Painting a house…the right way

Posted: March 17, 2010 | Author: 1527xy | Filed under: Outside stuff |Leave a comment »

I really started to doubt the thinking behind the decision to paint the house ourselves when my feet started cramping from standing on a ladder for so long.

The thing was, the house was in desperate need of new paint. Not a “blow and go” paint job either, where a couple of college kids, a pressure washer and an airless sprayer show up for a day or two, charge you five grand and leave you with a somewhat better looking house.

No, our paint was cracked, checked and peeling. The house needed some serious TLC. This meant stripping down to bare wood, doing a thorough job restoring the siding, applying many cases of caulk, priming, repairing window casings and trim, then applying the highest-quality paint in a way that would highlight the house’s architectural style.

I should also mention that the house’s paint had never been stripped. This meant it was covered in many coats of lead-based paint. And we have a young daughter. Lead dust and kids don’t mix well.

In some ways the smart thing would have been to pull off all of the siding and cart it to the dump, replacing it with something new. It would have been cheaper and faster. But in my mind it would also have been a tragedy. We have clear fir and cedar siding and shingles–the stuff from old-growth forests that were harvested to … build houses. And we felt a responsibility to preserving this. Plus, you can’t buy materials this good anymore. They simply don’t exist.

Coming off this tangent, what do you think it would cost to pay someone to do things the right way? And keep in mind that this was at the height of the housing bubble, when all contracters were super busy. Anyone?

If you guessed $25,000 to $30,000, you’d be guessing right. And this wouldn’t include stripping in a way that minimized lead dust all over our gardens.

After reading a bunch of our posts you might guess what we decided. To do it ourselves of course. And when I say “ourselves,” remember what I just typed about a young daughter. K.’s job would be entertaining L., not spending all weekend every weekend, and most evenings stripping old paint.

Many hours of internet research and discussions at Sherwin-Williams later, a plan was in place. First, we “invested” in an infrared paint stipper (Note: “investing” in a tool is like “winning” an auction. It means you’re spending money you’ll never recoup). The Silent Paint Remover is a very slick system. It uses infrared heat that breaks the bond between the paint and the siding, but doesn’t heat it enough to vaporize the lead in the paint. It’s then scraped off, making clean-up a snap and removing the risk of contaminating soil, family and pets. If you have an old house and are into restoration, I highly recommend this thing.

If you watch the videos about how it works you’ll also notice HOW FAST AND EASY it is. Riiiiiggggt. It works really, really well. But it’s far from fast.

My guess was that it would take a weekend (maybe two!) to strip the entire house. I think it took me close to two months, and this includes a week or so that I took off from work. It was brutal–the middle of summer, hanging out in the sun on a ladder with a 400 degree heater in my hand.

The good thing about doing this project ourselves though was that 1) we were confident that everything was done well and 2) we sprung for the best paint we could buy. And good paint–the kind with a lifetime warranty that costs $60 a gallon–makes a huge difference.

In the end, the project took longer than expected, but looks awesome. Our “sneaker white” (more like, dirty sneakers) house is now two shades of green that’s much more appropriate for a craftsman. Trim is off white, and we used reddish-rose as an accent color. Cool stuff, and I think the house is happier for the change.

There’s also a funny story about the paint colors. When you undertake an ambitious outdoor project in a walking neighborhood like ours, you have to expect lots of visitors. Most of these are great, and in fact neighborly “how’s it goings” are a great distraction from hard and often-monotonous work. But then there was Bungle Boy.

Bungle Boy isn’t his real name, but he’s a guy that walked by almost every day to check on our progress. And he was really into paint color. Evidently Sherwin-Williams has a paint color called Bunglehouse Grey. This isn’t a color we used. (for the record, it’s Oxford Ivy, Zeus, Calablanca and English Rose.)

Anyway, Bungle Boy introduced himself one day (not as Bungle Boy) and complimented our choice of paint color. Here’s how it went down.

BB: “Hey, nice job choosing Bunglehouse Grey.”

Me: “Thanks, but it’s not Bunglehouse Grey. That’s a different color.”

BB: “No, it is. Sherwin-Williams has a paint color called Bunglehouse Grey, and it’s really similar to what you have. You must be using a different brand.”

Me: “Wow, that’s a super interesting story. But we bought our paint at Sherwin-Williams, and it’s not Bunglehouse Grey. It’s called Zeus.”

BB: “That really surprises me, because it looks just like Bunglehouse Grey. In fact my wife is really into design. She might even be a designer one day as a job.”

Me: “Um, OK.”

BB: “Yeah, she’s really talented. OK, well I’m off to get some a frozen coffee at the Rocket. Man, it’s really hot out here today. Bet you wish you were drinking frozen coffee.”

Me: “Yes, well, luckily I haven’t noticed that it’s 94 degrees and that I’ve been out here for 8 hours. But at least I can work in the shade so that the paint doesn’t coagulate the second I open the can.”

BB: “Yeah, that’s lucky. Well have a good day.”

Me: “OK. Bye.”

BB: “Alright dude. Bunglehouse!”

So then K. comes up and says something like, “what’s up with Bungle Boy?”

For the next few weeks we had daily Bungle Boy sightings. It was funny at the time.

Anyway, just in case you’re exhausted from reading here are some happy snaps. And once again, I know I need to take some better and more recent pics.