Exterior Painting
From shingles to stucco, we’ve got you covered:
With more than 15 years of collective experience, our crew has mastered painting, siding and staining on all types of home exteriors, be it wood, clapboard, shingles, synthetic siding and composites, stucco, vinyl, aluminum or masonry surfaces. We also specialize in Pressure Washing, Gutter Cleaning and Sealing all types of Decks. While each home is different and each project is tailored specifically to your needs, we take the same steps with everyone, providing a professional job that protects the environment and primes your house to take on the toughest of conditions that New
England weather has to offer.
Our Exterior Painting Process
Protect Environment
Plantings and decorative work are covered with canvas drop cloths. Non-painted areas are protected from paint drops.
Power Wash
To achieve a proper paint job all surfaces to be painted need to be thoroughly washed to remove mildew, mold, pollen, caulk, dirt and other surface contaminants. This ensures proper adhesion of any coating.
Scraping
Each team member carries a scraper which is used initially to remove thick or course old paint. This is not a finishing technique but a tool to aid in the paint removal process.
Power Grinding
The home is evaluated to determine if multiple layers of paint or primer layers need to be removed; if so, a power grinder is used. A power grinder is a tool that removes multiple layers of paint, its flexible sanding disk ensures that the wood surface is not damaged. With proper finer grits, feather sanding can be achieved through a finesse disk grinding technique. Newer homes may not need this step but rather may be power sanded instead.
Power Sanding
Sanding is done to provide a smooth finish for the primer to adhere properly.
Inspect Site
Inspect for wood or material damage. Holes and cracks are filled; stains are sealed, and surfaces are scuff sanded to enable proper paint adhesion. Siding and trim boards are examined and given proper preparation to ensure a quality finish.
Sealing Knots & Rusted Nail Heads
We use white pigmented shellac specifically designed to seal acidic knots in wood to seal discoloration that occurs from seepage of natural compounds from bleeding knots.
This also aids in sealing rusted nail heads to prevent bleeding through the topcoat
layers.
Primer / Sealer
One of the most important steps is to seal bare wood surfaces, previously painted or stained surfaces and other problematic areas such as tannin and tannic acid bleed
which occurs in most cedar clapboards and shingles. We use high quality primer/sealers that are tinted to desired finish coat colors as a base layer.
House Rests and Cures
The primer coat needs to set and cure. We use oil-based primer / sealers for better penetration properties, adhesion and malleability, these require an extended set time and dry-cure period.
Hand Sand Wood Fibers
Once the primer / sealer is dry, we hand sand the surface to remove extraneous wood fibers and also to smooth a heavily applied primer coat and to remove brush and roller nap marks.
Caulking
Using high quality caulking material, we fill seams and cracks in trim boards where trim boards meet another such as around windows and doors. Sealing seams and cracks keeps moisture from intruding the exterior surface of the home. However, some seams are left to help the home “breathe” and allow moisture to escape. Sealing cracks in trim boards aids in the appearance of the finish coat application. Caulking is typically applied to painted or primed surfaces and not bare wood surfaces for proper adhesion.
Recessed nail holes or divots in any wood siding or trim are filled to a smooth finish using putty.
Top Coat Application
The final step in giving your home outstanding appearance and protection is applying the finish coats of either paint or stain. Commonly used are vinyl acrylic latex paints and stains that are applied by a combination of airless spray, roller and brush.
Clean
Cleanup is done daily, as well as at the completion of our work. Paint chips are removed, and all our materials are packed up and stored neatly. Tools and other equipment are stored in our trucks and not on your property.
"Your workers are very diligent, courteous, and the cleanup is excellent!"
Post Work Inspection
After our own inspection, we ask you to review the project with us to verify your satisfaction with our work.
