How important is it to pressure clean a home before we do the exterior house painting.
KR- Fort Myers
It is extremely important to have your home pressure cleaned before the exterior painting starts. But be sure and use bleach and rinse it off when your are finished. If you paint your home without pressure cleaning first the mold and mildew will continue to grow under the paint job and eventually the paint will start to peel off. Even though you do not see the mildew, it is there. We do live in the tropics. Once the home is pressure cleaned you must start painting right away. The mold will start growning back within a short period of time. Also be sure and rinse down your plants and windows to get the bleach film off of these surfaces. Especially rinsce down your vegetation, as the bleach will kill the plants. Ron R. Ron's Painting-Fort Myers
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I just had my home pressure cleaned by Coastline Window and Pressure Cleaning about a week ago. I am going to try and paint the exterior of my home myself. Coastline recommended I contact you with a question that I have. They told me you were the painting expert. There is white powder like substance on my home on the stucco when I rub up against this. Why didn't this come off curing pressure cleaning, I thought it would. What is it, and can I just paint over it? JM-Cape Coral
The white powder you are referring to is called chalk. This is from the previous paint surface breaking down over the years from the sun. Yes, pressure cleaning does remove some of it, but now all of it. You must seal in the chalk on the stucco surface before you paint stucco. If you rub your hand on your stucco surface and you have a lot of this powder on your hand then you need to go to your local paint store and ask for a clear chalk sealer. If you have just a little on your hand then ask them at the paint store for a pigmented chalk sealer. The professionals at Ron's Painting always use a clear chalk sealer. You can't always check all of the surfaces on the outside of your home, and some places might have a lot more chalk on the surface then other places. To be on the safe side we always use a clear chalk sealer. You can apply it by roller, but I recommend either a airless or you can use a garden pump up sprayer. It is thin just like water and cleans up nicely with water. Be sure and read the directions.
Good Luck with your exterior painting project. Ron R. Ron's Painting-Fort Myers
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I am in the process of getting painting quotes for painting the exterior of my Southwest Florida home. I want to make sure that the paint job lasts longer that the one that I have now. Can you please help me with this? BB-Sanibel
Yes I would be happy to give you advice on how to make your exterior paint job last longer. It is a very easy solution.
1) Hire a licensed painting contractor with a good reputation. Once you have chosen your painting contractor call Lee County Contractor Licensing at 239-533-8895 and ask if they are licensed in the county and ask if there are any complaints against the contractor. Also make sure the painting contractor has current Workers Compensation Insurance and Liability Insurance.
2) Make sure the painting contractor waits that all surfaces are dry and caulking and patching have cured overnight before applying paint.
3) During the months of Dec thru Feb/March depending on the weather make sure no paint is applied after 3pm. The paint will not cure in time before the sun sets and the evening due can cause the paint to run.
4) Make sure the painting contract is applying a premium quality of paint. Check with your painting contractor to see what manufacturer and grade of paint they use and then call the paint store and ask the manager what the quality of the paint actually is.
5) Be carefull on the color selection. Many brilllant and deep colors fade out quickly. Also check with the paint store manager to see what colorants are used in the color. This is a big determining factor in how quickly your paint will fade out. If your are having trouble choosing the color, please feel free to Ron's Painting at 239-482-1695 and we will be happy to help guide you in this process.
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I have paint peeling off of my interior doors and door casings on our Captiva home. Everytime I touch the surface the paint seems to peel off more. What is causing this. KR-Captiva Island
The last time your doors and door casings were painted, on your Captiva home, they were not properly prepared. You probably have this same problem on your baseboards. They probably had oil based paint on them when they were originally painted and someone recently painted them with a latex paint. What should have happened was to lightly sand, prime with bonding primer tinted to match your finish coat of paint, then paint surfaces with the latex paint. You will either have to live with the peeling paint, or strip all the paint off and start over. In some cases on some of my Sanibel and Captiva clients don't want the paint stripped due to the cost factor, I just paint over the surfaces with a premium oil based paint. This is not a cure all for the problem, but it seems to help hold back the peeling paint a little.
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I am thinking about doing some painting on my Bonita Springs home and I have a door on the side of my house that goes into my garage. It is rusting pretty bad and I noticed that the wood at the bottom of the door casings where it meets the concrete is all rotted out. What product can I use on the rust on the door and how concerned should I be about the rotting wood on the door casings?-Connie L-Bonita Springs
The rust that you see on your door is rusting from the inner side of your door outwards. You can go to your local paint store and buy a premium rust inhibiting primer, prime the door then paint it with a premium oil enamel. The only problem with this is that the door will continue to rust, and bleed through the paint. This solution is only a bandaid. I recommend replacing the door with a fiberglass door. If you do replace your door I also recommend you have your pest control company check for termites, if you do not have a pest control company I highly recommend Keith Reubeling from Larue Pest Management. Keith is well trained in detection of termites and has insepected many of my clients homes for for those pesky little termites. As far as door replacement, to make sure it is installed properly I recommend Kathy Guyitt from DesignTech of Southwest Florida.
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I had my pavers sealed by another company back in October before we got back for season and now my pavers have a white cloudy look on them. It was never like this before. Do you know what it is and how do I get rid of it? -Michelle-Fort Myers-Frustrated!!
Yes Michelle this can be fixed, as long as the last time they were sealed was with a Xylene based paver sealer. There is a product out now that is made to remove the cloudiness. We have to pressure clean your pavers again, let them dry for a minimum of 4 days. During this time the sprinkler system must be kept off. We will then apply this new product to the pavers. This should remove most of the cloudiness. The next day we have to seal the driveway again with a coat of Wet Look Paver Sealer that is Xylene based. Once it is dry your pavers will be a lot better looking and the only maintenance that you will have to do on your pavers is have them pressure cleaned once a year for at least the next 5 years.
I have a older home in Fort Myers that has formica kitchen cabinets. The cabinets are still in pretty good shape, but the formica is a wood grain formica. Kind of out dated for my kitchen. I can't afford to have new kitchen cabinets installed but would love to have them painted. Is is possible to paint the cabinets, doors and drawers. Lorain W.-Fort Myers
Absolutely. Whether the kithen or bathroom cabinets are formica, or wood they can still be painted. The most important steps in painting kitchen/bathroom cabinets is cleaning the cabinets thoroughly to remove grease. Then sand the surface to scuff it up and wipe down with a tack rag, then apply a good coat of oil based XIM Bonding primer to all of the surfaces. Once the bonding primer dries then the cabinets can be painted. But remember once the surface is painted it can still be chipped just like a car finish can be. You need to be careful. Here are some pictures of a bathroom Ron's Painting just finished.
Bathoom Cabinets Before Paint and Faux Finish... Bathroom Cabinets After Paint and Faux
Finish
I just had my home and driveway pressure cleaned. When they pressure cleaned my driveway my garage door was down and a little bit of my garage floor was exposed and when they pressure cleaned the area where my garage floor was the paint came off of the floor. I had my handyman paint my floor about a year ago with some paint from Home Depot. It is the paint that has the flakes in it. What would cause this paint to come off of the floor? Kelly E-Sanibel, Florida
When your handyman painted the garage floor on your Sanibel home he probably did not prepare the garage floor properly. This is what caused the paint to come off. Anytime you paint concrete floors, the floor must be pressure cleaned, washed and broomed with muratic acid and then rinsed thoroughly. By washing then brooming the garage floor down with muratic acid, this opens up the pores in the concrete and give the paint something to bond to. You must also let the floor dry for a minimum of 4 days before putting the first coat of paint on the concrete. You do not want to trap moisture in the concrete under the paint. This is what caused the paint to come off. This is also why you should always hire a profession painter not a handyman to do painting projects.
I am painting the exterior of my home in Cape Coral. I am trying to paint a little bit every evening after I get home from work. I am finding that when I get up the next morning everything I painted the evening before is still wet and the paint is dripping down the house. What would cause the paint to do this. Mike-Cape Coral, Florida
Mike I would recommend to you to wait until the week end to do your exterior painting. The reason your paint is still wet in the morning is the dew we get this time of year. A rule I have at Ron's Painting is that we stop painting the exterior of a home by at least 2 1/2 to 3 hours before sunset. This will give the paint time to set up before the sunsets and the evening dew hits the fresh paint. In the winter months it does not get real warm outside and the sunsets so early and when you are painting the exterior of a home the evening dew is attracted to the fresh paint. The dew then sets on the fresh exterior paint all night until the sun hits it the next day and dries the fresh paint. Many professional painters do the exact same thing that you do and unfortunately the customer ends up with a very bad paint job. Do your painting on the weekends when you have more time and stop by 4 pm.
My name is Frank and I am on the board of directors of a community association. It is the homeowners responsibility to paint their own garage door. Many of the garage doors in the community has peeling paint. Would you come over to our association and tell us the cause of this problem. Frank-Myerlee Assoc. Ft. Myers, Florida
Frank after looking at the garage doors it looks like the last person that painted the garage doors used an oil based paint on them. With your garage door facing south, it is in the sun most of the day. The metal on the garage door expands and contracts causing the paint to alligator and come loose. Oil based paint does not expand and contract with surfaces. It also looks like the previous painter did not properly prepare the surface for painting before they painted the garage doors, thus causing adhesion issues. My recommendation is to pressure clean the garage door using a rotating tip to strip off the loose paint. When dry go back and scrape the remaining loose paint, prime with a bonding primer and paint with Glidden Devflex acrylic hi-performance enamel in a semi-gloss finish. This should hold up very well for you against the harsh Florida sun.
Ron, we are in the process of getting estimates for interior painting in our Fort Myers home. We would like to have this done while we are on vacation. Several painters have told me that they do not move furniture when they do interior painting. One painter wanted me to sign a waiver before he would move furniture. What is the procedures of your painting company for interior painting and moving furniture. M H.-Fort Myers, Florida
When we do interior painting for our Southwest Florida clients, it is standard procedure for Ron's Painting-Fort Myers to move all furniture. I ask the homeowers to move the small things, like knick-knacks, light pictures, fine china and things like that. We prefer to move the large pieces of furniture. My employees are trained in moving furniture and we have the right equipment 
necessary to move interior home furnishings. If the homeower is up north for the summer and they want us to do the interior painting while they are gone, we can do this too. We take pictures of each room on the interior of their home or condo, move what ever is necessary, cover all furnishings with drop clothes, and then check the our pictures that we took with the camera to make sure we put all interior furnishings are put back in the right place. The drop clothes we use for interior painting we only use on the interior of homes, and we wash them regularly to keep them clean. The picture to the left was taken when we did the interior painting of this home on Sanibel. As you can see how we have everything covered up completely. The homeowners were up north during the painting. I have been doing interior painting for over 30 years and we have a system when it comes to interior painting. I always tell my clients we make painting the interior of their home as painless as possible. We even have our own vacuum cleaner.
We are trying to pick colors for painting the interior of our Naples home. I have been looking at paint color swatches for weeks, and when I see them at Home Depot, Lowes, Sherwin Williams, and Benjamin Moore here in Naples I love the colors. Then I bring them home and they look completely different. My neighbor painted the inside of their Naples home and I really like the color. I tried some of the same color on our walls and it looks completely different. Can you please give us some advice. Totally Frustrated, Shelly O-Naples, Florida
Yes I can help you with your paint color selections for your Naples home. What your are experiencing is called "Metamerism," a phenomenon whereby paint colors seem to change when viewed under different light sources. It's always best to view paint color swatches in the actual space and lighting conditions in which they'll be used. Some colors are particularly prone to "metamerism," including tans, taupes, grays, grayed-blues, mauves, lilacs and grayed yellow-greens. I always recommend to my clients to look at the color in the room they are going to paint, but to also look at the paint color swatch at different times of day. Direct sunlight, indirect sunlight, and artificial light can completely change the look of a paints color. I also recommend to my Southwest Florida clients to put down a piece of white paper and look at the paint color swatch on top of the piece of white paper. Cover the surrounding color chips on the page with a piece of white paper also so you are just looking at the one paint color chip. This way you will get a better feel of what the color will look like. Remember surrounding colors impact how any one color is perceived. Don't put the paint chip up against the wall, the old paint color will affect color you are trying to choose. An ivory wall can appear pink when paired with a vibrant red carpet. Before you make a final decision on the paint color for the interior painting of your Naples home create a list of the key elements that will remain in each room--sofa, rug, flooring, bedspreads, window treatments, etc....Think about the room's purpose and how you'd like to feel in the room. For example, do you see your family room as a quiet haven from the world, or as the lively entertainment center of your home? Determine your own personal color preferences. Once you've gathered your ideas, take a look at your collection and see which design elements stand out. Are there specific colors, styles or other elements that attract you. While moving through your Naples home, consider the colors that can be seen from the openings in each room of your Naples home. Whether you have a open floor plan or the space in your Naples home is clearly defined, select paint colors that flow from one area to the next to create a thoroughly pleasing effect. Good Luck with your interior painting project. If you need further help please call me and I will be happy to have someone from our design team meet with you.
I had my driveway, front walkway, and garage door painted 1 year ago by a painting contractor. The paint on my garage door is separating and starting to come off. The paint on my driveway and walkway is also separating and peeling off. Can you stop by my home and take a look at these areas for me and make recommendations on how I can get this resolved. I have been calling the painting contractor that originally did the work, and he is not returning my phone calls. Frank M.-Bonita Springs, Florida
I recently went and met with Frank at his home in Bonita Springs. The garage door faces Southwest and it gets a lot of the sun. The garage door was painted with a oil based exterior paint. When the sun hit the aluminum door it causes the aluminum to expand and contract, but the oil based paint does not expand and contract with the door. Thus it starts to alligator and the paint starts to separate and peel off. The sun also causes the oil based paint to chalk very quickly and loose color retention. I always recommend painting aluminum or fiberglass garage doors that have a sound surface with a premium exterior acrylic latex. Never oil based paint. To fix this problem I am recommending that the garage door be completely stripped down to the bare metal, washed down with vinegar and then rinsed with clean water. Then apply a coat of acrylic exterior bonding primer to garage door. Let set overnight. The paint garage door with a coat of premium exterior latex in a satin for semi-gloss finish.
After looking at the driveway the issue is that the latest paint product that was put on over the existing paint coating is not compatible. The first coat of paint is adhering with no problems but the top coat of paint is coming off. The only way to fix the problem is to have the entire driveway and walkway sandblasted to remove all of the coatings on the surface and start over. If we apply paint over the existing coating it will only stick as well as the existing coating is adhering to the first coat, and that is not adhering at all. Once the driveway and walkway is sandblasted, we can then look at the surface and decide what needs to be done to apply a new coating to these surfaces. My rule of thumb when painting driveways and walkways is if the homeowner can show me what was last used on the surface, then I always use the same product when I repaint. If the homeowner can not show me what was previously used then I always put down a bonding primer and two top coats of a premium exterior deck paint or stain in a acrylic finish. Not all acrylic deck paints are compatible with other acrylic deck paints, and acrylic deck paints are not compatible with Xylene based paints. I have never had a problem putting one Xylene based deck paint over another Xylene based deck paint. Epoxy finishes should never be used on the exterior of a building. They do not hold up the the sun. When you do painting in Southwest Florida you always have to take into consideration how strong the Florida sun is, and what the surface will do after it has been painted. If you use the wrong products or procedures this is when you have adhesion problems and or paint failure. It is always a good idea to check with your local paint manufacturer like Sherwin Williams, Glidden, Benjamin Moore and speak with the store managers.
I recently purchased a condo in Naples, Florida and I want to paint the interior using a no VOC Paint. I have spoke with people and they tell me there is a No VOC paint and a Low VOC paint. Can you tell me the difference, and also who locally sells these paint products. Donna O-Naples, Florida
The term VOC stands for Volatile Organic Compounds. These are low level toxic emissions that are released into the air for years after application of the paint. According to the EPA any paint with VOC's in the range of 5grams/litre or less is considered No Voc. Paints that range contain 50 grams/litre or less are considered Low VOC paints. To give you a better explanation of these terms I have added a link "Non Toxic Paints and Voc's". This will explain in detail the difference between the two. As far as purchasing the paints, Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, Glidden all carry No VOC paints, and Sherwin Williams carries low VOC paint. Home Depot used to carry a product from Glidden with No VOC's. Click on the link and it will tell you what paint manufacturers carry these products. I hope this has helped.
I live on Sanibel Island and I have aluminum handrails around my pool that I have had painted in the past. I am noticing that there is black on the handrails and it seems like it is under the existing coating of paint. We have washed the handrails with a solution of bleach and water and this does not seem to remove the black from the handrails. Can you please advise me on how to handle this. Jean B-Sanibel Island, Florida
I am very familiar with what you are seeing on the handrails of your Sanibel home. The black you are seeing is mildew. It is actually growing on your handrails under your existing paint. The last time your handrails were painted, the painting contractor that you had paint the handrails did not wash the handrails with bleach and water and rinse them with clean water. Because this was not done, your painter just painted over the mildew and it is growing under your paint. There are two solutions to this problem. The first solution is to chemically strip the existing coating of paint off of the handrails, clean with bleach and water then repaint your handrails. This solution is very costly. Your other options is to clean with bleach and water to remove any existing mildew this is now on the handrails and just paint the handrails. Unless the paint starts to come off I would recommend just repainting over your existing paint job. This is the most economical solution. This is why it is so important when doing any type of exterior painting to always wash the surface down with bleach and water then rinse with clean water. This is a problem all over Southwest Florida, it is not just a problem on Sanibel.
I am going to start posting on this page " Painting Tips" for different phases of house painting. When homeowners e-mail me questions, painting ideas or if I am meeting with a client giving a painting proposal and they have a painting question I will type in the question below with the answer. If you have any questions you need answers too, please don't hesitate to e-mail them to me. I am starting this page January of 2010. As I get the questions I will post them. Please check back for current questions and painting tips. 
