Residential Repaints

Residential repaints are our bread and butter. Customers come to us every year asking to repaint their house for a variety of reasons. Some customers want to prepare their house before they sell it, others want to redecorate and some just want to freshen up. Depending on the purpose, the process, prep work and pricing for a repaint will vary.

Regardless of whether the project is a house or a condo, it will usually fall under one of the following five situations:

Redecorating
Preparing for a sale
Restoration/Repair

Redecorating

If you are looking to spice your home up or to achieve a new look, you fall under the redecorating category of residential repaints. This is one of the tougher categories due to the extensive amount of prep work involved and the compromises required of working in an occupied home. A few key characteristics of redecorating projects are that:

There is furniture around the house
The homeowner is typically living in the house

These lead to the following challenges:

Our crew must carefully move and protect lots of furniture in addition to the floors. Sometimes we must mask the furniture at the beginning of the day and unmask at the end of the day so that the homeowner can use the furniture. This of course takes extra time.
Crew members must contain the project so that the entire home does not turn into a construction zone while the homeowner is living there. This means our work process may not be as efficient as it would be in an unoccupied home.
The homeowner is constantly looking and judging the work because they see it everyday. We must be meticulous with detail and prep because the homeowner is redecorating for aesthetic purposes.

So how do we deal with these challenges? The following is our process for redecorating projects:

We first coordinate with the homeowner the schedule of the areas we will be painting. Unlike a new construction project, we will be working from room to room, setting up and closing out each room before moving on to the next. This helps contain the project and allows the homeowner to live in the home while we work.
We carefully move all of the furniture to the center of the rooms or areas where we are not working. We then thoroughly mask the furniture with plastic and the floors with dropcloths or paper to protect all of the areas.
Walls and trim are all thoroughly repaired and prepped for painting. That means holes are filled, trim caulked, and all areas sanded and cleaned so that the finish coat is as smooth as possible.
Our crew then vaacuum, unmask and move all of the furniture back to where they belong. In the case that the areas is not yet complete, the crew will still clean up ensuring that the area is tidy and no mess creeps out to the rest of the house.

Preparing For a Sale

A paint job is an efficient and cost-effective way to get a house ready for sale. It can make the house feel cleaner, bigger and newer without having to do extensive work. These types of paint jobs are typically simple and cost less than other repaint jobs. However, the following things can affect the price:

How soon the job needs to be finished.
The amount of prep-work required.

These lead to the following challenges:

We find that people preparing to sell their house always are always on a short timeline. Expediting the job can add extra costs due to having to reschedule other jobs and paying overtime.
Even if you want a "quick" job, houses with extensive smoke stains, scuffs and oil marks will still need to extensive prep work or else the paint will not adhere or cover.

So how do we deal with these challenges? The following is our process for redecorating projects:

We coordinate with the homeowner to figure out how quickly the job needs to be done. This could mean bringing on extra crew member or working longer shifts
Unfortunately there is no short cut for prep-work. If there are indeed tough stains or smoke damage, we have to extensively clean the surfaces and shellac prime the areas.

Restoration/Repair

Restoration and repair work is one of the most intensive and expensive types of paint jobs. These projects require intensive prep-work and working in tough conditions. Some projects which fall under this category are:

Houses with smoke or water damage
Damaged surfaces and trim
Old surfaces with many layers of paint

These lead to the following challenges:

Surfaces with water damage or nicotine smoke cannot be simply painted over or the stain will bleed through.
Damaged surfaces and trim do not look good even if we paint over top of them
Surfaces with many layers of old paint often have ugly textures (cracks, craters etc..) which are noticeable if not addressed.

So how do we deal with these challenges? The following is our process for redecorating projects:

Stained surfaces must first be thoroughly cleaned. Depending on how tough the stain is, we will need to seal them with either and alkyd based primer or shellac primer. These primers have very strong smells and are tough to work with.
Damaged surfaces need to be repaired or skimmed before being painted. For example. rotting wood will continue to deteriorate if we do not remove the problem area and replace it.
Surfaces with with rough textures either need to be skimmed or stripped of the old coatings. This is a very involved and labour intensive undertaking but will yield much better end results than just painting over top.