Tag Archives: home painting Concord

21 Apr

House Painting Concord: Compare Quotes Before You Start

Whether you hire a contractor or do the work by yourself, either method of house painting in Concord entails a lot of preparatory work. Neither of them — yes, even hiring a professional house painter — has shortcuts, but all the fuss and preparation will ultimately lead to a perfectly painted home.

If you decide to hire a professional painting contractor, you should realize that you cannot just pick one out of the many available. Choosing a contractor is not at all a simple process, as there are lots of them are vying to win your job. This is something that you should not take lightly.

One of the common mistakes a homeowner makes when hiring a painting contractor is to just invite his/her shortlisted candidates to come over to your home, point to anywhere that needs to be painted and ask them for a quote.

Perhaps the homeowner did not wish to burden the contractors by providing them too many details. Or they assumed that professionals know best, so the homeowners don’t bother telling them what else should be done.

Sure, professional painting contractors provide the best solutions to whatever issues that the homeowner has — fading paint, peeling paint, surface flaws, suggestions for the right interior colors, and so much more. However, it should be also known that the level of experience varies from one contractor to another. If the homeowner doesn’t explain what they specifically want to have done in their home, the quotes they receive from the contractors and everything written in them — price, job specifications, even the scope of work — will appear inconsistent, so comparing one quote from another is almost beyond imaginable.

Example:
– Bidder #1 offers an extra coat of paint,
– Bidder #2 omits the extra coat of paint to outdo the competition
– Bidder #3 offers removal of molds and mildew
– Bidder #4 proposes removal of popcorn ceiling (if your house indeed has one)

As you can see, every job offer from bidding contractors is inconsistent with one another, making all of them almost impossible to compare. When the homeowners realize that what they exactly want is nowhere to be found in the winning proposal, they start the bidding process all over again — and that may be time-consuming.

To prevent this from happening in the first place, the homeowners should provide a clear and detailed description of the project (all aspects of it) to every bidding contractor. The description doesn’t have to be complicated — it can be written or even expressed orally, as long as it is exactly the same.

Below is an example of a homeowner’s description of the project:

Paint living room’s walls on #1 Smith Street. Paint all surfaces including the trim, door and window frames, shelves and baseboards, except the door.

  • Clean the surfaces
  • Fix all flaws (cracks, holes, and fissures) if you find any
  • Apply one coat of primer and one coat of paint
  • Walls should be painted olive green. The trims, baseboards, frames and shelves should be painted white.
  • Use only high-quality paints from “ABC Paints,” latex, VOC-free.

During the bidding process, some contractors may suggest something that you didn’t put in your project description. While the suggestions may sound good and tempting, at this point you should not give in to them, no matter want. You want to be firm in sticking to your job description. After all, it’s your home, and you want it to be painted based on your own preferences. But in case that you find a certain suggestion that appeals most to you — an extra finishing coat, for instance — you should request the bidder to give you an alternate price only for that.

When taking these suggestions, the bidding contractors will be able to give you quotes that are very much consistent. That way, you will be able to compare one quote to another quote. This will help you to choose the bidder who, you think, is the most suitable candidate to do your house painting in Concord job.

24 Nov

Exterior House Painting in Concord: Interesting Windows and Doors

Exterior house painting in Concord may be simple but it is the most effective way of boosting your home’s curb appeal. Even painting just the doors and windows will give a dramatic change to your home’s facade.

Doors can be painted in a variety of ways to add interest to your house’s exterior. For instance, paint the doors with a contrasting color like blue or red to highlight the door. This approach will make the house more welcoming. A wooden door can also be beautified with a neat stain on it, and can be paired with trim painted with a much darker color such as black, dark green or soot brown. You can also paint the trim with a contrasting color to make door more eye-popping.

If you are doing some renovations in your home, you may also want to add a front door with windows on the sides to make it look much more inviting as well as add some interest. Another suggestion is re-painting your front door and writing your house number in a large, white-colored font directly on the door. This will surely catch the attention of your neighbors and passers-by.

Windows can also be the center of attention on the exterior of your home. You can draw attention to the windows by adding a touch of elegance or bold colors to the trim, frames or shutters. To add a vivid splash of color, you can also add window boxes where you grow flowering plants. There are other kinds of embellishments which will add more attractiveness to your windows. Stained glass is a good suggestion because it can also add a splash of color; you may choose simple stained glass designs or those with more intricate artwork. You may also draw interest to your windows by changing the curtains, shades and blinds. Incorporating hardware to the shutters for practical purposes other than decorative will make the windows look more appealing.

If you want to incorporate some natural things to your home’s exterior, you can also add a vine or ivy around the windows and doors. However, you should be also aware these climbing plants would penetrate into the cracks in the siding or bricks and this will lead to surface problems. The solution is to install a frame around the window. This will help the vines climb on the frame rather than on the exterior walls.

Exterior house painting in Concord as well as adding some ornaments around the doors and windows (which is optional) will surely make your house more appealing and inviting.

22 Oct

House Painting Concord: How Much Cleaning Is Needed?

Cleaning, prepping and painting are always part of interior house painting in Concord. Proper cleaning and prepping of the surface are the keys to a good and professional-looking paint finish.

At one point, you may ask yourself: how much cleaning is needed before you start painting? There is no definite answer to that. It depends on the size of your room, and how much dirt your walls have, and the number of furniture pieces and fixtures as well as the amount of clutter that should be removed.

Of course, the first thing you need to do is to remove as much furniture as possible. If you have any furniture that’s too big or heavy to be moved out of the room, cover them with a plastic or a canvas drop cloth. Take off anything that is attached to the walls and ceilings such as frames, decorations, curtains, lights and mirrors. In removing light and electrical switch plates, loosen them from their fixtures, and wrap the electric components with painter’s tape.

Clean the walls and ceilings thoroughly. People may be too lazy to do a laborious cleaning on the walls, but what they don’t realize is that a thoroughly clean surface is the key to successful adhesion of paint. A dirty surface will not allow the paint to stick well on the surface.

Don’t just use a wet rag and proceed to paint. If you’re cleaning kitchen walls for instance, you may notice oil, grime and smoke stains from cooking. For this, use a small amount of detergent and bleach, or a specially formulated cleaning agent for the kitchen walls. Have two buckets of water — one with the cleaning solution and another one with just water for rinsing the walls. If you want a quicker cleaning job, use warm water and vinegar, then use this solution to clean the walls — no rinsing required.

For more stubborn stains such as pencil or crayon, use a stronger cleaning solution. Use a sandpaper to get rid of any dull glossy marks on the surface to smoothen it out, then sweep off the dusty residue after sanding.

Inspect the walls for any flaws such as cracks, holes or any other crevices. If needed, remove any old, loose plaster cracks from the surface by using a putty knife. Next, fill these gaps and holes with a lightweight spackle or putty.

Check also to see if there is any peeling or cracking paint. If there is any peeling paint, loosen it by again using a putty knife. Use sandpaper to smooth the surface, and then clean the sanding debris from the wall and off the floor.

In covering floors, it’s highly recommended that you use canvas drop clothes instead of plastic. Plastic is harder to work on as it is slippery, thus it can cause accidents. It may be a cheaper alternative and is also disposable, but think of how much money you could have wasted by throwing away the plastic cover after using it. Canvas drop cloths may cost a bit more, but they are otherwise non-slippery, flexible, and can be stored and used again after any paint drips have dried. They are also safer for the environment.

After cleaning, drying and repairing the surface, it may be time to prime the surface. Actually, priming may not be necessary for brand-new walls, but it is needed especially when your walls are painted with an oil-based paint, or covered with paint with a glossier finish. You can skimp on the priming part by buying a paint which is already mixed with primer. Just one coat of such paint is all you need to cover the surface. Since paints with gloss tend to show more flaws, it is important to take note of the areas where you have applied putty on cracks to be sure the repair isn’t noticeable.

Tape areas where you don’t want to apply paint — adjacent walls, woodwork and electrical switches. Light switch covers, doorknobs and electric plugs can either be covered or removed for a time.

Really, how much cleaning you need depends on how big or small your room is, how much dirt you need to clean off, and how much furniture and fixtures you need to temporarily remove. But regardless of how much cleaning you need, it is still important that proper and thorough cleaning is the secret of a successful finish in house painting in Concord.

26 Mar

Tips for Painting a Small Entry When House Painting in Concord

An entry way or a hallway seems to be the most ignored part when house painting in Concord. People may paint their kitchens with red paint along with white and brown accents, and pretty pink or deep shade of blues may be used for your bedrooms. But an entry or hallway is almost always painted white, since it’s not a room but just a space where people pass by.

Well, perhaps it’s time to look at the entry way as a space that needs attention. You can see it as a challenge but at the same time an opportunity to unleash your creativity. This is true especially if you have a small and narrow entry; it’s the chance for you to figure out how you can make the space appear spacious and welcoming.

Never paint your small entry with dark colors – it will probably make the space look even more cramped and claustrophobic. This is not what you want to achieve. You may follow conventional wisdom that says pale colors expand the space. This is generally true. However, don’t use the bland and boring white; instead, play up the space with lighter colors as a different way to broaden such as small space. Bright paint colors have the ability to reflect light as well as absorb them. This optical illusion seems to expand the space. There a variety of light shades from cool tones like mint green to periwinkle as well as energetic and warm colors including yellow in a myriad of shades.

The best way to open up a cramped space is with natural lighting. For instance, your entry may have windows next to the door. Perhaps you have a window at the end of the hall. Leave it as it is to let the natural light in. Or for some decor, place a sheer curtain at the window, or try to put some adornments such as sun catcher or small wreath. Some entry ways have doors with stained glass panes that shine an array of colors when natural light hit them. In place of natural light or in case darkness looms, add wall sconces and recessed lighting to brighten the entry.

When deciding how to paint the entry way, you can look out at other elements such as doors and windows and give them color. You can paint doors along the entry with noticeable colors like plum, dark burgundy, or turquoise. You can do the same for the arches, trim and molding, too. You can also unleash your creativity and go bold by adding some decorations like gold studs on the doors to add drama to an area that may be plain-looking.

If your entry way ends with a wall, you can try different ways to adorn it. You may want to add a full length mirror to the wall. The mirror will reflect the light down make your small entry way appear spacious and brighter. You can also put some mirrors on the walls to make it appear larger. If your entry or hallway leads to other rooms, use the same type of flooring to create a seamless look going into that room.

Reading these great painting tips, you may never look at small entries the same way again. They offer possibilities for you to turn your entry from a drab-looking, small area into an attractive and welcoming space the next time you are house painting in Danville.