Andy OnCall Chicagoland

·  Watch the long-term weather forecast, and if it’s bad, don’t paint - even if it means you have to wait a few weeks. There is no sense in spending money on paint only to watch it all wash down the storm gutter.  

·  Surface Preparation will make or break your paint job. If the surface isn’t clean, dry, and free of debris, then your new paint won’t stick. It won’t matter if you buy the most expensive paint with the best guarantee if you don’t prepare your house for painting. Use a heavy scraper and remove all loose flakes of paint. Take a wire brush and scrub off any old cobwebs on siding and use it to break loose the mildew that tends to grow on the shady side of your house. Rent or borrow a pressure washer and remove all of the dirt from the foundation.  

·  Use the same paint that is currently on the house. Paint sticks best to itself. If you can’t find a partial can from the original product, make sure that you know if the paint already on your house is latex or oil based. Do not put one over the other. If you do, it can peel off in sheets in a very short amount of time. Rub a sheet of sandpaper over an inconspicuous place on the house. If the paint begins to roll up into little balls on your sandpaper, then it’s latex. If it gets dusty and chalky, then it’s oil-based.  

·  Use a brush on siding and a roller on brick or stucco. On a house with horizontal siding, a big 4″ brush is the way to go. It allows you to work paint into all of the crevices and creates a much more even coat than a roller would. It also allows you to work up underneath the bottom edge of the siding. For stucco or brick, roll the surface. Get a roller head with a thick nap like 3/4″ to 1″. This will allow the head to hold a lot of paint and will also allow it to work a little better into the natural pits that occur in rough surfaces. You will always need to use a brush on any trim work. A 2″ angle brush works well for window and door trim.  

·  Use high quality drop cloths. If you think cleaning paint from carpet is no fun, try wire-brushing it off of a sidewalk. This is a step in the painting process where even a beginner can do like a pro.  

·  Know how to clean up. Take the time to read all your labels before you start and make sure that you have the necessary cleaning supplies before you begin. If you don’t, you probably won’t clean your tools at all. A brush or roller that is left sitting around for a few hours full of paint will be tomorrow’s trash.

Belt and Suspenders: Maintain two copies of your home insurance records: One copy should be stored at home in an easy to locate place. The other should be stored in your safe deposit box. These records should include your insurance policy, and the phone numbers for your agent or insurance company for reporting claims, as well as an inventory (photographs are great to supplement this). If you need to evacuate your home, you should take insurance records stored at home with you. If for some reason, your records at home are damaged or lost, you’ll be thankful for the copy in the safe deposit box.