All posts by manage-system-user

Today’s post is a little off topic for a painting blog, but every winter we begin that long season of shorter days and longer nights. It all begins with the world around us getting more stark – the grass goes brown, the leaves begin to fall off the trees, and the birds start heading out. It can be foreboding to many as the signs of winter creep into our everyday lives. But if you have the eyes to see it, you have been given hope too. So many fall festival begin to spring up with people having fun and enjoying hot chocolate and food truck fare. Then Thanksgiving, that high holiday where we reflect on all the gifts that God has given to us as we gather at the table for a feast. But it is not over yet . . .

The Advent season then begins as the excitement of Christmas start to build. Displays start showing up in stores as the anticipation builds. The kids start making paper chains to the countdown to Christmas day! Towns begin to put up decorations and the days begin to get shorter faster. Our neighbors around town begin to string lights on their homes and the world, just as the darkness begins to overtake the days, we light up the nights with our lights. We overcome the darkness with our lights and celebrations and this brings a lot of happiness to those who will accept it. The grinches start showing up too. They can be heard complaining about all the shops putting up Christmas stuff up so early and how December is always way too busy. To some, it seems, God’s goodness to us always comes with a price tag that is almost too big for the measly return of one little day. Just one short day – it is, in fact, one of the shortest days of daylight of the entire year. And should I mention how these grinches feel about family and the get together?

But to many, if not most, that one day is the best day of the year. It is the most anticipated day of the year. To these people, the light of Christmas makes the darkness of winter more meaningful. I don’t think it is a mistake that our Christian forbearers put Christmas in the middle of the winter. Of all the reasons we celebrate Christmas when we do, none of them can be as significant as the idea that, when all seems so dark, cold, and lonely, God gives us the gift of Christmas. Is this not the entire meaning of Christ. Christ enters the world as a light in the darkness making us alive when all we knew was death a separation from God? In our darkest of nights and our lostness, God sends us a light not merely to show us the way, but to light up our lives. He send Christ to make us alive in the middle of being dead. He brings meaning to our lives and, in His grace, He slowly begins to make everything new. There are some who know what I mean and this will bring great joy to your hearts.

Instead of complaining about stores putting up decorations so early, we should be excited and asking why did they put them up so late! And yes, family can be a complicated mess sometimes – most of the time for many. But even in that we should be thankful that we have family, even if it is complicated. My prayer this season is that God will show you His grace and that your heart of mourning can become a heart of thanksgiving and joy. If you thought Christ would fix everything around you, you’ve gotten it wrong! But He can and He will fix you if you will just ask Him to. After all, it is likely you and I are the most broken things around and it all begins with how we are looking at the world.

In the last few years, two competing worldviews have surfaced in our culture.  One worldview is steeped in gratitude and the other is steeped in the language of victimhood.  One worldview tells you to take stock, see your faults and situation, and then work to improve yourself.  The other worldview tells you that you are more a product of your circumstance and that you will need the help of others to improve your situation for you.  One is the view of the world in which you are master of your own destiny and the other requires everyone around you to commit to giving you the proper resources to succeed.  Of course I am talking about the traditional western and Christian worldview.  The other is a newer Marxian view of life.  So, this Thanksgiving, what direction will you go?  Will you see the founders of our county, our way of life as a gift from God that paved the way for this incredible way of life?  Will you see your parents as a gift from God who either gave you the tools to succeed or, if your childhood was difficult, will you see them as giving you the tools to navigate hard circumstances?  Or will you choose to think that they all failed you?

So often our temptation is to focus on the troubles, problems, and difficulties. To scream “foul” at our circumstances when they don’t go our way.  As I think back on all my years, the one constant refrain is that very little actually went according to my plan – and I am so thankful that it didn’t.  I don’t think my life would be the same.  How anemic would life be if I accomplished all I thought I would.  Instead, I was given nine mild mannered children who are delightful to spend time with and a loving wife who is there to help me work through tough problems and cheer me on.  Would it have been like this if I had gotten my way.  Only God could know the answer to that one, but I am happy things have worked out this way.  Maybe your circumstance isn’t so good.  Maybe, if you change how you think about your life and pray for God’s help to improve it, you will slowly begin to see your life change and your will grow in stature with every passing day.  On this Thanksgiving Day, will you reflect on all those undeserved and hard fought for accomplishments in your life?  If you are like me, your thoughts will turn towards family, friends, God, and all those business acquaintances who have added to the fullness of my life over the past 20 years and your heart will be made glad.  Will you be thankful this Thanksgiving?  I hope so, the joy in your heart will be hard to contain!

In this post, I am talking to general contractors about what makes a good painting subcontractor.  It takes a lot of tools and skillsets to perform well in the commercial painting market.  Our twenty years in business has been spent in the direct to owner and subcontractor world, so we know a thing or two about working for general contractors and how to be a good subcontractor for them.  You won’t catch us talking down the gig as a subcontractor, we have a lot of respect for good general contractors!  So, let’s talk about what makes a good general contractor first.

In the Bible, Jesus tells us you will know them by their fruit.  This saying can be applied more broadly than just telling who is a Christian or not.  Well, you will know a good general contractor by their fruit.  Here are a few tests we use when determining who to work for and who to stay away from.  First, do they care to make the customer happy.  If you don’t care to make your primary customer happy, you are either very bad a vetting your clients or you have fostered a culture of love-hate with them.  Any contracting firm that has grown hard and brittle with their clients is to be avoided.  Second, we look for happy subcontractors and employees.  If a contractor is operating with the grain, they treat those that work for them fairly and like they are on the same team.  Contractors that are heavy handed should be avoided.  That is not to say they can’t have high expectations.  In fact, high expectations are one of the things we look for in a good general contractor relationship.  High, but reasonable expectations is one of the best metrics in finding a contractor who will deliver good, consistent, and profitable results for everyone on the team – including the project owner!  The final thing, believe it or not, is contract length.  Whenever a 50+ page contract crosses my desk, I know there is a 50% chance the relationship is based on distrust and an expectation that everyone is trying to finger point in that relationship.  So that is what we look for in a general contractor, but what makes a good subcontractor?

Over the years, we have tried to think of how we can best serve our general contractor clients.  First, a subcontractor needs to be fiscally responsible and able to financially perform the projects on their boards.  A hungry subcontractor is a problem subcontractor who will always be looking for an easy payday.  I made this mistake early on and didn’t even know it until an older gentleman told me that one of my problems was that I didn’t realize that I was a bank.  He was right.  Since then, we done our best to make sure we could finance every project that we took on with cash in hand.  This motivated us to save up and be able to cover every project on the board with cash in hand.  What a game changer this was for our outlook of the world and for our relationships with each GC customer.  Second, a good subcontractor will be self-disciplined in their work.  Does your sub call you to get your schedule for their trade or do they just wait to be told what to do.  Are they asking scope questions early so there are no surprises?  If you can’t manage your own scope and schedule, you are nothing more than a slave – and a slave with many masters is a bad slave!  As a subcontractor, you need to guard your schedule and scope with tenacity.  This might irritate some superintendents with many phone calls and too many questions, but better this than to be chronically underperforming and unable to meet the demands of the schedule!  Finally, a good subcontractor needs to be honest and transparent.  If you cannot meet a demand, you need to fess up to it early and often so the GC can have the time to come up with their choses solution.  A good subcontractor won’t play games and won’t hold their cards TOO closely to the chest.  You are on THEIR team after all and you should be a grown up and act like it.

So, if you are a general contractor who does work in the Indy area and are looking for a reliable subcontractor, I would like to speak with you.  Indiana Painting is usually competitive, but not the cheapest.  If you are low bid specialist, we probably won’t be a great fit.  But if you are looking for a good partner in getting your projects finished on time and with a quality you can be proud to show your customer on punch day, we’d love to be on YOUR team!

Many property owners ask us why there last paint job didn’t last as long as they had expected. The answer to this question is not a simple one and not because the causes aren’t know, but because there are quite a few factors that involve paint longevity. In the following post, we will explore the various reasons for fading paint and how we, the painting contractor, can help extend the life of your paint job.

Preparation

All good paint jobs begin with preparing the substrate. In the industry we use the initials CDDS – Clean, Dry, Dull, and Stable. When we have these four conditions, our paint has a good chance of adhering and functioning as it should for many years to come. I will cover why each one is important below:

Clean – this one is obvious. If the surface is dirty, the paint will adhere to the dirt and the bond is only as strong as the weakest bond in the system and dirt doesn’t typically bond too well! Any professional painter will always clean the surface before painting it. If your painter isn’t cleaning with pressure washing or similar method, they are doing you a disservice.

Dry – that a surface needs to dry might seem obvious, but some paints actually recommend that you dampen the surface first. These paints are usually masonry paints and the moisture helps extend the dry time so the paint has time to correctly bond and crosslink. A painter must always be mindful of the limitations of paint and how it was designed to be used. This information is found in the PDS (Product Data Sheet) or TDS (Technical Data Sheet) on file with the manufacturer. Wood is by far the most absorbent exterior building product. Our team carries moisture meters with them so they can ensure the wood is dry enough to paint. Painting surfaces that are too wet will cause the paint to have poor adhesion and may even damage the paint film as the moisture dilutes the paint.

Dull – it is difficult to get paint to stick to many shinny surfaces. Tile, glass, high sheen plastics, etc. are the most difficult surfaces to paint. Shinny is often achieved by creating a surface with densely packed molecules. Shinny surfaces resist absorption while dull surfaces usually readily accept water. One of the main methods of getting paint to bond to a surface is by forming a mechanical bond. The resin in paint is absorbed into the substrate and gets “keyed” into the surface. If you were to look at a surface in a very high powered microscope, you would see a very rough surface (kind of like the surface of the moon). The resin in paint fills all the voids and dries in them creating a strong bond. The second method of creating a bond is called the chemical bond. This happens when the bonding chemical either etches the surface to create a mechanical bond or softens the substrate just enough for the them to meld together. Bonding primers are a specialty product and must only be used on substrates they are designed to be use on.

Stable – this simply means that the substrate is sound. If the substrate is weak and disbonding from itself of the sub substrate, the new bond will only be as strong as the previous bond. A good example of this is paint that might look like it is adhering well, but is letting go underneath it all. New paint can sometimes stress out this bad bond and cause a more rapid disbonding. A painter must remove all unstable coatings and materials before applying the new paint or primer. We see this often on precast and CMU (concrete masonry units) buildings where water has penetrated the surface and is causing the paint to disbond from the surface. This must be removed before you paint.

Application

Application affects fading too. If paint is applied in weather that is too wet or too hot, the paint cannot properly cure. If the substate is too wet from dew, recent rain or even ambient humidity in the right circumstances, it can dilute the paint and cause uneven curing. If it is too hot and sunny, you risk the paint drying too quickly, not giving the resins the appropriate time to properly set up in the initial cure. Professional painters will follow the technical specs and will know from experience the circumstances that cause failure. One should never be too flippant about the ambient conditions when applying exterior paint!

Some substrates have special considerations too. Painting over cementitious substrates takes knowledge of the building material. Many painters skip priming on pre primed fiber cement siding and trim. This “shortcut” is almost always a mistake. The priming process at the factory often locks in high PH cement and doesn’t allow it to dissipate normally. You must pressure wash and prime fiber cement siding and trim before you paint it – even if it has been pre primed! Precast is best when you let it set for 6 months and, even then, you must prime it with a PH resistant primer. CMU needs to sit for at least 7 days (we prefer 30 days for the best results) and, even after that time frame, a good painter will use a modern block surfacer that handles high PH levels better. Even with all these precautions, we recommend waiting 48 hours before top coating to allow a good barrier to from between the substrate and the top coats. Taking shortcuts here will result in premature fade and, sometimes, early paint failure!

Finally, film build is important in exterior paint performance! Too thin and the paint will not be able to perform as it was design – too thin and the UV rays will penetrate the film too deeply and cause the paint to degrade too quickly. A good painter will take great care to control the application of paint so that the it reached the appropriate film thickness so it can perform as it was designed.

Environment

The environment the building is in matters for paint longevity. High sun and industrial environments are among the hardest on the paint film. The sun’s UV rays will break down the resins and pigments causing faster film breakdown. Industrial environments can also cause faster breakdown by speeding up the oxidation of the film if there are a lot of contaminants in the air that cause oxidation.

Quality

The quality of paint will also make a difference. Cheaper paints will have more fillers and will have a lower DFT (dry film thickness) because they are lower in solids. This is one reason you don’t want your painting contractor to water down the paint! A good quality, higher solids paint will be worth the extra cost. The resin technology in cheaper paints is also weaker and less UV or chemical resistant. Premium products will have the best resins in them and will have to prove their worth in publications like consumer reports. 

We recommend AcriShield or Permanizer from PPG, Behr e600 for commercial work and any of the upper line Behr products for a more durable finish. Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore also sell great product lines too.

This is a great question, but a better question might be what is involved in painting the service center of my auto dealership.  We work with quite a few general managers who need to maintain their service centers while keeping them open.  With an experience paint crew, this is not a problem.  Our team can work with you to establish your priorities and come up with a plan to get the work done in the least painful way possible for your team.

Now, what is involved in the work highly depends on your scope.  Are we painting walls only?  Are we painting the open deck ceilings?  Do you have any other contractors involved including new equipment installers, floor coating contractors, electricians, or plumbers?  We will need to understand the entire scope of work, not just ours.  This will help determine sequencing and how you can build out a schedule that will save you time, hassle, and money.  

Typically, on projects with a walls only scope, we will clear one area each night to clean and paint. This is the least intrusive work to your service team.  We will meet with you to develop a job timeline and job plan.  Each afternoon at the end of the shift, your crew will move their tools 10’ away from the wall.  We will cover the tools, wash the walls, and paint the new color scheme or freshen up your existing one overnight. Your team will need to put their tools back in place in the morning, but that is it.  We find that the smoothest jobs are those that communicate early with their team and get involved in making sure there is followthrough.

It is important to remove all grease and grime from the surfaces to be painted to ensure good adhesion.  In most shops, this is mostly on the lower 8’ of the wall or so.  During the quote phase, we will determine the best prep for your surfaces and those methods will be built into and detailed in the quote.  For most automotive shops, we will need to use scissor lifts to access the upper walls.  These will be stored in a location convenient for you so they won’t interfere with your work.

Most 50×100 service shops will cost around $10,000 for a budget paint job on the walls only and close to $20,000 for a three tone and epoxy paint job.  Our project consulting team is here to help – just give us a call for your personalized quote today!   Call 317-528-9500 to reach our sales team today!

We get quite a few clients ask why painting prices vary so much?  This is always a question I am happy to field because the answer is pretty simple and revealing of a company’s core commitments.  Our two main expenses are labor and materials so let’s talk about those to categories first. 

First, let’s examine a company’s materials costs.  What is their baseline materials?  Many companies with lower cost quotes use an entry level material.  We often call these top line commercial products.  For us, these would be Sherwin Williams ProMar 200, Behr i300, and PPG SpeedHide.  We like all these products – for commercial new work.  They don’t belong in your home or even in your business repaint work.  What makes these good products for the new build market is that they are competitive and they are serviceable for a shorter period of time.  They lack the ability to clean them and  are really difficult to touch up a year after the install.  They are great at giving you that initial canvas at a lower cost.  We always try to get our customers to spring for the next step up.  It usually doesn’t affect the price very much – typically only 5% or so, but new work is very competitive.  In your business or home, our entry level product is Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint.  Yes, it is more costly, but it will be very serviceable.  

Second is labor prices.  Like anything else in life, you get what you pay for.  Lower cost companies will use less skilled and less reliable labor.  Indiana Painting has committed to a more disciplined and skill workforce because we believe that it is worth the extra investment, and most of our customers do too!  If your contractor is sending you unskilled labor, you have a very low probability of getting a good outcome.  We believe our team makes up for the extra cost by being hard working and efficient.

I believe doing the work right is where most of the discrepancy comes from.  Take wood decks and fences for instance.  Quite a few painting companies won’t touch them because they don’t have the knowledge or the discipline in their crew to succeed.  Our team follows a rigorous step by step process that will ensure your outdoor wood surfaces get the longest life possible.  These extra steps include a chemical treatment, sanding or wire brushing, moisture testing, and applying three full coats on all horizontal surface to ensure complete coverage and durability.  If you do it right, your deck coating should last over 5 years with normal use.  The real way companies cut costs is by taking shortcuts.  This is the main way to get quote prices lower.

There are so many examples I could give on price differences, but the best way to determine if the contractor your are negotiating with is right for you, is to ask them to go into detail about their process.  If the salesman cannot go into detail about their process, than their process is not that special and their crews performing the work are most likely not trained in the methods of getting a thorough paint job that will last a long time.

Like a lot of contractors, I never considered using Behr for commercial interior painting jobs.  First, it comes from a box store so it must be a residential or homeowner thing, right!  Boy was I wrong!  During the pandemic of 2020 and the shortages of the last few years, we started looking for ways to augment our supply chain to keep paint flowing so we didn’t have to tell our customers we couldn’t fulfill our commitment to them because we couldn’t get paint.  We tried a lot of avenues, but the two performers that stood out were PPG and Behr.  PPG’s commitment was clear when semi trailers were showing up with drop shipments from Dallas, Texas with 30 gallon of dryfall or a few gallons showing up on a UPS truck.  They really went out of their way to make sure we had what we needed to keep commitments we had made.  I’ve never had such a fierce loyalty to a company in my life than I do for PPG. They cared simply because I cared about taking care of our customers – the commitment flowed through and that was magical in our time! 

Now for Behr.  We didn’t try i300 until earlier this year, but we have used enough of it to know that, for a comparable price point, you won’t find a better commercial paint!  Rarely do you introduce a new product to a paint crew and get a unanimous accolade from them, but this is the exception that proves the rule!  Painters are a very picky lot and they get very attached to products they like to use.  Our team took to i300 and they tell us they don’t want to use anything else – that is pretty high praise.  But it doesn’t stop there!  The Behr crew at Home Depot are a really good support team.  From hassle-free color matching to cheerful order taking and fulfillment, we are hooked!  And the price is pretty good too with their contractor pricing program!  Many paint retailers put unrealistic shelf prices on their paint to “help out the contractors” by making our prices seem very reasonable.  But this is just a scam and we don’t like those tactics.  Most contractors pay around $25 to $30 a gallon for a good, solid commercial paint.  Most of us mark it up about 25% to 50% to cover some of our costs for handling charges.  That includes setup, ordering, pickup, waste, and other costs you never have to think about.  We like the simple strategy of reasonable markups for retail customers who can’t afford or don’t want to hire a contractor for whatever reason.  Painting should be affordable and we should encourage more people to improve their lives with paint!

Let’s talk performance.  The paint just applies easy and looks good with minimal effort. Ask any painter and they will tell you that cheaper paints are difficult to make look good.  This is why our hearts always sink when a customer says they would like to supply the paint – it is usually a lower end product.  Behr i300 is the perfect answer for your commercial spaces that demand economy and performance.  We are happy to recommend it to all the do-it-yourselfers and customers out there looking for a great, low cost product!

When it comes to exterior paint, we get a lot of questions about paint failure.  Most of these failures are on concrete block or CMU (CMU=concrete masonry unit) buildings. Large CMU commercial buildings must be painted and repainted correctly in order to get a long lasting, protective paint job.  First, I’ll go over how to correctly paint and repaint these types of buildings.

New CMU Prep

Most painters who are experienced will tell you that it takes 7 to 30 days for the masonry joints to cure before you can paint them.  This is not negotiable.  The PH in the joints cannot exceed a PH of 13 and even that is pretty ambitious for even the newest technologies in high PH paints.  You want your contractor to perform a PH test before they paint your new CMU.  This test is simple and only requires distilled water, a spray bottle, and PH test strips.  We usually look for a PH of 12 or less to ensure the paint is not degraded due to PH burn.  This is the most common reason the first paint job usually fails. The signs that your building was painted too early is that there are the white streaks coming out at the masonry joints of your concrete block and the paint on the joints is bubbling or peeling. 

Priming is another important step that is a major component of most paint failures.  Your contractor needs to use a high quality, acrylic block filler.  Let’s discuss the three types of primers for cement block.  The first is in the never ever use this list.  These are the old calcium based fillers that are dirt cheap.  As a contractor, we can purchase these for under or around $10 per gallon and, at only 60 square feet per gallon, many are tempted to go this route to save money or to shave a little off the quote too get the end user to hire them.  Don’t do it, you will regret it.  These fillers are not robust and will soften if they ever become wet again.  If you building develops hairline cracks or gets damaged, water will penetrate the cracks and start to soften these primers.  This causes them to degrade quickly and the damage to the paint below the damage will need to be removed before repainting.  The trade names of these fillers are Sherwin Williams Prep-Rite Block Filler and PPG SpeedHide Block Filler.  Avoid these at all costs!  The middle of the road solution, which we highly recommend, is a hybrid type that is acrylic based.  This type costs in the upper teens and is sold under the names Sherwin Williams Heavy Duty Block Filler or PPG SpeedHide Hi-Fill Block Filler.  The third type, if you budget can afford it, is the best type and would come with our best warranty.  These products are sold under the names Sherwin Williams Loxon Block Surfacer and PPG Perma-Crete Concrete Block & Masonry Surfacer/Filler.  These last two types can be used on unpainted CMU or previously painted CMU. The first type will not adhere to existing paint, so don’t wast your time!

The final thing to make sure of when you are painting a new CMU building is to ensure you have full coverage of the CMU.  You are aiming at zero pinholes or pores.  You should insist on photos or an inspection by you or a knowledgeable representative before any topcoats are applied.  Many of the larger box stores will actually send their construction managers on to the roof to inspect and get photos of the top angle of the CMU to ensure and document that all pores were filled completely.  At Indiana Painting we both document with photos and record how many gallons were used to prime a building to both visually acknowledge and to perform a sanity check to make sure you are getting a top quality paint job!  Paying close attention to the quality of this work will give you many returns for your time in the coming decade and will keep you from having a difficult situation to deal with!

Existing CMU Prep

How can you be sure your existing CMU is in good shape?  You can’t always tell with a simple visual inspection.  Our Project Consultants will run a feeler over your walls in various areas to listen for paint that has become disbonded.  How does this happen?  Some budget or inexperienced contractors will take a shortcut and paint over paint that is already starting to fail.  Many can get away with it for a year or two because acrylic paints are great at bonding to themselves.  This will create a “shell” until it comes under stress and breaks away from itself.  If we identify any failing areas, it will change how the building must be prepared for new paint.  If everything is in good shape, a simple pressure wash job to remove any atmospheric contamination and faded/degraded paint.  If you have failing paint, we use a 5000+ psi pressure washer and a zero degree rotating tip to remove as much failing paint as possible.  This is followed up by a scraping any remaining paint to ensure a sound surface to adhere to with no loose underlying paint.  If your building has more than 20% failing paint, we recommend priming at least the areas with the worst damage, if not, spot priming is sufficient.

Finish Coats

We always recommend a good, quality paint for your building.  If this is your first paint job, we recommend a high build product by PPG called Perma-Crete High Build Masonry Coating.  This is not an elastomeric paint as it is acrylic and retains breathability.  We would recommend you stay away from elastomeric paints here in the midwest.  We see too many failures and have repainted countless faded and damaged building that have used them over the years.  Our favorite product for new and repaints is either PPG Acri-Shield or PPG Permanizer as it has excellent fade resistance and is very durable.  We also recommend you don’t stray from the recommended two coat system on exteriors and, if your budget allows, put a full third coat on to ensure coverage and durability.

PRODUCT DETAILS

Acri-Shield^® Max Exterior is a premium quality, urethane modified, exterior house paint. The advanced formula can be used as little as 60 minutes before the threat of rain, and in both normal and marginal, above freezing conditions when a low temperature cure is required to form a proper film.  Acri-Shield^® Max provides a 7 year Portersept^® Mildew Proof* Warranty (available in all sheens).  This paint and primer delivers exceptional hide and coverage and offers excellent brush, roll, and spray characteristics for consistent professional results.

FEATURES:

• Rain Ready In As Little As 60 Minutes**
• Urethane Modified for Enhanced Durability
• Delivers Exceptional Coverage & Hide
• 7 Year Portersept^® Mildew Proof* Warranty
• Paint & Primer in One

Occasionally you come across a product you just can’t recommend enough to anyone.  This paint is good enough to use in both commercial and residential applications.  Just take a look at those key features, let’s discuss them one by one.

 Rain ready in 60 minutes

What painter wouldn’t like that.  This is quickly becoming the norm in the exterior paint market, but very few products actually live up to this claim.  Most can withstand early moisture in about four hours in reality, but, as pros, we’ve pushed this envelope to it extreme and have found it really does hold up to early moisture better than most.  This comes in really hand when painting in the evening when you are only hours away from the dew point.  This feature is more helpful than most people realize!

Urethane Modified for Enhanced Durability

We stopped using plain acrylic paints a few years back (SpeedHide Exterior and A-100 used to be our workhorse exterior products) when we first came into contact with the newer urethanized acrylics.  They are superior in two ways.  The first is color retention, urethanes have yet to be surpassed when it comes to color retention.  It is no surprise that PPG, who has division in the automotive and aerospace industries borrow tech from these other specialties and incorporates it into its architectural products.  The second is flexibility.  Our team only uses urethanized caulk due to its more forgiving nature – strong and flexible at the same time!  You just can’t beat the utility and longevity of a urethanized acrylic!

Delivers Exceptional Coverage & Hide

Who can’t appreciate better coverage and hide.  We frequently get asked to paint with white because most people think white is an “easy” color.  White is a difficult color due to the somewhat transparent nature of titanium dioxide.  TO2 is a great pigment that offers a more brilliant white, but it is less high hiding than the white pigments of the past.  Whites often require three or even four coats.  PPG has done a fantastic job with Acri-Shield, so much so that even whites cover in two coats over most colors.  We don’t know how they accomplish this, but they have!

7 Year Portersept^® Mildew Proof* Warranty

Here in the midwest, mildew is a perennial issue.  Who hasn’t received “that letter” from the HOA letting you know that you’ve got a moldy bit on your exterior you need to take care of?  We have yet to get a complaint form any of our customers letting us know that there is mildew growing on the paint.  And, yes, paint has nutrients in it that can grow mildew – who knew!  The Portersept Mildewcide really works and will keep your home protected from that pesky stuff for at least 7 years!

Paint & Primer in One

We like to think of paint and primer in one deals as insurance policies.  You should never prime with a finishing product unless it is DTM (Direct to Metal).  First, it makes a very expensive primer and you will need three coats anyway if you do this.  Second, finish coats are made specifically for that job – not for priming.  Primers are designed to prime so they incorporate more technology that helps them do that job more effectively.  But this is handy I you have a project with only a few small bare areas.  Just spot prime with this paint and you will rest assured that you have done it the correct way!

Conclusion

We have no hesitation using PPG Acri-Shield MAX on our best work.  In fact, we only recommend two paints for a cost effective and durable finish – PPG Acri-Shield and PPG Permanizer.  Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, and Behr I am sure make some great products, but, when you can get so much for a great price point from PPG, we go anywhere else!

With astounding regularity people wince when you say the words wallpaper or wallcovering.  I’m not sure if it is due to this disgust that most word processors  don’t even recognize the word wallcovering.  Go ahead and try it out, you’ll get the red squiggly underline that says this isn’t a real word!  I think I can tell you why most people feel this way – how many great wallcovering jobs have you seen.  Probably a lot of them, but they are unremarkable when compared to the bad ones with gaping seem, torn vinyl faces, bad cuts, and even stained or dirty areas.  But I want to assure you that the benefits of using commercial vinyl in your business far outweighs the problems!

The Problems

Mold

It is almost universal that you find some evidence of mold when you peel wallcovering off of exterior walls.  It is not often this is the dangerous black mold (I believe that it never is), but it still makes your hair stand on end when you see it!  Most of what you are seeing is not active mold, but long dead.  Let me explain what happens and how to avoid this.  First, you need to prep the wall correctly.  Some installers are hooked on oil based primer.  We NEVER use it because it creates a vapor barrier between itself and the vinyl.  This creates a very slow drying situation where the paste stays wet for over a week or even two and – presto – you get mold.  Now this will eventually dry and mold can live without two things – a food source and a water source.  Not living plant can and mold is just a plant.  We use a water-based sizer like Gardz or Romans 935 to seal the wall without creating a moisture barrier.  Your wall needs to breathe!  Second, we only use name brand pastes that have a mildewcide in them.  This will prevent any growth in that one week “wet” period.  If we are especially concerned we can add M1 mildewcide and apply a perorated wallcovering to ensure more breathability.  I would never say this isn’t a concern, but if you have a building built to modern standards, I wouldn’t think this would be a problem.

Peeling

This is the most common pet peeve with wallcovering.  The most common cause of peeling is incorrect installation.  When installing wallcovering you need to use a good, heavy duty paste that will have great adhesion when it dries.  Another cause is when an installer pastes the back of the wallcovering by have, they often go too light at the edges.  We try to use a pasting machine as much as possible.  This ensures even coverage of the paste even out to the edges.  Finally, some novice helpers get water in the seems when they are cleaning the paste of the wallcovering from the newly installed vinyl.  This dilutes the paste and causes weakened seam glue at the edges.  Don’t worry, as long as the vinyl is still in good shape, it can be re-glued and salvaged.  If it has torn or become stretched, you will have a hard time making this repair.

Worn or Dirty

A lot of owners don’t like how they can’t just cost effectively repaint the wall where the vinyl has become worn or dirty.  If you put a hole in it, you cannot easily patch it.  This is understandable.  If you have attic stock, it can be easily repaired in most cases.  Wallcovering is like any product in that it will fade when exposed to UV rays (sun and florescent lights are the biggest UV producers in a commercial setting).  If this is the case, it will stand out – the new and the faded will look a bit different. 

The Bottom Line

All of these issues, some avoidable, are not big enough to keep us away from wallcovering.  The texture and richness that wallcovering adds to your commercial space is well worth the risk.  When installed by a professional, your wallcovering job should last for years to come, be highly cleanable, and very durable.  The average cost is multiples of a standard paint job, but, if you want to achieve a unique and interesting space in your business, there is not more cost effective way to achieve this than with a high quality material and a professional install!