Portland House Painting Tips

January 27, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Exterior Painting 

exterior painting 300x199 Portland House Painting Tips

Choosing various colors for your Portland house painting is more difficult than what you think. This is because a wrong choice of shade can either make your house appear too subtle or too vivid. Aside from that, a wrong choice of color can lead your house to appear featureless and too plain. On the extreme side, bold colors can overwhelm the entire architecture of your house. This may also be a cause of disappointment on the part of your neighbors.

To optimize the colors that you will choose for your Portland house painting, it is better to choose shades that will highlight the most interesting parts of your house. If you can do this correctly, you may even be successful in hiding unsightly marks and other forms of imperfections that may be found on your house. It can result to your houses’ better visual appeal and market value.

If your home is more than ten years old, you may want to use a color scheme that can highlight its advanced age. Usually, you can achieve this effect using classic color schemes. For this task, you may hire a contractor to recreate the original shade of the Portland house painting and to examine the chips of the old paint. You may also refer to various historic color samples and choose the shades that were more likely used when the house was built.

If you want a new type of shade but still prefer to retain the classic touch of your house, you may opt to choose shades that emphasize the architectural details of your house. However, you should strike a good balance between applying modern shades to old designs and retaining the balance of the shades for your entire house. It would also be a helpful reminder to examine the shades that your neighbors have been using on their houses to avoid standing out too much.

While using the shades of your neighbors’ houses can give you a hint on what shade to use, you should not copy the exact shades that they are using for their house painting. You should choose shades that can help your house to stand out. However, these shades should still produce harmony with the adjacent houses.

If you are having a hard time looking for color inspiration, you may use elements from nature. For instance, you may look at the greenery that is surrounding your entire house and produce a color scheme that greatly matches this feature. All you have to do is experiment on the subtle shades that you see around you so you can create great results.

Another good reference that you can check out is the color of your roof. This does not mean that you should closely match the color of your house with the roof. This simply means that you should come up with various color combinations that harmonize with and complement the color of your roof.

There are some instances that there details in your house need not be painted. For cases like these, you should adequately inform your contractor before they set out to perform the Portland painting job for you. This will significantly reduce the chances of having unsatisfactory results.

If you are looking for a Exterior Painter in Portland, please call us today at (503) 896-9202 or complete our online request form.

Portland Benefits Of Using Exterior Textured Paint

March 10, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Exterior Painting 

If you are in the process of redoing your home, one of the things you might want to consider is using exterior textured paint for the walls. There are various benefits to using exterior textured paint, including but not limited to, the following:

Durability

Exterior paint usually needs to be replaced every few years since it is exposed to the elements a lot more. The textured variety, however, is much more reliable so you can be sure that you will not need another coating very soon. This means less work as well as less cost especially if you are to hire professional painters to do the job.

Aesthetically Superior

This type of paint is just as decorative as it is practical. It does have an aesthetic appeal similar to that of wallpaper except that it is much cheaper and easier to put on walls. There are several choices in design from which you can take your pick depending on your preferences and taste in wall decor.

Low Maintenance

While it looks really impressive, it does not require high maintenance so you can put it on and leave it as is. All there is to do is clean the walls a little with water every once and a while to keep the paint looking new and fresh.

Porland Choosing Light or Dark Exterior Home Colors

February 8, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Exterior Painting 

So you’ve decided to paint the outside of your house again but your a little nervous as your last experience had you repainting the room three time before finally getting the right color onto the walls. Well don’t fret it anymore as I’m about to tell your how best to get it right the very first time. Choosing the right colors will not only dazzle you and your friends but also those who might be interested in buying your home should you ever decide to sell it? Do you need an expert to decide the blend of colors to paint onto those walls? Maybe, but these simple approaches to finding what works best has a proven track record of making homeowners happy with the colors they finally decided upon after using these approaches to discovery Many people elect to choose safe exterior colors like white’s and green’s, maybe you want something different but not shocking! Here are some successful approaches:

  • Light affects the way colors appear to us. Bright sunlight will mute colors and they will appear flattened. Lighter colors forward the appearance of your home where as darker colors tend to make the home recede. So what does this mean? Well it means dark colored homes will appear smaller, where as light colored homes will tend to make the home appear larger in size. So now you may have answered the question as to why so many people have chosen a lighter colored house. I would say that they want the home to appear larger, as one day the possibility of selling the home becomes a reality, as most people want a larger house.
  • Many people make the mistake of painting the rainwater down spouts the same color as the rain gutters that are attached to the Fascia board, as they are attached to one another. Don’t make this mistake! Rainwater downspouts should be faded into the body of the house, not stand out!

Painting Exterior Trim in Portland

November 16, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Exterior Painting 

Portland exterior painting can be thought of costing less than completely painting all exterior surfaces, but a few things to consider from a painting contractor points of view.

Most of us look to save where we can, especially in this day and economic conditions. House painting is no different, when it comes to saving money. A home exterior weathers from harsh elements of heat, cold, sun, and snow, and exterior paint ages over time needing repainting. Portland exterior trim, being that of solid wood is normally the first to show signs of painting maintenance. Many times a homeowner happens to call, asking for only painting the trim. Trim paint jobs sound good at first, but have some underlying thoughts may have not been considered. Below are things to consider when considering painting trim only.

1) Most homes exterior trim is painted on the front only, more commonly called front-facing the trim. Sides of trim is normally painted with main body color. Few homes have trim painted on all 3 visible surfaces, called in the painting industry as 3-D’ed painting.

2) Either edge of trim is painted with body color, and is where caulking is applied at most 90 degree angles. Painting trim only, cannot feasibly include caulking, as this fails and opens up over time. Most homes need new caulking when painting the exterior, and a close inspection can determine.

3) If new caulk is applied, main body portion needs to be touched up, and most of the time new paint will not match aged paint even using exactly the same paint out of the same paint can, as sheen difference will come into play.

4) Painting trim is normally done by roller and brush, not sprayed, so more manual labor is required painting trim, and most cases costing 60% of the total exterior painting job.

5) Since the trim is the first to go, the main body of the home will be shortly behind requiring painting. If the trim was recently painted, and a few years later the body is ready for paint, all the trim will need to be covered, commonly referred to as masking off. Masking off expends time, labor and material, which adds to the bottom line cost to the remaining 40%, typically costing an additional 25% for masking trim. Thus costing 25% more after both trim and body portions are painted in separate years.

6) When painting exterior completely, the first thing to be painted after all preparations have been accomplished is generally spraying the body 2 coats wet on dry. Allowing the first coat to dry, before applying the second coat. In doing this, trim is over-sprayed, giving initial coat as well, thereby getting a total of 3 paint coatings, instead of the actual 2 coats required for maximum protection. This over spray is not charged in the painting cost, but adding to the elements of exterior duration and warranties.

7) Set up costs are normally included with any home improvement job, painting separate times for complete exterior painting can essentially cost double, unless agreed before work begins in painting quote.

Main thing to consider when considering painting exterior of your home is; How long do I plan living in this house. If your answer is any longer than 1 year, you may reconsider from painting trim only to painting exterior completely. From a quick glance, fresh trim paint will work from an aesthetic point of view, but not even close from complete protection and value points. Therefore, being fugal painting, does not always mean painting just enough to get by, sometimes costing much more in the long run.