

Living in the Lehigh Valley, we all know the importance of a well-maintained home.

Our four distinct seasons bring vibrant beauty, but they can also take a toll on our property's exterior.

Here at Ryan Amato Painting, we understand the unique challenges faced by Lehigh Valley homeowners, and we're dedicated to providing exceptional exterior painting services that will keep your home looking its best, year after year.

More Than Just a Paint Job: Protecting Your Investment

A fresh coat of paint does wonders for curb appeal, but it's about more than just aesthetics.

The exterior of your home is the first line of defense against the elements.

Sun, rain, wind, snow, and even fluctuating temperatures can cause significant damage to your siding over time.

High-quality exterior paint acts as a protective barrier, shielding your home from these damaging effects.

By regularly repainting your exterior with Ryan Amato Painting, you're not just enhancing your home's beauty, you're making a smart investment in its longevity and value.

Long-Lasting Beauty and Increased Efficiency

We use only the highest quality paints and materials, specifically formulated for the Lehigh Valley climate.

These paints not only provide a beautiful, long-lasting finish, but some even offer advanced features like solar reflectance.

By reflecting sunlight during the hot summer months, these specialized paints can help regulate the temperature inside your home, potentially leading to lower energy bills.

Expert Craftsmanship and Unwavering Customer Focus

At Ryan Amato Painting, we're not just about slapping on a coat of paint.

Our team of skilled and experienced painters takes pride in their craft, meticulously preparing surfaces and ensuring a flawless finish that will stand the test of time.

We understand that your home is your biggest investment, and we treat it with the respect it deserves. That's why we offer free, no-obligation consultations and detailed estimates so you can make informed decisions about your project.

Our focus is on clear communication, exceptional customer service, and exceeding your expectations throughout the entire process.

The Ryan Amato Painting Difference

• Local Expertise: We're a locally owned and operated business with a deep understanding of the specific challenges faced by Lehigh Valley homeowners.
• Free Consultations and Estimates: Get expert advice and a clear breakdown of project costs before you commit.
• Meticulous Preparation: We take the time to properly prepare surfaces, ensuring a long-lasting and beautiful finish.
• High-Quality Materials: We use only the best paints and materials designed for the Lehigh Valley climate.
• Skilled and Experienced Painters: Our team takes pride in their craftsmanship and delivers exceptional results.
• Unwavering Customer Focus: Clear communication, transparent pricing, and a commitment to your satisfaction are our top priorities.
• Warranty on Workmanship: We stand behind our work and offer a warranty on all workmanship.

Investing in Your Home's Future

A well-maintained exterior not only enhances your home's curb appeal and value, but it also protects your investment, potentially lowers your energy costs, and gives you peace of mind knowing your home is well-protected. Don't let your Lehigh Valley home lose its luster.

Contact Ryan Amato Painting Today

We're here to help you breathe new life into your home's exterior. Call us today at (484) 821-7112 or visit our website at www.ryanamatopainting.com to schedule your free consultation and estimate. Let Ryan Amato Painting transform your Lehigh Valley home with the quality, expertise, and customer service you deserve.

So You Want An Epoxy Floor For Your Garage

You walk out to your garage each morning, stepping on oil, a dirty floor and concrete that is cracked and decide you would like a shiny new epoxy floor installed but have no idea where to start.

Maybe you had a friend or family member had theirs done or you have seen them on YouTube or Facebook and now you want one too.

But how much are they, how long will it last and where do you start?

Where To Begin

Finding a reputable contractor you can trust is your first step, this is not a project for your typical painting contractor so that should not be your first step. A reputable epoxy installer or a painting company who has a dedicated epoxy department is the way to go. Epoxy can be very tricky, no two applications are the same, epoxy is very finiscky with the surrounding temperartures, moisture in the air and also surface temperatures. Only an experienced epoxy installer will know what to do and make adjustments along the way.

Even a slight difference in the normal dew point can drastically change cure times, dry times and recoat times of a floor. Not knowing these and what to do can be disaterous for your garage floor. What could go wrong? The sheen could be blotchy, the color could be off, the epoxy could eventually fail and peel off not to mention the cosmetic issues you can have.

Finding Your Contractor

Finding your contractor won't be an easy one, there are not that many fully trained and experienced companies out there or some only do commercial epoxy floors. Steer clear of a painting company who says sure we also do floors, if they are a painting company they should have a totally seperate crew who only does floors to be assured they are trained on new applications, products and the issues that come along with them to fully get the results you want. 

The Right Products

Everyone will look to Google as their go to source of information and see buzz words such as high solid, polyaspartic and more but remember even though a company is using those "type" of products there are many inferior formulations from one epoxy manufacturer to the next. You could be using all the "right" products but they could be cheap brands giving you a much lower quality epoxy floor.

From thinner applications due to poor training of the crews or thinner coating due to low quality products you won;t know this until its too late and you are recoating your garage floor way to soon.

Stick to a professional epoxy floor company that can manage all of this for you.

The Application Process

Most professional epoxy installers will be grinding your floor, this does not mean it needs to be done each and every time but to achieve the proper surface for your concrete and the new epoxy it is usually determined it needs to be diamond grinded. The company should have a full seperate hepa vacuum attached to the grinder sucking up all that nasty concrete dust leaving your home and their workers safe.

Proper set up of the area should be noted, keeping all other areas clean that are not being done is professional and important, it is not easy to get cured epoxy off surfaces it should not be on.

After cleaning all the grease off of the floor with specialized products, the company will most likely be grinding and cleaning once more. After cleaning there are a couple routes a company may go.

If it is determined you don;t have a vapor barrier a liquid (primer) vapor barrier may be used.

If you do have one already they may go direct to the concrete with the epoxy, remember each and every step costs money so any added coat or step will be additional costs to your final bill.

After the epoxy is put down now is the time to add flakes or anti slip additives, this can be a very unique and custom installation process and you may get a different look for whoever is installing (throwing) the decorative flakes. You want one installer applying your flakes to make sure it is uniform.

The Clear Coat

Another term you will hear so much is polyaspartic, this is a type of coating that is not vulnarable to the uv light like epoxy is, is hard and a terrific top coat.

However it is difficult to apply, the life once mixed is very short and it is not inexpensive.

This is what I would choose for my house though.

You do have some other options, but they will effect the longevity of the coating, the amount of time you have before having to coat it again.

Depending on the use of your floor will also determine what type of clear coat you will be using.

Expectations

At the end of the day the proper expectations are needed, if you have concrete that is moving or water pressure coming up from underneath your floor you could have some issues, this would not be a failure of the coating itself. If you drop something very heavy it could chip the coating no matter what you have down on the concrete. Remember the floors are extremly tough but nothing is bulletproof.

Proper Maintenance

Properly maintaining your epoxy floor and coating is important but not hard at all.

We would love for you to use just a simple combination of dawn and soem warm water, this is all you should need to fully clean anything off of your floor if you get it right away. Do not allow solvents to sit on your floor and wipe those up right away just to prevent any discoloration.

It's that easy, do this and you should have years to come of your new epoxy floor.

Proper Expectations When Painting The Exterior Of Your Home

 

Its exterior painting season and one of the main things that are important to an ex terior painting job is proper preparation of the surfaces. 

When planning to paint the exterior of your home or business it's very important to check and inspect every surface around the house whether it's siding wood trim aluminum or other materials

Painting on top of damaged wood or metal can significantly lower the long Gemini of the paint job however  Sometimes a budgetary restraints can significantly reduce the preparation of a surface

It's a balance between budget and proper preparation on some projects especially historical homes.

 What is proper preparation of a service proper preparation of a surface for a paint job is clean dull and dry notice I did not say smoothed a surface does not have to be smooth to be properly prepared and paint it especially on older homes were you've have many many layers of painted surface chipped paint paint the has been painted over over the years and multiple layers of other a paints.

When we discuss these types of jobs we like to give clear expectations on what the customer is going to receive what the customer wants and what the customer can pay for again it is a fine balance between budget and a properly painted surface.

When preparing a surface it's very important that the customer clearly explains what they want the surface to look like after the job is done because the number one issue on any paint job is failed and missed expectations.

The few issues we've had on paint jobs have been surfaces where a customer thinks that a home that has been painted countless times over should be completely smooth where in the real world that service needs to be completely stripped and that is a whole different job than a repaint

A properly painted surface for us at a normal job is preservation techniques with preservation techniques we one remove any failed paint that is clearly chipping we want a feather sand that area notice I did not say fill it in or make it smooth we want a prime any bear would typically using an oil based exterior primer and then a top quality exterior paint on top of that 1 coat 2 coats it depends on the job itself.

As long as the customer has clear written expectations that are also put into their contract and proposal and you fully walk them through the job and explain what can and what can't be done 

You should have no issues on your painting project.

Why does a customer feel a surface should be smooth even if it has not been for the last 50 years these are questions that we ask ourselves all the time and I guess that's that's part of the issue now with Google with Yahoo with being able to go on to YouTube and watch other preparations and home shows.

The issues with the shows are their perfect conditions and there are very compressed video where a job may have taken weeks they put it down into less than an hour of show.

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In the real world these types of preparations time frames and applications are impossible, Although maybe I shouldn't say impossible it is certainly possible with the right budget.

In our area Pennsylvania we're lucky if we get a few days a year with ideal conditions to paint from rain to snow to sleet to to Hi of humidity the dew points never correct we have very limited time to actually paint if you went by the specifications from the manufacturers.

The manufactures are very aware that these conditions can never be met so they do give broad ranges and better explanations on the local level with your sales rep.

Knowing that if you have an area that is currently peeling or failing that it is likely it could peel and fail again what we see are issues with moisture expansion and contraction causing pain failures locally correcting these issues and putting the new coat of paint on May not correct the the moisture or expansion and contraction movement issues.

Doing your best diligence to properly prepare these surfaces goes a long way in making a great paint job.

It's Exterior Painting Season

It is that time of the year again, the flowers are coming up, trees blooming, allergies are back but the best time of the year is exterior painting season is upon us.

There are a few things to deal with this time of the year, weather is the biggest concern as temperatures will greatly fluctuate as well as the humidity and rain. Managing all of these things takes patience and experience on your part and your contractors. 
You will need to understand some days it may be impossible to put a paint coating on due to humidity or rain on the way. Your contractor will (should ) have vast knowledge and experience dealing with these issues and have his or her tricks of the trade ready to go when things arise.

Weather

Weather plays a very important part of every exterior project, we do not want it to rain on the paint coating we are putting on for a few reasons. One we "may" have to do it again, rain can cause marking on an uncured paint coating , that is the moisture being mixed into the coating, not the end of the world just added time and expense.
Number two is we certainly do not want our surfaces taking on even more moisture then it needs to. Moisture is a big cause of paint failures, have your contractor do some moisture testing around your home if you have bare wood or decks your about to paint or stain. However be prepared for the bad news you may not be able to have your project done right now.

The Schedule

It never fails, we all wait until the last minute to plan our projects around the home and then expect contractors are standing by to tackle these and have no other work to do or an unlimited amount of painters to do these projects.

You snooze you lose

You snooze you lose is never more true when you need something done, you haven't planned ahead and all the good contractors are booked solid. Repeat A GOOD CONTRACTOR SHOULD BE BOOKED

I would tread lightly when someone is available right away unless they perhaps had a cancellation or surprise opening, it should not be out the question that a qualified contractor is booked out 4,8,12 weeks or more. It is not worth it to me to get someone to do it now who may not be the most qualified of contractors.

Plan Ahead In The Winter

The winter months are the best times to plan and schedule your exterior work, contractors are usually more than happy to get you competitive pricing and know the schedule a bit better at this time before the chaos of the busy Spring and Summer months hit. It is not uncommon to see specials, discounts and deals at this time.

If you need exterior painting please reach out to us at 484-821-7112 or email bidrequests@ryanamatopaintingllc.com

Kitchen Countertops or paint the cabinets first?

We are asked this question all the time and it is a great one.

In a perfect world, everything goes as planned and this is a simple answer.

But as we all know it is never that easy

Even with the most conscientious contractor mistakes happen and small damage can occur such as scratches, dings, and dents, if you refinish your kitchen cabinets first and then have backsplashes or countertops done there is a very good chance some things can happen. 

$$$

When mistakes happen it costs money, it costs money to the painter to come back and do touch-ups and in turn that cost will be given to the homeowner to cover or put in the estimate in the first place to cover these incidental costs so we recommend doing your painting AFTER all other work is complete.

Floors can be covered, counters can also be covered and protected from any damage.

Think about it wouldn't it be great to start and complete a project without having to ask contractors to come back out?

Having your painter do his or her work after all other trades have been in is a perfect way to maintain project costs while getting a top-quality job.

Top ways to get a good painting estimate

The top ways for you to get a good paint estimate

You have decided it's time to paint inside your home, maybe it's a few bedrooms or possibly the trim or maybe your just going to paint your entire interior. 

So now what?

You will find out quickly when you start calling around, many companies will either not call back or it will take a few days if they call back at all. Once your lucky enough to get someone either pick up the phone or call you back now your issue will be them showing up at all. 

One of the comments I receive all the time is "wow you showed up on time just like you said" Sounds crazy right? People are in business but won't call back or show up.

If your lucky enough to have someone show up now the issue is they won't be honest and tell you they are not either interested in your project or capable of doing it, so they will never send a proposal over or price it very high so you never call them.

So this is why it is very important on your end to be prepared when your ready to call a painting company or any trade for that matter. Here are some things you should be prepared with.

1. Know your budget and don't be afraid to share it, when asked. A good company can generally work within any budget but without having an idea of what it may be you may receive prices all over the place. With painting there are varying levels of quality, no two companies will paint a residential project the same. 
2. Know exactly what you want to be done, are all the ceilings being done or can they be left out to help reduce costs? Is the trim being done? Again by not having all these details, your pricing will be all over the place and you may be surprised with the end result
3. What is important to you? Is quality most important or is the cost? You typically will not be able to get a low priced job with top quality work but if you're real about your expectations and budget missed expectations can be avoided
4. Be at the estimate, the person who will interact and "judge" the work should be the person at the estimate. I can't tell you how many times people don't take this seriously and leave a parent or babysitter home to show the work or even the other spouse who when the job starts isn't the person judging the work, another area where you will have missed expectations
5. Be realistic, it will rain, people will call off or be sick, other things will come up. Every company does it's best to make sure everyone works each day all year long but we will all be disappointed with workers who are not responsible, all anyone can do is make it right and move forward. Remember things can always be worse, have patience and understand everyone has a story and things going on in their life.

There are no apples to apples

When you say you want to compare apples to apples what you're really implying is every company does the exact same thing, the same quality, the same training and the only thing separating them is the rice they are about to give you.

Let me let you in on a little secret, you could put 5 painting estimators in a room, using the same paint, same application and you will get 5 different prices, don't assume each company knows what they are doing and certainly you cannot compare this with price alone.

Don't forget about the things not said, communication, the extra value they bring, will they be around if you need something down the road? Or once they are paid are they gone and forgot your name. Trust me I am involved heavily in the painting industry and there are some very questionable workers and companies out there, just as there are some great people and companies out there, but if a bunch of estimators cannot agre on a price what makes you think you're qualified enough to be able to compare them?

Things may still go wrong

Even after all of this, you may have some things go wrong, they may spill paint, or have drips or not prep as you think they should or the color may be wrong. The mark of a good company is just to correct these things if it was their fault. There is no need to yell and scream, no one wants to work for anyone like that, the painters end up trying gto go faster to get out of there, the client is upset and the office is tired of those "phone calls" Remember it's a team effort that includes the painters, the office and the client. Everyone must be on the same page for a successful project

Ryan Amato

www.ryanamatopainting.com

484-821-7112

Why paint your home neutral when your selling it?

Why paint your home neutral when preparing to sell

It’s time to sell your home and the real estate agent comes in and gives
recommendations and the one we hear all the time is to paint your home a neutral color.

You just spent a lot of money putting custom colors and accent walls all over and you may
feel this is crazy but let me explain why this is the most important thing you could do to select
your home.

Colors invoke many feelings in people, happiness, calm, anger, when you painted that accent
wall a bright red and you love it, it may bring up a bad feeling for a prospective buyer on that
walkthrough, using a neutral color will be much more appealing and less likely to bring up any
bad emotions to any prospective buyers.

It also allows buyers to visualize a blank space where they can dream about the colors they
will add to the home.

Color Psychology

Color psychology is the study of emotional cues  (www.howstuffworks.com) prompted in humans by various colors. These can be quite strong. Bold yellow can upset young children , while light yellow is commonly used in babies rooms  These are important things to remember when preparing your home for sale.

Neutral colors will make your home the most desirable to as many people as possible and
that at the name of the game. 

It can be hard to visualize your home in a different way then you have been accustomed to.

What are the neutral paint colors?

Neutral colors are light to medium colors that can work well in the backdrop of other
furnishings and accents.

They can be a grey blend such as greige 

Before picking a neutral paint color for walls, decide if a warm or cool color matches
the ambiance of the space. Think about the neutral feel of the personality of your house.
Then look at the homes permanent fixtures such as flooring, or cabinets. What colors are they?
Are they warm or cool tones.

Is it worth painting before selling?

Is it worth painting a house before selling? (Www.listwatcher.com)

It is absolutely worth painting a house before selling. A light fresh paint job is one of the
most inexpensive, efficient and easiest ways to give a house a complete facelift, open up
space and help your house sell quicker for a better price.

Colors also have connections, good and bad. It could remind you of a bad experience or a good
one, it is better to remove these and stick to a neutral color.

If you need a color consultation please feel to reach out

Ryan Amato Painting

484-821-7112

Painting The Interior Of Your Home

Painting The Interior Of Your Home

Painting The Interior Of Your Home

In painting the interior of our homes, most of us tend to procrastinate a lot, and this has to do with the fact that it gets really stressful when you have to select the ideal colors to make the home look appealing.

Most people tend to complain that choosing just one color gets tricky, and they cannot imagine the stress of picking colors for the entire interior painting.

Others have wondered if the colors they picked will match or where they can start with both the house painting and paint colors.

If you are going through similar stress and procrastination, then this is the place for you.

Steps In Choosing The Right Colors For The Home

It is finally time to get into painting the interior parts of your home, and you are lost as to the colors to select from. Well, some of the steps that can help you out include:

• Take note of the rooms that are visible to each other

Here, you will have to walk all-around your home and take notes of the spaces that you can see from each of the rooms. Also, you can make use of a floor plan or probably a rough sketch to keep track of all this.

Furthermore, the adjoining rooms are included, although, with them, you may likely be able to see much farther like down the hall and even the kitchen.

These notes you are taking will be the ones to form the basis of the entire color plan for your house.

• Select the color for the largest and centrally located room

After taking your notes, the next step is to pick out colors for the largest room in the home that is centrally located. This room is either your living room or the kitchen. These are the best places to begin the interior painting.

If you are stressed with the whole color picking, you can go for a soft and natural color for your main room. This makes selecting the colors to be used for painting easier and you know, you can never go wrong with white color.

• Paint the room you want to have a bold color 

For people who love colors a lot and actually have a particular one in mind when house painting, you can begin from a specific room you have in mind and this can be your bedroom.

Most of us love when our rooms are painted boldly and so, you can select from bold colors, and the next room can be painted with a softer color. However, two rooms next to one another can be painted with bold colors.

• Have a plan when selecting colors for an open space

When your house is visible all at once, you must pick colors that go together. Here, you can make use of either dark shades or tints that are lighter, from the same color. This is sure to work well for houses with open spaces.

To Wrap It Up

While interior painting may not come off as so easy, following these steps will help you see the bigger picture in selecting the right colors. For your halls and even landings, you can go for beige and even white colors but, if you are using soft neutrals or white for your rooms then the halls should be painted with richer colors.

Painting in cold weather

When is it time to stop painting in the Lehigh Valley?

The Fall is on the way and that means leaves changing colors and falling, Halloween, Thanksgiving and yes cold weather.

We are asked each year when is it too cold to paint and that is a great question and it depends on a few different things.

Typically in years past you would need to stop painting around 50 degrees which really limits the season in the Lehigh Valley to paint exteriors but with the new paint formulations Sherwin Williams has many pints that can be used down to 34 degrees. This means we can extend the exterior painting season possibly months ahead. We actually painted well after Christmas a few years ago.

We do have to remember a few things, when we say the temperature needs to be 35 degrees we are referring to the surface temperature of the material you are attempting to paint. So if that is metal such as aluminum siding the surface temperature may be a lot lower thence  the air temps. 

We use the information from the local weather channels and temperature and surface temperature gauges. This is very important to know, you may be able to push it a few degrees but much more than that and you could risk paint failures such as peeling, flaking, discoloration and more. Plus you would void your manufactures warranty from any of the manufacturers and trust me they will go back and look at the dates and local weather reports.

So what happens in the Fall is there is no guarantee an exterior painting project can be done, so we typically tentatively schedule these projects with the risk it may need to be done in the next Spring.

For instance we had approximately 10 projects push into 2019 from last Fall, although they are the first projects to be done it still takes time to go through those jobs, not every person can be the first job.

The Fall can be a great time to paint and do exterior projects, you don’t have the direct sun to contend with much or as much rain as we see in July and August, it’s cooler so we have longer work days as we are not contending with higher temperatures and the paint doesn’t instantly dry which makes it easier for the painters .

Most painting companies will be very experienced dealing with the weather and there is no need to micromanage this or delay the project because of a few degrees here and there and can actually add additional costs because of delays. Trust who you hire and remember in most cases they have been doing this a long time.

How to properly prepare your concrete for epoxy

Proper preparation of your concrete for an epoxy coating

Properly preparing your concrete floor for epoxy is serious business, without doing this step absolutely perfect you may have coating failures such as peeling, hot tire pickup or a ruined floor.

This step is not one for the average house painter, it takes a lot of training, knowing and using the products on many projects. Sometimes you have to make quick changes on a job site to deal with surface conditions, access or the unexpected. Without having come across these before there isn't much that can help you.

Typically a diamond grinding or acid etching is needed. These are two totally different processes and each has their up and downsides.

Grinding a surface can be dusty even with the best of equipment, leading to dangerous silica thrown into the air as well as much more cleanup.
Acid etching can simply be dangerous from the fumes and the burns that can occur.

the goal of each is the same, rough up the surface for the coating to adhere to it better.

In recent years even special primers may be used in lieu of these two preparatory processes. Special primers for hard to bond surfaces can and have been used successfully, they are not inexpensive but in comparison to the other ways,they are similar in cost.

We have seen too many times homeowners and contractors take the chance by not prepping the surface due to either cost or laziness and it always ends the same, we come in and see sheets of epoxy that can be just pulled off of the floor.

Taking the time to properly prepare your floor will actually cost less in the future because you will be eliminating the repeated prep or removal of the failed coatings because once it starts to fail it needs to be removed before applying another system on it in many cases.

Once you take the time to do this concrete work and prep you can be assured your epoxy has the correct surface to be applied to and will last for years to come.

How to find the best painters

How to find the best painters for your project.

You have a project coming up in your home or business and you have never hired a painting company before and you have no idea what your about to get yourself into.

With every company so busy in the summer and an overfill of work you have a lot of new companies that have sprung up and older companies who are struggling to keep up with their schedule.

When you first start calling around this is the first time you will see who gets back to you in a timely manner, who doesn’t answer you at all and who makes their process an easy one for you.

Next is the estimate, although I would ask on the phone what their time frame is to take on new work.

Will they show up on time or at all for your estimate?  From our experience not many will.

When they are on the estimate at they listening to you or just trying to tell you how great they are and how awesome the paint work will be? You want someone who will listen to all your concerns and expectations not just blab about their great painting work. 

Here is a secret: Most every company will give you the same quality

The quality of the work should be a given and that is not what you should be looking for, you want the un said to be said.

• How long will the work take?
• What paints will be used and why
• Have they done this type of work before?
• What is the warranty  something goes wrong, do they take care of it
• Ask about the painters who will be onsite
• Will theirs be a foreman or supervisor to contact?
• Will someone at the office be available with any questions I may have?

As you can see it is much more than putting paint on a surface and that is typically why you cannot just call up three painters and judge them off of the price , heck you can put three estimators in the same room at the same time and the prices will all be different.

Don’t treat your contractors like a commodity 

Contractors are not a commodity to be bought and tossed out,  most good contractors want to develop a relationship with their clients so when more work comes in there is no question who is doing it. Wouldn’t it be great to just have to call one person, no questions asked and you already know what to expect with pricing and quality?

Proper planning of a painting project

Proper planning of jobs

Proper planning of a painting project takes the previous experience with all types of projects, a detailed written plan that was accepted by the client and reviewed with the painter.

When something seemingly goes wrong with any painting project you can usually go back to this plan or the expectations of the client being too high or not being met.

Be Home

On that initial estimate, this is why it is very important to be there as a client, this is your chance to explain in detail what you would like done and how you want it to look when it's completed.

You may say that every job should be done the same way be each company but that is just not the case, there are many levels of quality and ones to meet every budget, you wouldn't want to pay top of the line price and get a rental quality paint job and vice versa.

Let the professionals be

We sometimes have clients who feel they should be managing the project, we understand why they feel this way however they have no experience doing this or working with paint coatings, timelines, dry time, weather conditions and the list goes on and on.

It is always an issue when a client feel they need to be the project manager, it makes the painters uncomfortable, it delays the project because they have them jumping around doing things in order that we would not normally do, this is where added charges can occur. Let th professionals take care of the project, a project may not look good until the last day, remember any project is a work in progress until it's complete.

Even with all this planning things happen

Even with all the right planning, excitement of the project and all the best intentions mistakes do happen, no one can say they never have any issues with their work or home life, but the true character of anyone is correcting them, it sometimes amazes me people expect everything to be perfect, well I hate to tell everyone but we are just like you, not perfect. It's certainly possible someone drops something, spills paint, misses a spot, forgets something etc. Again judge at the final result, that is where everything will shine

I am the easiest client to deal with

I must be the easiest client to deal with because I simply let people do their job, no matter what they look like, what language they speak, how old they are I let them do their thing and i have been lucky to have great projects done at our home and met some awesome contractors.

yes I have had things go wrong, i didn't call up and yell and scream or fire off a nasty email, I asked how I could fix it myself and you know what they came right back out and corrected it without any questions.

Hint: Be Nice

Here is a great tip when working with a contractor: BE NICE

You would be surprised what you may get if your nice, you may get that small extra done with no charge, you may get your garbage cans brought in or the contractor going above and beyond in many other ways, but as soon as someone is nasty, demanding what do you think happens? That all stops and no one wants to interact with them, even the painters just want to get the job done and get out

Beware of the painting estimate

Beware of the painting estimate

One thing about the contracting business right now is there is plenty of work for everyone which is a great thing or is it?

When you have a surplus of work it means pricing can sometimes go down which could be a good thing for a homeowner but guess what it also means a few bad things which we will list below.

• A surplus of work means lack of qualified painters, with young people not going into the trades as much, as usual, it had become a market of unqualified labor
• Anyone is starting a painting company and can have work, but the bad thing is they are not experienced at business and when you have an issue down the road will they still be in business to correct it?
• Those companies are driving down pricing which again pays for the experienced painters leaving room for unqualified labor to create issues throughout the area
• Those companies are giving estimates that are incorrect, impossible to do a project correctly and changing the industry pricing for the entire area for the time being.

Remember the lowest price usually does not mean the same type of work as the other companies, when you go shopping for a car and look at a BMW and then go to a base model from Ford you cannot expect to get the same quality car, why do you think this is different when working with contractors?

Someone made homeowners believe a contractor is a commodity and we can simply shop from one to the next by simply choosing the lowest price. if someone is choosing the lowest priced contractor I would be leery of working with that client

Of course, I am generalizing here, not every new contractor is bad and not every contractor who has been around is good.

Here are some tips when having an estimate done.

• Be home at the estimate to discuss your expectations
• Develop good communication with the estimator
• Be open and honest on what you need and want
• If your simply shopping prices, let them know up front, they may not want to be a party in that and we can all save some time
• Let them know what is most important to you
• Have you had any issues with contractors in the past?

Simply being open and honest can save a whole lot of issues and missed expectations down the road, no one wants a bad job and no contractor wants to work for a "difficult" client who really is one where the expectations weren't discussed or met

Amato Completed Garage Epoxy Floor

Epoxy Floor Installation

Amato Painting was able to work on this three-car garage recently in Hellertown, Pa

The client called us as they were moving to the area and wanted a trustworthy estimate and contractor to take care of this project as they would not be home during the install. 

We estimated it through pictures and measurements first to determine the budget and once that was approved we arrived onsite to meet the homeowner to make sure we were a good fit for each other. Right away we knew this would be a great project, with expectations from the client set, knowing we could meet them we scheduled the project.

In this instance, the homeowner gave us access to the home and we arrived to diamond grind the floor, after correcting some power issues with the grinder we cleaned and prepared the floor and applied two coats of an epoxy coating.

We broadcasted epoxy flakes into the second coat, came back the next day and cleaned up and applied a clear coat on top of all of it, this will help to protect the flakes, the floor and give the floor longevity.

We used Seal Crete Hp products on this floor and it took two of us to apply it, when mixing epoxy you only have a certain amount of time to get it onto the floor so it is important to have a very clear plan when applying it and everyone knows their job.

Proper mixing of the epoxy is another key area, we follow all of the manufacturer's specifications, paying very clear attention to the mixing and time they want the product mixed.

Once we were complete we made sure everything was clean and there were no signs of us being there. The homeowner was able to move in on time and very happy we were able to get the floor complete on time.

Garage Epoxy Floor

Garage Epoxy Floor Process

Everyone wants a nice garage for their cars, tools or a place to play. We all rush out to buy those kits you see in the box stores with great anticipation and hopes, do everything right it says to do on the box only to find a few months later it might peel up.

Concrete floors and garage floors are one of the toughest substrates to paint and the reason is the unforeseen conditions under and the abuse it takes on top of the floor. We may not know there is a moisture issue under the floor or water pressure pushing up, we cannot control the movement of the home, no epoxy or paint can withstand that and not to mention the hot tires pulling in and out each day.

Knowing these things can happen and the floor is not impenetrable to any of these things happening are called expectations, as long as you know what to expect and understand things can happen you will have a successful project and a floor that should last. Yes, you may have to do it again, yes it may need maintenance and cleaning or another coat added. These are things to expect.

The start of any good floor job is cleaning the floor of grease and dirt, you will need a degreaser or emulsifier to remove the grease from the concrete, if you do not clean the floor properly or before prep you could push the grease even further into the concrete which will speed up any paint failures.

After cleaning we need to get the surface ready for the coating. This could be by chemically (acid etch) or mechanically (diamond grind) depending on the coating your using and condition of the floor that will tell you which manner will work best. 

Now the floor is ready for coating and hopefully we have decided to use a professional company to do this or at least are using a higher end product. The epoxy has very clear directions on mixing, sweat in times and or time to get it on the floor as well as the number of coats and thickness it needs to be applied.

Make sure to follow these specifications to the letter or again you could end up with a failure of the coating. 

Now you have a choice, are you adding decorative flakes or an anti-skid additive into the epoxy? Now is the time to do it, this will all be subjective on who is putting the flakes down, you can get different looks from different applicators, you can also choose a sparse flake or cover the entire floor solid with flakes.

Once you have your flakes down, the next day is the time to add your protective clear coat, we like to use top of the line products here as this is the coating protecting the top side of your floor.

If you follow all the directions, use good products and have the proper expectations you can have a great epoxy floor too.