Interior Painting

Step by Step Process of Water Damage Restoration / Repairs

Posted by Anthony Giangrossi May 18 2016

The homeowner noticed a small water spot on the ceiling about six months ago and decided to wait to see if the spot grew larger. Over the next couple of months it did and the leak was identified on the roof at the flashing between the roof line and brick. After the flashing was repaired, the homeowner waited another couple of months to make sure the spot did not grow and the leak was fixed. Six months after the leak was identified the homeowner was ready to have the water damaged plaster repaired.

What follows was our step by step process to inspect the area for additional moisture, mold and repair:

1. Since this house was built before 1978 and with the EPA lead safe paint regulations passed in April 2010 we took the necessary precautions assuming all of the surfaces we came in contact with had lead based paint. The precautions we took to protect the homeowner and employees were as follows: 1. Removal of all furniture from the space. 2. Cover all surfaces (flooring, other walls, vents, & trim) that were not being worked on with plastic. 3. Plastic off any openings to other rooms as to keep any dust or debris encapsulated to the working space. 4. All workers wore protective EPA suits, gloves and masks to protect themselves from the lead paint and dust. 5. At the end of each work day all of the plastic was folded together to capture all of the paint debris, wrapped with tape, put in a large heavy duty garbage bag, sealed, disposed of off the job site daily and cleaning of the floors. The above process was repeated daily during the repair / preparation process.

2. Removal of the failed paint and plaster due to the water damaged by scraping the areas until we came in contact with hard (non water damage) surfaces.

3. Inspect the surfaces for additional water damage or mold. We cut out the plaster from ceiling and wall areas to check the lapboard for mold and moisture. There was no mold on the surfaces or moisture with in the wall / ceiling or lapboard. Now we could proceed forward with the restoration process.

4. We decided to install 1/2 inch Sheetrock Mold Tough Gypsum drywall (picture 4) to the areas where we removed the damaged plaster. We did this in case the areas developed water damage again so they could be more easily removed than plaster. After the drywall was installed we apply a thin skim coat of plaster (mix of USG Structo-Lite and 3M Joint Compound) to match the surrounding surfaces.

5. Once the plaster was dried the areas were dry sanded, cleaned and primed with two coats of Zinisser Cover Stain oil-based stain blocking primer. Once the primer was dried (approximately 2-3 hours) the repaired areas were checked for any imperfections, light patching and sanding to fix and ready for painting.

6. The walls were painted with two coats of Benjamin Moore Regal Select pearl finish in Moccasin (1059), ceiling was painted with two coats of Benjamin Moore Ceiling White vinyl acrylic latex flat 258 04 and the trim was painted with two coats of Benjamin Moore Advance semi-gloss White Blush (904).

7. Clean up the job site by removing all plastic, cleaning the floors with doing the EPA flooring test, putting all of the furniture back in the room and most importantly leaving the homeowner happy 🙂

Below is our interior guide to help you hire the correct professional painting contractor for your interior painting projects.

Fun Color & Design Ideas for Your Living Room, Bathroom, Laundry Room & Kitchen Cabinets

Posted by Anthony Giangrossi Apr 27 2016

As you all know I like to share the great design idea articles from our friends at Houzz. Well this blog has some great ideas on how to add color to your living room, bathroom, laundry room and kitchen cabinets through design, paint, tile and accessories.

The first article provides some great design, paint and accessory ideas on how to add blue to your living room:

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/65105738?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u2821&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery0

I have posted many articles regarding how to add a splash of color to your bathroom. This article provides nine blue color ideas through paint, cabinets and tile.

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/59693257/list/9-beautiful-blues-for-bathrooms

This next article is fun on how to add color to your laundry room through wall coverings, paint, cabinets and tile. Who would have thought to make the laundry room a fun space? Well Houzz sure did.

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/63942271?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u2821&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery3

The final article provides some design ideas to change the look of your kitchen cabinets through paint.

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/64576587?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u2821&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery18

I hope you got some great design ideas on how to change your living spaces through all of the different design ideas provided in the articles. I think it’s really important to always remember a space can be transformed through color without having to completely alter the space.

Below is our interior guide to help you hire the correct professional painting contractor for your interior painting projects.

How to Spruce Update Your Kitchen Without Major Renovation

Posted by Anthony Giangrossi Apr 13 2016

The homeowner for this project wanted to spruce up the kitchen without doing any major renovation or replacing the cabinets. So we came up with a plan to remove the wall paper, repair the walls and paint all surfaces including: walls, ceiling, trim and even the kitchen cabinets.

First in the process was to remove the wall paper and prep the walls for painting by the following process:

1. There were two layers of wallpaper that were removed but there remained a layer of wallpaper glue that needed to be removed. We added two cups of DIF wallpaper remover to one gallon of warm water and applied to the glue with a wet sponge. After the first application had soaked into the glue was dry we applied another coat of wallpaper remover and while the glue was wet we used scrapers to remove the glue. Keeping the wall / glue wet makes the removal process much easier. Drag the scraper down the wall and avoid pushing up or across as that will cause damage to the walls.

2. After the glue was completely removed the walls were primed with one coat of Insl-x Stix bonging primer. Priming the walls prior to patching will bond any loose areas and make all of the imperfections more visible. Once the primer dried (one hour) the skim coating process of the walls can begin. Skim coating is different from patching in that the entire wall surface will be covered (skim coated) with patch rather than applying patch to imperfect areas here or there on the wall. The base skim coat is applied with USG Sheetrock DuraBond 20 using a 12″ plaster trowl. The 20 stands for the working time (15 minutes) of the patch before it starts to dry (harden) and can’t be applied to the walls. The DuraBond is applied from top to bottom and left to right across the walls as to provide a level base coat. The base coat provides a very smooth level finish that little to no sanding is necessary that allows for the first of two tops coats to be applied. The drying time of the base coat is approximately 4-6 hours depending on temperature. After the base coat is completely dry the middle (second) skim coat is applied directly over the base coat with USG Sheetrock Lightweight Setting-Type Joint Compound Easy Sand 20. Using the same application process described above for the base coat. The second skim coat drying time is also approximately 4-6 hours and once dry the final top coat can be applied using the same products and application.

3. Depending on how smooth the skim coat has been applied will determine if wet or dry sanding is necessary before priming. If there are medium to thick edges of patch, dry sanding is necessary with 100cc sand paper to smooth out the edges and then sand all surfaces with 150cc-180cc sand paper to provide a nice smooth finish. After the sanding is complete wash the walls with lukewarm water to remove the dust prior to priming. If the walls are not washed the dust that remains on the walls will create a rough surface after priming is complete. If the patch edges are small to none then wet sanding with a sponge will smooth out the patch to ready for priming.

4. The final step in the wall restoration process is apply two coats of the wall color chosen for the room. After the first coat of paint is applied (roll with 3/4″ 50/50 Wooster nylon/polyester lambswool nap) and dried (1-2 hours) it’s time to take another look at the walls for any imperfections that need minor patching. After the minor areas are patched, sanded and cleaned make sure to spot paint those areas with one coat of the wall color. This will provide a uniform finish when the second (top) coat of paint is applied. The wall paint color that was chosen is Benjamin Moore Pale Moon (289).

During the wall paper removal process and painting of the walls the ceiling and trim surfaces were prepped and painted. You want to complete all work in the room prior to painting the cabinets as to keep the dust to a very minimum. Now that all of that work was completed, the next step in the process was to prep and paint the kitchen cabinets.

The kitchen cabinets were an off white that had started to yellow over the years. The homeowner wanted to paint the walls a soft shade of yellow and keep the cabinets the same color. I recommended to change the cabinet color to a standard white that will work nice with the soft yellow wall color and provide an updated modern look. The final decision was made to paint the cabinets white and what follows was the process:

We removed all of the doors and drawers from the base of the cabinets to prep for priming and painting. All existing hardware was removed and put back when the painting was complete. All of the cabinet surfaces were sanded with 120cc sand paper to roughen up and smooth out any blemishes on the surface . After that all surfaces were cleaned with wet rags (no cleaner) to prepare for preparation. All imperfections were filled with wood filler or caulk. After both dried all surfaces were sanded and cleaned again. Now that preparation was complete all surfaces had two coats of Fine Paints of Europe Hollandlac White Brilliant finish applied with foam rollers to provide a factory sprayed finished look. Dry time between coats is 14-16 hours as the product is an oil-based enamel. After the paint dry the cabinets were reassembled and hardware put back on. Attention to detail is very important when using the Hollandlac product since it’s on oil-based enamel and does not apply, set or dry like other oil-based products.

Overall the homeowner was ecstatic with the finished look and could not believe how “updated” the kitchen looked without doing a major renovation.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my blog and hopefully you found the information helpful on how to spruce up your kitchen without doing a major renovation.

Below is our interior guide to help you hire the correct professional painting contractor for your interior painting projects.

How To: Wallpaper Removal/Wall Restoration

Posted by Anthony Giangrossi Mar 16 2016

The homeowner decided he was going to remove the wallpaper himself. After his initial attempt he realized the paper was too difficult to remove and was causing major damage to the walls. We stepped in to take over the wallpaper removal after the initial layer had been removed as seen in the below picture. From that point we followed a multi step process (noted below) to remove the remaining wallpaper and restore the walls back to new.

1. After the first layer of wallpaper was removed there remained a layer of wallpaper glue that needed to be removed. We added two cups of DIF wallpaper remover to one gallon of warm water and applied to the glue with a wet sponge. After the first application had soaked into the glue was dry we applied another coat of wallpaper remover and while the glue was wet we used scrapers to remove the glue. Keeping the wall / glue wet makes the removal process much easier. Drag the scraper down the wall and avoid pushing up or across as that will cause damage to the walls.

The homeowner scraped up and across the wall which caused him to dig into the plaster and remove chunks of the wall. This left the walls in bad condition as seen in the below picture. The wall repairs leads us to the next step in the restoration process.

BedBefore

The drying time of the base coat is approximately 4-6 hours depending on temperature. After the base coat is completely dry the middle (second) skim coat is applied directly over the base coat with USG Sheetrock Lightweight Setting-Type Joint Compound Easy Sand 20. Using the same application process described above for the base coat. The second skim coat drying time is also approximately 4-6 hours and once dry the final top coat can be applied using the same products and application. The picture below shows the finished product of one base coat, middle coat and top coat. After the top coat is dried it’s time to sand the walls in preparation for priming.

BedPatch

BedPrime

4. The final step in the wall restoration process is apply two coats of the wall color chosen for the room. After the first coat of paint is applied (roll with 3/4″ 50/50 Wooster nylon/polyester lambswool nap) and dried (1-2 hours) it’s time to take another look at the walls for any imperfections that need minor patching. After the minor areas are patched, sanded and cleaned make sure to spot paint those areas with one coat of the wall color. This will provide a uniform finish when the second (top) coat of paint is applied. The picture below shows the finish product of the wall restoration process with two coats of Benjamin Moore Alaska White in Ben eggshell.

BedAfter

Overall, the homeowner was so excited to see the finished product as he did not think the walls could be restored back to the original finish due to the damage he caused during wallpaper removal. The end result is that we were all very happy with the finished product.

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How to Apply Glitter Wall Paint

Posted by Anthony Giangrossi Mar 09 2016

The homeowner wanted to change the color of her daughters bedroom walls along with adding a very slight glitter effect. The application of glitter to paint and applying to walls can be a D-I-Y project that can be completed during a weekend. Below is the process on how to apply glitter wall paint.

1. Do the necessary wall preparation (patching, sanding (120cc) and cleaning) of small holes, nicks or cracks prior to applying the first coat of paint. This will provide a uniform finish on the walls when the project is complete.

2. After the preparation is complete apply the first coat of paint (Benjamin Moore, Ben, eggshell finish – Soft Chamois) without glitter. Cut-in around the trim, windows, frames and ceiling with a 2.5″ or 3″ nylon/polyester Wooster brush. Roll the paint with a 3/4″ 50/50 nylon/polyester lambswool Wooster nap.

3. After the walls have dried (1-2 hours) the second coat of paint can be applied with the glitter. Apply the glitter to the paint can and make sure to stir thoroughly and continue to stir throughout the application process as to not let the glitter settle to the bottom of the can. Cut-in (as described above) the walls by dipping the bush in the glitter paint and applying as you did with the first coat. You can use the same brush that was used for the application of the first coat of paint. Glitter can be purchased in small 1-2oz bags (per gallon depending of effect). Since a slight glitter effect was the desired end result we only added 1/2 bag of glitter to the paint which was approximately 1/2 gallon.

4. After the walls are cut-in the final step is to roll the walls with a new 1/2″ 50/50 nylon/polyester lambswool Wooster nap. Finally and most importantly, when applying the paint with glitter make sure to roll from floor to ceiling across the entire wall to ensure a uniform application of the glitter.

Glitter_Bedroom_After2

The end result looks great and the room sparkles during different times of the day depending on the lighting. Hopefully you find the process helpful and you can make it your next D-I-Y project.

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Interior Painting

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