House painting can be confusing for many homeowners who are trying to balance between affordability and longevity. Many people struggle with the decision of whether to use a life time warranted paint on the exterior of their home, or a less expensive 25 year warranted paint. I am often asked what I think about their prospective inclusion of life time paint for their house painting project. I usually respond by saying “it depends” followed by a few questions to determine what they want to achieve with their house painting project.
The first thing you need to consider is: what are your expectations from life time paint? Are your expectations realistic?
Paint manufacturers love to sell you on the idea of life time paint. It’s good business for them. It’s certainly easy for you to fall for this seemingly incredible warranty, considering the cost of having your house painted these days, but are you getting what you believe you’re getting.
There are 4 basic reasons you will need to repaint your home.
1. The paint you have now is faded and looks tired and dingy.
2. The caulked joints of your home have separated allowing water enter.
3. There are places where the paint is peeling.
4. You become tired of the old color and want to freshen up your home with new colors.
Let’s take a closer look at these four reasons in relation to life time paint.
The truth is, life time warranted paints fade with exposure to sun light and weather, so if you are expecting it to look fresh 25 years from now, then you have been misled. First, you need to read the warranty of the life time paint. Excessive fading is covered by the warranty. Notice this does not mean “no fading”. It reads the same as a lesser grade paint. Life time warranted paints lose their clarity in color over time. Now your back to the 1st reason you needed to paint to begin with. Yes, it will maintain its fresh look longer than a lesser grade paint, but not a lot longer.
The caulked joints that have separated on your home are not caused from an inferior paint. Caulked joints separate due to expansion and contraction of the materials that constitute your home. Life time warranted paints can’t stop this movement; therefore, reason number 2 will still be in play if you paint with life time warranted paint.
For reason number 3 you have a clear advantage with some life time paints. Some life time paints are up to 70 percent ticker and have a greater ability to stretch. When it comes to peeling substrate, this is important, because a paint that is 70 percent thicker and more flexible will make it much harder for the underlying paint to peel and release. Most warranties do not cover inner layer peeling, however, most life time paints do give a limited warranty against peeling. It is possible that the inner layers of paint are so compromised that the problem extends beyond the capabilities of life time paint. This is especially true if the wood on the house wasn’t primed before the top coat was applied when the house was built.
Check the specification of the paint carefully. Some life time paints are not thicker than 25 year paints, therefore can’t offer the same protection as the thicker life time brands when it comes to peeling.
How many people want to live with the same color on their house for the rest of their life? I’ve never met anyone yet that could say they did, and I have been in this business for over 25 years. The truth is most people like change. Color change is very important for most people.
The strongest reason for using life time paints really may have nothing to do with the points listed above. It may have to do more with the fact you are planning to change the color.
Life time paints can save you money.
If you are planning on changing the colors of your home you may want to consider using the life time warranted paints. They can actually save you money, even though they cost nearly double the price of 25 year paint.
Consider this: If your planning to change colors, you probably will need two coats of paint, which will cost you an extra 60 to 70 percent on average. Often you will be able to cover with one coat using a life time paint because it is a thicker paint. The difference between the cost of using one coat of life time paints and two coats of 25 year paint is going to be between 1,200 and 1,400 dollars. That’s considerable savings.
Most manufacturers of life time warranted paints are counting on the average person moving every 6 to 8 years. The warranty is non transferable. If you do stay in the home long enough and make a claim on the paint, they will prorate any refund on the paint only, but not the labor.
By: Nicky Taylor
Archive for December, 2009
House Painting Tips – Do Life Time Paints Really Last?
December 30th, 2009Painting Preparation – Getting Your Walls Ready and Willing
December 24th, 2009
The colors you choose to use when painting the interior of your house can say a lot about you. Sometimes they say that you like things bright, sometimes they say that you like things dark, and sometimes they say that you are color blind. Whatever look you are going for, it’s important to take specific steps, steps that help assure the statement the interior of your house is making isn’t “Help me.”
With this in mind, it might seem easy to jump right in and begin painting: all you need is a can, a stirrer, and a brush, right? Well, not exactly. Though these may technically be all the items truly required, jumping right in can leave you with a finished product that’s anything but polished.
More often than not, painting goes awry because of a failure to prepare. It’s the preparation, and not the painting, that often holds the greatest importance.
For this reason, before you pick up a paint brush, take the following actions:
Take an inventory of the room you’re going to paint and remove furniture and other items that you don’t want to get paint on (i.e., the dog or your spouse). Place a drop cloth over large furniture too heavy to move, carpet, and tile floors. It’s also a good idea to lay an evenly spread drop cloth on the floor and place your paint bucket over it.
After you’ve removed things from the floor, continue the removal process by removing items on the wall. Pictures, nails, and even outlet and electrical covers all should be removed. Don’t worry, they’ll understand.
Next, patch up any holes, cracks, or breaks you find in the wall with caulk and run an electric sander over newly patched areas as well as unusually rough spots. If you don’t have an electric sander, a manual one will suffice. Doing this will give your walls a smoother look and keep paint from appearing clumped or broken.
After the wall has been sanded, dust and wash it. You don’t apply makeup to a dirty face, so why apply paint to a dirty wall? If your wall has wall paper, it’s best to strip it off. While it’s possible to simply paint over wall paper, getting rid off it completely prevents complications from arising.
The final step before “Operation Paint” can begin is taping. You’ll most likely begin your paint job with a roller or thick brush: these kinds of brushes aren’t good for the edging. Instead of attempting to paint around the edges, and risking that you’ll end up with a straight edge that is anything but, place an inch thick piece of tape around all edges, window sills, and baseboards. After you’ve painted the large parts, go back to the edges with a much finer, and smaller, paint tool.
This might all seem like a lot of work, but taking the lid off your paint bucket before proper preparation can leave you taking the lid off a whole can of worms in the process.
By: Jennifer Jordan
Painting and Preparing Your Garage Floor
December 23rd, 2009
When speaking about preparing the garage floor. You need to keep the floor or the ground clean; free from dirt, oil and derbies because such things will make the bonding of the cement difficult. So try using a good detergent and a scrubber with stiff bristles to scrub away all the dirt. You many even give an acid wash to make the ground much cleaner. Give more attention, if you find any cracks when cleaning the floor. So try fixing those cracks before you make the concrete mixture. All cracks can be filled with epoxy paste which will dry faster and the excess can be scraped off.
Make sure you always keep the ground free from dirt after cleaning. If you think there is any moisture in the garage ground, here is a small test that you can do. Cut a small piece of plastic sheeting; tape all the edges on the floor. If you find water collecting under the plastic sheet due to evaporation, then it shows that your garage floor contains moisture.
Once the garage ground is ready, make a proper mixture of the cement to lay them. Make sure you apply them at all the corner of the garage. All newly prepared garage floors should be allowed to dry completely for sixty days before painting or giving a coating. All unpainted concrete floors need to be acid treated or etched using muriatic acid before painting them. If the floor is already painted, the coating has to be sanded down using a sand paper. Once you scrap or sand the painted floor, wash the floor with water and allow it to dry completely. Here are some materials that you need to start painting the garage floor. You need to have garage floor paint or epoxy, brushers and rollers, painter’s tape, extension handle, paint tray and decorative chips; this is only an optional but using chips will make your garage floor look awesome! Try using colored chips like electric blue bend, dusty trail, bright yellow, dark earth tone, light blue, purple, etc., for the floor color choices, use colors like beige, tile red, taupe, slate, charcoal and grey.
Paint the garage floor with the reference of the manufacturer’s directions and tips. Once you have done with painting the floor using a roller, you can give a second coat using the same technique and start applying the chips. Once done, give at least 72 hours for drying and the floor doesn’t need a topcoat.
By: Ron Victor
