Painting FAQs Created by: !Monk’s Home Improvements

–Monk’s Home Improvements

!

The following are some of the most common questions our customers ask about their upcoming

painting projects… Hope you enjoy!

When should I schedule my painting estimate?❖ You should schedule the estimate for

your painting once your sheetrock has been installed. !

❖ Once your sheetrock has been hung, you are about 6 weeks away from painting. !

❖ Your contractors still need to tape, spackle and sand your sheetrock, install your trim and hang your interior doors and install the kitchen cabinets among other things. !

❖ Once the sheetrock is up, most surprises have been found and the house tends to stay the way it is.

When should I start painting?❖ We want to start painting when the carpenters

are completely finished. !

❖ You will not save time on a new construction job by having us start work while the carpenters are working in a different part of the house.!

❖ Carpenters create lots of dust which will inevitably end up in your trim paint and ruin the finish. !

❖ We are comfortable working in the house with most tile and kitchen cabinet contractors. !

❖ You will want your electrician to return after we are completely finished to hang your actual light fixtures. If the electrician hangs your fixtures before we paint, we will either paint around them or he will need to return to re-hang them when the job is completed.

What is Monk’s Home Improvement’s responsibility on a new construction job?❖ Generally speaking…. On a new

construction or major renovation project, we will not be responsible for any work on the new sheetrock. !

❖ If the house is a mix of new sheetrock and old walls, we are usually responsible for repairing the old walls. !

❖ We are not responsible for rebuilding new trim that was installed with large dents or gaps.!

❖ If you have a new banister or railing being installed, it is important to find out who is responsible for staining it. Sometimes we stain it and sometimes the floor contractor stains it.

What goes first, the floors or the painting?❖ The absolute best situation for the

homeowner is to have the floor contractor complete the sanding, staining and one coat of polyurethane before we arrive. !

❖ We will then protect the floors with resin paper while we paint. When we finish, the floor contractor comes back and applies his final coat of polyurethane.!

❖ We have trouble taping to the new polyurethane on the floor without damaging it, we will be creating dust in the house that will end up on the new polyurethane and if a ladder or bucket scratches the uncured polyurethane, it is difficult to repair. !

❖ We have no choice but to stand on your new floors while we work.

What goes first, the floors or the painting? (Continued)

❖ On the other hand, if the floor contractor doesn’t start his sanding until after we finish, you should expect to find dust on your newly painted walls. The floor contractor will also ding up the paint job on the baseboard and may hit some of the walls with the handle of his sander as he sands the floor.!

❖ If we paint after the sanding and before the final coat of polyurethane, you will find most rooms dust-free and coated with fresh paint and polyurethane. Your floor and walls will be in perfect condition. !

❖ Only the kitchens and bathrooms will have any dust in them.!❖ Most reputable floor contractors have worked this way and will not be

surprised if you ask for this arrangement. !❖ If a floor contractor doesn’t want to do this, it is probably because someone

wants to get the job finished quickly so they can get paid and not because they want to give you the best job possible.

How do you paint my trim? ❖ All trim gets caulked and the nail holes

get two coats of an epoxy wood filler. !❖ We then prime all trim with an oil based

primer. If your trim comes pre-primed, we will be priming it again. !

❖ We need to apply this coat of primer to cover the wood filler and caulk we have applied to your nail holes and seams. !

❖ After we prime your trim we apply two coats of paint. We sand your trim after we fill your nail holes, after we prime it and after the first coat of paint. !

❖ Oil based paint is also easier to sand and will give you a smoother finish on your trim. We recommend a semi-gloss finish for your trim.

What is the right way to paint new construction windows and doors?

❖ It is extremely important that all sides of new construction windows and exterior doors are primed and painted. !

❖ If you have a problem with your windows years after your job is completed, the first thing the window manufacturer will check is to see if the sides of your windows have been primed and painted. !

❖ If the sides of your windows are not painted, your warranty is probably void. Because windows tilt to the inside, we consider this the responsibility of the interior painter. !

❖ When we are hired to re-paint new houses several years after they have been completed, we find bare, unpainted wood on the sides of new windows on a regular basis.!

❖ We will paint the tops of all doors in your home. If you would like us to paint the bottom of the interior doors, we need you to have the contractor remove and re-hang the doors for us.!

❖ In our opinion, it is not important to paint the bottoms of most interior doors. We think that it is important to paint all 6 sides of a new exterior door.

How do you prime and paint my walls? ❖ We recommend having your new sheetrock walls

primed immediately after the taping and spackling job but before any of the interior trim is hung.!

❖ We can prime the sheetrock of most any house (up to 20,000 sq ft) in 2 days.!

❖ Once the walls are a uniform white, it is easy to tell if the seams, corners and screw heads are evenly finished.!

❖ Priming the walls before the finish trim is installed also makes it easier for your finish carpenters to see exactly how their trim looks on a white wall. I!

❖ After priming, we coat all walls with two coats of Latex paint. We recommend a flat finish for your ceiling, a matte finish for most walls and an eggshell finish for your kitchen and bathrooms. On a large job it may be worthwhile for you to hire a color consultant.

Is there a difference between painting new construction houses and an existing home?

❖ Absolutely!!

❖ While similar, each type of painting has different demands.!

❖ For a new construction house, nothing has ever been painted before. Particular attention must be paid to all nail holes and caulk lines. You need a large, experienced crew to paint in a new construction house so the job is not rushed, but is completed in a timely manner. !

❖ Wall repair is usually minor or not required. New construction houses are not full of delicate and valuable items that can be broken or stolen.!

❖ When re-painting a residential home, the character of the painter counts as much as his skill. The painters must be aware of any variety of small and delicate items that need to be protected or moved. !

❖ We try to work from room to room while giving the customer as much of their privacy as possible during the job. We do not use radios inside of people’s homes. Protecting the floor, carpets and walking areas is paramount.

How do you fix plaster walls and ceilings?❖ We mix our own plaster when

repairing plaster. !

❖ Depending on the size of the hole, we may mix the plaster with steel wool. !

❖ If a significant section of a plaster wall or ceiling is damaged, we may recommend removing the entire surface and installing sheetrock or patching with sheetrock. !

❖ When dealing with cracks in plaster, we use a knife to open up the crack and remove the pressure before filling the crack with new plaster.

How long does interior painting take?❖ An average interior room takes

us a day and a half. !❖ We can frequently finish within

a day, but because of dry times and touch-ups, we may need a few hours the following day to complete a room. !

❖ If you are doing several rooms at once, things go a little faster because we can work on a second room while the first room is drying.

Do you remove wallpaper or do you paint over it?

❖ Monk’s Painting will not paint over wallpaper unless it has already been previously painted over by someone else. !

❖ The first person to paint over wallpaper creates a big problem for someone else that must be corrected sometime in the future. !

❖ It is very difficult to remove wallpaper once it has been painted over until the glue fails and the paper starts coming off by itself.!

❖ After removing your wallpaper, we will prime your walls with one coat of an oil based primer. !

❖ This coat of oil based primer prevents any remaining glue from ruining the paint job over future years. If the walls are painted without priming them, your paint will flake and peel for years to come. !

❖ It is very difficult to solve this problem once the walls have been painted. After the oil based primer dries, we will repair any cracks and smooth the walls before painting.

Do you paint kitchen cabinets?❖ Yes!!❖ We typically recommend oil

based paint for kitchen cabinets.!

❖ Cabinets get a full coat of oil based primer and two coats of paint. !

❖ We recommend changing the handles, pulls and possibly your hinges when you paint your cabinets.

Do you do faux painting or hang wallpaper?

❖ We do not do faux (specialty) painting and we do not hang wallpaper. !

❖ Most good wallpaper hangers and faux painters want to practice their particular craft full time. !

❖ We are usually hired to come in before them to prepare the walls and apply a base coat so that they can come in and get straight to work.

Do you sheetrock?❖ We are the company you want to hire

to install sheetrock in a bedroom or two but we are not the company you want to hire if you need to install sheetrock on a large new construction job. !

❖ Sheetrock contractors are set up to come in to an empty house with a giant crew and hang sheets upon sheets of sheetrock faster than you could ever imagine.!

❖ When we finish basements we hang all of our own sheetrock, but you would be better served with a sheetrock contractor on anything larger than that.

– Your friends at Monk’s Home Improvements

Thank you for watching!