So you call a few companies for painting estimates not knowing what to expect or how much it costs.

After going through the process you never explained what you expect, not knowing each company does their jobs differently with different levels of preparation, different t8 e frames, products etc.

When the jobs starts you are amazed they don’t tape each and every surface for ultra clean lines, or they don’t wash the walls, or clean the outlet covers while they are off, remove light fixtures etc because that’s what you would do.

They don’t use a halogen light to capture every inch of the wall to make it ultra smooth, of course you paid $500 to paint. This room, the painter should be doing the same thing as you right?

As a homeowner you have all the time in the world, no need to make payroll, cover overhead and no need to finish your projects in an efficient and reductive manner while also maintaining a level of quality .
So that bedroom that takes you all weekend$ or a week to paint, takes a pro painter a day to complete.

Of course if you take twice as long to do it you may be able to achieve a better level of quality but consider the amount of time your losing with other things you can be doing.

The amount of time you lose is certainly worth the convenience of using a professional painter , the same as hiring any other trade to complete a project at home, it’s one of convenience, freeing up time and generally getting a better job than you can achieve, but not always.

Remember time costs, trades charge based on time, each hour costs a certain amount , so if you didn’t explain to the painter exactly what your expectations are, and are prepared to pay for them for what that level of quality you want, you should reconsider this or you may have missed expectations which can cause stress, anger and a horrendous experiences or the painter and yourself

Know that someone else may not be able to devote a week or more to one bedroom, most painters
Don't use tape to achieve clean lines, except for certain areas.
Not many people wash the walls, are the walls that dirty?
Spraying is not an option in an occupied home and not always quicker, consider it a tool to get the paint to the surface quicker,it would still need to be rolled.
The amount of covering would make the risk greater than the reward.

What you must consider is the knowledge and experience of the painter your choosing, with that comes years and years of trial and error, using every product imaginable to find the ones that perform the best and hold up over time, yes you may be able to ultimately do it "better" but at what cost?

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.

Add caption

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.

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.

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

Amato Painting Films With Benjamin Moore

Amato Painting films with Benjamin Moore

This week was a fun week, we filmed with Benjamin Moore discussing and applying their Notable dry erase product. 

It all started when someone from Benjamin Moore saw a YouTube video I did comparing Benjamin Moore's Notable dry erase against a competitor.  We all know I like to test out all the products that the company uses on our projects and dry erase was always one we just could not find a suitable product.

So I gave it one last try using a product from Benjamin Moore on a few walls in our office, immediately we knew this was a different product,it was easily applied, immediately two coats can be put on and the best part is it does what it says and erases over and over with no issues at all.

So I received a call from someone in the marketing department from Benjamin Moore asking if I would like to be part of a series of videos they are doing promoting Notable, as I already knew the quality and performance of it I was glad to be a part of it. So we set up the date, I secured a location to apply it and we were all set. 

On the day of filming a funny note, we all forgot the paint so Gleco Paint to the rescue, I called and luckily the area sales rep ran a kit right over.

Gina from Benjamin Moore, the film crew Tag from our office and myself were all involved.

Gina was so much fun, it felt like being at home with her cracking jokes about my instruction reading ability and the film crew was very accommodating and very nice to be around and of course professional.

As we forgot the paint we decided to start filming my interview first, that went great, I had no idea what the questions would be so it was an honest review of the product and other products I have used.

This took about an hour once we set up, did the interview and cleaned up and then it was on to the application of the Notable.

Tag took over here, mixing art A and B together for a few minutes making sure we followed the instruction sheet.

I had already visited the day before to prepare the wall and mask it out.

Once mixed and ready Tag rolled on two coats back to back, we let it dry just a bit and removed the paper. 

It does take 7 days for the product to cure before anyone can write on it, but once it's ready you have a very large surface to write and collaborate on. You would not be able to purchase a dry erase board for the price it would be for Notable. We all know how expensive those boards can be.

It was great to be involved in this project, meet Gina and the crew, we love to support great products and introduce them to our clients. We will have another blog as we have a visit to Benjamin Moore's headquarters next week to speak with their marketing team. Stay Tuned:

Sherwin Williams Vs Benjamin Moore Dry Erase

          Sherwin Williams Vs. Benjamin Moore Dry Erase 

Who Will Be The Winner? Let's See

For those that do not know many companies make a dry erase coating, it can be clear or white, it will allow you to write on the wall or other surfaces you choose.

This is based on personal experience as I have used almost every dry erase coating including, Idea, Rust-Oleum and a few others. These coatings are not inexpensive some costing hundreds of dollars to cover about 100sq ft but when you consider the actual cost of a dry erase board and the flexibility of putting this almost wherever you want the cost is comparable.

Remember the coating you see in the big box stores are typically homeowner variations, they are not even close to the quality of the contractor versions.

 

So I decided to test two after I had no luck with some of the other coatings, some issues I saw were not able to be erased, ghosting (seeing the marker even when erased) Not curing, the coating sagging when applied no matter what we applied it with or how we applied it. Obviously, we want a dry erase coating that actually erases.

Through our relationships with Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore, I was given these coatings to test. First up was Sherwin Williams Sketch Pad, it is a two-part water-based epoxy coating and came in a clear.

We decided to paint the under color red, we used Pro Mar 200 and put on a few coats after patching the wall.

A kit goes about 50 sq ft, after mixing you have one hour of pot life to use this product. 

Everything you need will come in the kit, dry time is four hours, 1 day to recoat and 7 days to cure before using.

So I masked out the wall and rolled on using their roller cover one coat and then coated it again the next day. What did I see? it certainly runs a bit so make sure you mask down the wall a little more than normal and don't over apply.

After 7 days I pulled out the markers and wrote away, it did initially erase but however a few weeks later it got worse and subsequently worse until it would not erase, we had to use a solvent (xylene) to get the marker to erase.

Ease of application 10

Erasability initially 10, after a few weeks 0

Smell not bad

Would we use again no

Would not recommend for a homeowner or on a project

Next up Benjamin Moore Notable.

I will say after using every other product I really wasn't looking forward to another one.

But I was given the kit to try and I like trying new products.

First up I masked out the wall again and lightly sanded and wiped the wall down and primed the wall and repainted it red again using Ultraspec from Benjamin Moore

Again this kit comes with everything you will need, it is a two-part silicone hybrid  based epoxy

It is a wet on wet recoat and 7-day cure 

Here is what I found, it had very little smell, I applied it a bit lighter this time after my experience with all the others sagging which worked.

I love the wet on wet application, two coats in one shot and it's done.

Once completed and after 7 days we went right at it, writing, I could tell right away it looked and felt different and the marker fell off the wall so easy when writing.

One major difference months later it still easily erases.

Ease of application 10

Erasability 10

Smell not bad at all

We would recommend for a homeowner and any project

It is a bit pricey but certain,ly it delivers

I will say if you apply it as recommended it may sag/run, I know that from my past use of these coatings, go a little lighter

Hands down the winner is Benjamin Moore here, not even close.

Amato Painting Awards 2019 Paint It Forward Winner

Amato Painting Awards 2019 Paint It Forward Winner

Amato Painting yesterday awarded our 2019 Paint It Forward Winner as we donated along with our great sponsors Gleco Paint, Benjamin Moore and Fd Design a $3000 paint job to The Center for Animal Health & Welfare of Easton  

We were thrilled to call them and give them the news and our painters and staff cannot wait to be onsite and complete this project.

This is our second year offering this Paint It Forward Gift to a deserving non profit or family who could really use a paint job to brighten their day and who helps out the community, people or animals in their daily world.

The Paint It Forward program was started in California by Josh Abramson of Allbright Painting.

Paint-It-Forward started out small – a local community charity program that provided free painting services and supplies to deserving families and nonprofit organizations. The program was created as a way to give back to our local community and spread a little “Painting Happiness” at the same time. The first year was such a success we ran it the next year, and the year after that, and in 2015 we celebrated our 10 year anniversary of Paint-It-Forward – a program that started out small but has grown to positively impact so many lives in our community.