Paint peeling off concrete from lack of preparation?

Paint peeling off a concrete from wall is from a lack of preparation. The contractor must check the substrate by testing before applying their paint finish coats, or they may be on the hook, the Master Painter’s say.

The use of “sacking” compounds on concrete walls can seriously inhibit adhesion to the substrate, that is stop the paint from sticking to the wall.

The Master Painter Institute has a good informational article on it; here’s an excerpt:

“How could this have been prevented?

The GC or concrete/masonry contractor is responsible for first examining the texture, color, and adhesion of the sacked surface. But since poor quality sacking is epidemic on many new concrete construction projects, it’s critical that the painting contractor himself check the integrity of the sacking prior to accepting the surface.

Ideally, the painting contractor and general contractor would do this inspection together: run a knife across randomly selected areas of sacked surface to see if the sacking can be easily removed.  Alternatively, simply rub the sacking with your fingers. If it’s loose, you’ll see residual powder all over your hand and indentations in the sacked surface — and if the sacking is sound, you’ll be bleeding! Or certainly you’ll leave some skin behind.”

See the article here: http://ow.ly/8zMfy

Olympic Paints’ fall 2011 color trend fo

Olympic Paints’ fall 2011 color trend forecast, cool, clean and crisp greens, blues and oranges will bring a hint of autumn into the decorating mix.

The company says blue shades that are “both clean and playful,” like are trending up.

Bold reds with an orange undertone and hue, and “bright clean yellows” are also making a statement. See more at the linked article. http://ow.ly/5NCRd ^DS

What me? A techie? Color matching and paint specs at your fingertips

Check out this new app from ICI Paints (Glidden) at Finish Finder

My ageing Windows phone won’t handle it, but all those snazzy iPhone 4′s will! The App offers specifications and technical documents (including safety MSDS sheets) on standard products.

Another cool new tool is the Quick Match Pro, a color matching tool you take to the jobsite, allowing you to measure and match colors where you are. It even coordinates colors for you. A great feature for those challenged to remember their complementary colors!

We tried it at the office and in the field, and it works well to capture colors and offer some alternates in the same family of colors. One of our foremen went and bought one right away to save him time and effort!

Makes me want to buy a new phone!

9 things you should know to hire a professional painter

When looking for a professional, you need to know what you need to know!

The PDCA (Painting & Decorating Contractors) national association has published 9 items to look for.

I think they’ve missed one very important one:

Ask for local references.

The best companies have a strong history of quality work, and can give you local references for similar projects.

On a recent proposal, we were able to provide references and reference letters from two nearly identical projects.

Don’t let the standard brochure references be your only source. And be sure to CALL the reference contact and hear for yourself.

Here’s the nine the PDCA offers:

1. Safety

Painting can be hazardous work, whether it’s working on a ladder or dealing with dust, paints and solvents. Hiring a professional contractor means you don’t have to worry about these problems.

2. Quality

In order for a contractor to be listed on this site the company must be insured and must be licensed in their area of operation (if required by law). Quality contracting firms will be only too happy to provide you with copies of their license or business registration and copies of their current certificates of insurance. They should provide bonding information (if the job is large enough to require such) and documentation of safety training and compliance programs. Not all states and municipalities require licensing however business registration with your state and municipality is generally a minimum requirement. Spend a few minutes to verify the insurance and registrations are current by contacting the insurance broker and regulatory agencies.

3. Time

Obtain a list of references from the prospective contractor. This list should include the contact person, address, and telephone number of the previous client. Follow up on this list with a phone call. Remember, the contractor will not give you a bad reference. Therefore, ask references if they know of any other work this contractor has performed. Be sure to ask whether the contractor and employees treated them professionally and with respect. The references you are interested in should be projects similar in size and scope to yours. Some of the projects should be at least a few years old. This will help you gauge the performance of the construction and materials used. If possible, try to see the work that was done. Discuss any guarantee or warranty programs the contractor may offer. Ask about the manufacturer’s warranty on the products to be used on your project. Remember you are looking for long-term durability from the paint job. The use of high quality products is as important as the selection and performance of the contractor. Verifying references will provide a bigger return on your project investment.

4. Knowledge

The choices today are more complicated than just oil or latex. Professional contractors know what works, how to use it, and will have the right tools for the job. Professional contractors utilize and partner with professional paint, coatings, and wallcovering suppliers.

5. Insurance, Licensing, Education & Skill

Determine if your contractor is a member of the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America. If you’ve chosen one from www.findapainter.com they are. The focus of the association is the education of its members and the promotion of professionalism within the industry. Look for the PDCA logo on your contractor’s business card, bid sheets, or trucks. PDCA offers many programs for the education of painting contractors. This education includes training in the areas of safety, business management, technical areas of painting, surface preparation, and more. Quality painting and decorating contractors are well educated on the different aspects of any painting project and that knowledge helps eliminate surprises. Excellence in paint application is as important to your selection of a contractor as are their skills to properly manage their business and your project. National Associations such as PDCA and the Better Business Bureau are Non-Profit Associations who are interested in making the contracting world better, not just selling their marketing based contractor promotions. PDCA is the only national association for painting and decorating contractors and one of the oldest contractor associations in America. Industry standards are another benefit of industry associations. PDCA produces nationally recognized Painting Industry Standards that cover many different aspects of a painting project. Use of these standards in proposals and contracts helps improve communication between the client and the contractor, assists in ensuring quality, and becomes a basis for evaluating the job’s requirements.

6. Health

If your home or business was built before 1978, it may have lead-based paint in one or more of the older coats, which can cause serious health issues when it is scraped or sanded in preparation for repainting. Professional contractors will take appropriate steps to protect you. Painting contractors are required to furnish EPA-produced pamphlets to their residential customers and certain other customer types, before they begin a job that involves disturbing lead-based paint in or on a surface. Professional painting contractors will understand and be willing to follow the recommendations on this pamphlet. For more information on the EPA’s lead requirements visit ( http://www.epa.gov/lead ).

7. Preparation

Getting the surface properly prepared makes all the difference. Professional contractors know the value of preparation and will do it right.

8. Clean Up & Disposal

Hiring a professional contractor means you don’t have to worry about dealing with paint residues and other leftovers. Professionals know how to handle hazardous wastes that may be part of the job.

9. Contract Guarantees

Reputable contractors will encourage the use of a written contract. This contract should clearly explain the scope of the work to be performed. It should also cover such items as surfaces to be painted, methods and extent of surface preparation, time schedules for the project, and payment procedures. Knowing the total scope of the work enables you to carefully evaluate the different bids you may receive with the proper information and keep them on a level playing field. The contract serves to protect both you and the contractor. Most contractors listed at www.findapainter.com are aware of the industry standards created by Painting and Decorating Contractors of America (the Association that runs www.findapainter.com). You can download the standards free of charge, http://www.pdca.org/Standards.htm.

As a proud member of the PDCA, you can find our member page at http://dev.findapainter.com/1556/painterad-Remdal-Painting-&-Restoration-Inc/

With credit to Painting & Decorating Contractors (PDCA) from their article, at http://dev.findapainter.com/why-use-a-pro.php.

What to do with your old leftover paint!

A common question I get when meeting a customer, whether a homeowner, strata council, project managers or an industry associate is “what do we do with our old leftover paint?”.    Luckily there exists Product Care, which is a not-for-profit industry sponsored association that manages product stewardship programs. In layman’s terms, under government regulations, the manufacturers, distributors and retailers of paint and other hazardous martial such as pesticides must provide us with an environmentally safe means of disposing their leftover products. Product Care manages these stewardship programs by providing consumers with a collection system network with over 100 locations across BC. The best news is that it’s free! The collected products are then reused or recycled where possible. For further information, locations or a list of acceptable products and other programs, such as BC paint exchange, which allows you to get leftover paint for your project at no charge, please visit http://www.productcare.org.

When should you consider replacing your wood siding?

Painted wood is a three-component system consisting of paint, wood, and the paint/wood interface. The critical component for maintaining long-term paint performance is the interface. (FOREST PRODUCTS JOURNAL Vol. 37, No. 11/12)

In many instances we are called in to a residential or a strata unit where the original coating and subsequent coats are peeling from the wood interface. This could be the result of moisture and the absence of a primer during original construction. In most cases this problem can be remedied by first removing the failed coatings by means of scraping, hand tooling, sanding or utilizing a chemical stripper and secondly priming with a penetrating oil primer prior to applying the top coat.

However, there are some instances where upon further review of the paint chips removed from the substrate we observed that wood fibers were attached to the paint chip.

Through our experience, we have concluded that in such occurrences the paint/wood interface on the siding has become critically compromised. Furthermore, the tension imparted on the existing coating when applying new coatings will create a surface tension that causes lifting of the original coatings.

Paint coatings applied in the past, though adhered adequately during the initial paint application, will, over time, continue to let go. As result unless the problem at the substrate interface is resolved as a contractor we are unable to warrant the bond of previous coats of paint to the substrate. In our opinion the best way to resolve the failure at the substrate interface level is full replacement of wood siding in all areas where extreme delamination of paint has occurred.

Touched by a painter.. with love?

I got a phone call today: “Please, come out, it’s urgent!” Being in painting business, I’m not really used to hearing that. After all, if the wall’s not getting painted nobody’s going to die. Right? Well, I guess, wrong.

Nobody was going to die on the other line of the phone, but the damage was done to their most treasured possession – their home, and my customer needed my help.

When I got to their place, I saw a house that clearly had been touched by a painter: masking tape still hanging off windows, partly painted stucco. It didn’t seem very disastrous to me at that moment.

“Hi, my name is Shelley. Julia?” I turned around at the voice that belonged to a middle-aged woman in over-sized sunglasses. “Yes, I am Julia” I said, shaking her hand. “Looks like you guys are in the middle of renovations here.”

Shelley gave me a smile albeit a weak one. “It’s been nothing but a disaster for us from the day one! You see, we hired a contractor, an acquaintance of ours.. I wish I had never done that! They didn’t care about anything. We couldn’t use our backyard. Paint cans and tools were everywhere. They broke our patio. These tiles that you see here now – we had to have it all re-done.” Shelley’s voice was getting quieter as she spoke; I knew it was hard for her to say these things.

“The trouble doesn’t end here,” she continued. “Look at the windows.”

I took a closer look at the wood window frames. What is that?

Apparently, the painters used packaging sticky tape to mask brand new wood frames. To make things worse, the tape has now been sitting on the frame in the sun for several days and has completely baked on the previously painted surface. “We’ve tried to pull it off but it leaves this glue behind, “Shelley sounded apologetic.

Yeah, that was really bad. I started to carefully look at other areas that were touched by this painter’s unloving hand. Here are some other things that I discovered that I didn’t’ seem to have a heart to tell Shelley at the moment:

- galvanized metal flashing with one coat of latex paint that started coming off as soon as I put my finger on it;
- nail holes in newly repaired wood siding left unfilled;
- holes in stucco, etc.

“I know it’s now going to cost more to fix bad painting job than to have it done properly the first time.” Shelley sighed. “I just want to know that someone will learn on our mistake. What I want for people is to have their houses touched by a painter with love”

I’ll go try to make sure Shelley’s wish comes true. I think she deserves that.

DECKS: AVOID THE DISASTER!

How many of you cherish a thought of a new beautiful deck? How many go down the road of building it before thinking of how to protect and prolong its life?
What do you ultimately want of a deck?
1. Easy installation
2. Great looks (options: solid color, natural look, clear coat…)
3. Long life
4. Low maintenance
Frustrating abundance of advice out there in the internet, booklets etc, and they seem to contradict each other: let your deck dry out for a couple of days; apply on a damp surface; power wash; don’t power wash in any case; sand; strip; prime; don’t prime; leave it as is…

Save yourself a headache: call us for a free consultation BEFORE you build the deck!!

Don’t forget to look under the covers

“It seems we can just keep scraping and scraping, and the paint keeps peeling off the wall” was the comment from our painter.

At a recent commercial warehouse repainting job, we encountered some paint that was peeling off the concrete wall. Not too unusual a situation, so we scraped and cleaned the area, and (after spot priming) painted the wall as usual. But within a couple of months what we thought had been corrected was continuing to peel, and peel, and peel. The areas we had scraped to bare concrete were fine, but other areas were now causing further problems. What was going on?

A bit of research, some deeper investigation, and consultation with a representative from the Master Painters Institute (MPDA) revealed something was hiding “under the covers.” Under the paint coating was a textured finish, and that finish was poorly bonded to the concrete wall.  In places the texture and paint had been previously removed, and similar to our earlier work, this was now holding on tight. But under the covers, beneath the texture, we found a powdery substance that easily dissolved in water. This was acting as a “bond-breaker” between the texture and the concrete, and literally breaking the hold of the paint and texture to the wall behind.

In this case, there was a second complication -the color. The recently darkened bottom band was causing the area to get much hotter as the sun shone on it, and this was aggravating the problem. The opposite wall (facing North) showed no similar peeling concerns. It’s likely that the extra shock of heating & cooling caused by the sun beating down on this section of the wall was just too much for the already weak bond the texture had to the wall.

The proper solution was to fully remove all the texture and paint on the area affected, and then clean, prime and repaint. Unfortunately that was an expensive solution for the customer. Our final process included fully hand scraping over all the lower painted area, and removing any evidently loose or bubbling areas. We then cleaned the powdery residue, and primed with a unique primer from Sherwin Williams called Loxon. It can handle uncertain substrates like this poor concrete, and also the higher Ph (alkalinity) that goes along with it.

The finished product was good, and a recent review showed the areas we’d addressed were now holding tight to the concrete wall. A reminder, to always look under the covers!

Remdal answers your questions in Mike Holmes magazine

General Manager, Ken Ewert, deals with oil-based paints and their usefulness as a vapor barrier.

Check it out at: