Don’t Poison the Waterhole: How to Keep Spiderwebs and Dirt Out of Your Paint

Posted on June 17, 2011August 6, 2019

This is Hannah. Never drink out of anything she’s already used. Ever.

OK, the other day I experienced something I hope never, ever, ever to experience again. NEVER. EVER.

Let me explain. It all started innocently enough while I got the kids their dinner the other day. My wife was gone and I was in charge. I made them spaghetti-O’s and then put a pitcher of water on the table.

They ate their food, made a mess, and eventually, finished. I came behind, mopped everything up and wiped the table down and, finally, once they were all taken care of, sat down with my own dinner.

As I ate, the kids came by, one by one, and told me EVERY single thing that happened during their day. It’s great to be loved–for a while–and then it’s just mind-numbing. Story after story went through my ears and eventually, I found myself sitting at the table–my food gone–and Hannah my 3 year old–sitting on my lap–still talking.

My brain was thoroughly exhausted at this point, but I do remember grabbing the pitcher of water that was still on the table from the kids’ dinner and pouring myself a glass. As Hannah went on and on and on about this or that, I took little sips of water and tried to understand what she was telling me.

At some point, in the midst of all of this, I noticed that something wasn’t quite right. I wasn’t immediately aware of what it was, and I tried to ignore the feeling, but my brain wouldn’t let me. I took another drink of water and it suddenly hit me: I was chewing. I was done eating–had been done for a while–there was no food left on my plate . . . but here I was . . . chewing.

Now, drinking water is not normally, a chewing experience. But here I was, sitting at the table, drinking water and chewing it. And the more I thought about it, and focused on it, the more I realized I wasn’t chewing water–I was actually chewing something that was in the water.

Well, naturally, I quickly grabbed my glass and held it up to take a look and when I did, I was shocked–horribly, horribly shocked. Instead of the clear, crystally liquid I had hoped to see, it was grey. And murky. Things were floating in there: something that looked like a part of a meatball and something else that I was pretty sure was a spaghetti-O. And there were other, unidentifiable things as well. It was a smorgasbord of gray food products. All suspended in a liquid that seemed, suddenly, thicker and heavier than simple water.

I put the glass down, swallowed the meatball I was chewing and picked up the pitcher of water. A quick look inside revealed more of the same: floaty things bobbing up and down in some gray, opaque liquid.

And then I looked at the outside of the pitcher. I saw small orange, spaghetti-o sauce handprints on the handle. A closer examination revealed orange lip marks around the rim.

I looked at Hannah. “Did you drink out of the pitcher?”

She nodded and then said, “only twice.”

Well, apparently two times was enough for Hannah to poison the waterhole so to speak. I grabbed the pitcher off the table and brought it to the sink. And, as I did so . . . inspiration dawned: This was a perfect illustration of a common mistake people make when painting.

See, how many times have you started a painting project with some brushwork? You know, you start brushing around the edges–around your windows or your doors or something like that. Inside outside, it typically doesn’t matter. When you do that, what do you typically do?

And Here’s the Paint Point…

I’ll tell you what most people do: most people grab the paint bucket–the gallon of their paint–and carry it with them. They dip the brush into it, wipe the excess paint off the brush on the rim of the can, and then paint. When the brush is empty, they go back to the bucket or more paint.

That’s like Hannah drinking out of the water pitcher. If she had gone to her glass of water for a drink, she’d only contaminate that cup. Everybody else’s water would have been fine. But she went to the source and contaminated that. Once that was done, there was no way to get the spaghetti parts and meatball chunks out of it. The only fix was to pour the water out, rinse the container and fill it up with new.

With water, that’s no big deal. But if you’re doing that with paint, you can create quite an expensive and frustrating mess. If you brush into a spiderweb or pick up some dirt (this happens especially often when people are working outside), and then dip back into your bucket, you’ve instantly contaminated all of your paint. And you’ll find that out when you start rolling it onto bigger areas later. You’ll be picking little chunks of this or that out of the finish and you’ll be very frustrated.

And here’s the Answer…

The solution? Work out of a smaller container. We’ve got some at RepcoLite that are perfect for this, or you can just use an old tupperware-like container. Whatever you decide to use, remember: whenever you do brush work, always work out of a smaller container–it will protect the bulk of your paint from contamination.

Watch Your Back!

Posted on June 9, 2011August 6, 2019

OK, Moms and Dads, has this ever happened to you? It’s happened to me a number of times, but the most recent took place a few Sunday’s ago. We were getting all 5 kids ready for 8:30 church one Sunday morning. And, of course, chaos ensued. However, eventually, because we’re such with-it parents, we managed to get everybody, including ourselves, ready.

Breathing a sigh of relief, we started to make our way to the car, but before I did that, my youngest child–Hannah–came trudging over to me and explained that she needed a hug. Ahh, that’s so cute, isn’t it? Little kids who still love their dad so much they need a hug? So I scooped her up, and hugged her. And she returned the hug–big time–grabbing me tightly and then patting me repeatedly on the back with the overwhelming love only a child can give.

Well, when the hug was over, I ushered her out to the car and decided to give myself a quick once-over in the mirror–just to make sure I looked ok after the hectic morning. Well, after a glance, I realized I was as good as I was ever going to look and so I jumped into the van and drove to church.

When we got there, we talked to some people, found our seats–this time in the front row of the balcony rather than our normal seats in the back–listened to the service, talked to some people on the way out and eventually came home. However, changing out of my Sunday clothes and back into a t-shirt and jeans, I made a shocking discovery. The back of my shirt was completely covered with gooey, dirty, cheeto’s-ee orange hand prints. The front of the shirt was fine, but the back was filthy.

It only took me a second to put it together. Hannah had hugged me before we left and rather than patting me on the back out of sheer love–she was just using the back of my shirt as a wash rag. She cleaned her hands on my good Sunday shirt. And then I went to church and walked all around, sat in the front row, talked to all kinds of people–lived it up and had a big time–all the while with my back covered over with slime and assorted gunk.

That’s happened to my wife and I many different times. Sometimes it involves food, sometimes it’s from other things. But the point is this: we never catch it because we never think to check out our backs in the mirror. And that brings me to the paint point that’s hidden away in all of this– see, I never thought to look at my back in a mirror before I went to church–it never crossed my mind. I looked at myself in a mirror–at the front–to make sure I looked alright, but I never gave the back a second look. A lot of us do this same thing with our homes. Hang with me, here–this is profound–but you’ve got to hang in there.

See, we do this in our homes in this regard: We take good care of our front doors–our main entrances. These are the doors people typically see when they drive up or drive by our homes–so we take care (at least most of the time) and make these entrances visually pleasing. We use flowers, a great door color, little welcome mats . . . all kinds of little things to make the entrance way appealing.

So, we pay a lot of attention to the front–the main entrance. But you know what most of us completely forget? The garage.

Now, this seems like a leap in logic, but it’s not. See, the garage may be, in reality, the TRUE main entrance to our home. According to a recent US survey, “71% of American homeowners with a garage use the garage to enter their homes.” Another survey stated that “45% of homeowners with garages use their garages as the main entrance to their homes.”

What the numbers are saying is this: 71% of Americans who own garages use the garage to enter their own homes. 45% of Americans who own garages encourage all visitors to enter their homes through the garage.

And yet, even though the garage is used repeatedly as an entrance to our homes, it’s often the last place we really think to do any “decorating”. We put all our thought and effort into the front doors (and maybe even the garage door), but we don’t give a second though to the garage itself. It never crosses our minds.

It’s just like my shirt scenario at church–the front was pristine, but anybody watching me walk away realized I was like pig pen of Charlie Brown fame. I was a filthy mess.

So all that to ask a simple question: if folks enter your home through your garage, what kind of impression do they get? Is it a welcoming area?

And even if you’re garage is never used by guests, chances are your family enters the home–at least at times–through the garage. Shouldn’t you have a nice, respectable entrance into your home?

The answer, of course, since I’m selling paint, is YES–you should have a nice entrance in your garage. And the good news is, this doesn’t need to be an insanely expensive, complicated project.

THE BASIC STEPS

WASH THE WALLS. If your walls are painted, go ahead and wash them with TSP (Trisodium Phosphate). This is a great “pre-painting” cleaner that cuts through dirt and grease and rinses clean away. If the walls are not painted, you might want to choose to use a shop vac and remove as much dust and dirt as you can.

FILL THE GOUGES. After cleaning, go around the room with a good spackling compound. We recommend Crawford’s Spackling Paste. It’s a high quality spackle that’s easy to work with.

DEGREASE the TROUBLE SPOTS. Most garages are going to have a couple areas where greasy handprints or smudges stain the walls. Before you paint, make sure you hit these spots with a specific degreaser. There are any number of these specialty products at RepcoLite–just stop in and we’ll direct you to the one that will work best.

SPOT PRIME. If you have greasy smudges on your wall that you have to deal with (as in the above step), it wouldn’t hurt to spot prime those areas with BIN stain-blocking primer or RepcoLite’s own Zip Prime.

APPLY YOUR FINISH. Once you’ve done all the prep work, it’s time to roll on your finish. We recommend a high quality acrylic latex. It doesn’t need to be an exterior product as most garage walls aren’t exposed to the elements. However, you would likely want to consider an Eggshell finish at the dullest and possibly even a Satin Sheen or a Semi-Gloss. The finishes with higher glosses will hold up longer and resist dirt and grime better than a flatter finish.

And there you go! It sounds like a lot of work (I know), but it’s not as complicated as it seems. Typically, you’ll find that the whole project will take only a single weekend.

Bad Days

Posted on May 26, 2011August 6, 2019

Today’s just for fun–and to let you know that we all have bad days. For example: last Thursday, I decided–against my better judgment–that I should go into the eye doctor. I’d been dealing with a goopy right eye for a couple weeks and I was sick of it. I’d talk to people in the store and they would see the tears running out of that one eye and they’d always be patting me on my arm and asking me if I was alright and stuff like that. So, sick of everybody thinking I was crying all the time, I decided I should probably go to the eye doctor.

And so we made an appointment and learned that RepcoLite’s insurance plan has a $15 co-pay for trips to the eye doctor. So, for $15, I figured I couldn’t go wrong. Shows what I know.

See, I made an appointment for Thursday and drove down there. I got into the room and they did all the preliminary stuff including that horrible dilating of my eyes. Then the doctor came in and started doing a full eye exam. I stopped him and said I was just here to figure out why I had goop eye. He didn’t understand, so I showed him my gooey, drippy eye and after literally recoiling with disgust, he leaned in and looked at it. He then asked if I would like a full eye exam.

Once again, I said no. I think he asked me three more times if I’d like a full eye exam and finally, eventually, I convinced him that I was only here to have my infected (or whatever) eye looked at. Persuaded, finally, he leaned back in and gave my eye a serious looking-at. For a long time. Back and forth. Flashing lights and peering in with all sorts of equipment. Finally, he was satisfied and leaned back in his chair. He folded his arms and looked at me. And then he asked me this question in this way:

“Do you ever wash your eyelid with soap?”

Now, the way he said it made me realize that he had discovered something and that it was going to be embarrassing for me–potentially. So my brain started spinning and I started trying to figure out exactly what answer he wanted. At this point, I was less concerned with telling him exactly how things work and more interested in not looking stupid. I tossed all the possibilities in my head: If I say I wash my eyelids regularly with soap, I figured he’d say, “there’s your problem–soap irritation–everybody knows not to put soap by their eye, what’s wrong with you?” However, I also figured that if I said, “nope, soap never gets within 10 feet of my eyelid”, I assumed he’d say” well what’s wrong with you, you pig? You’re filthy. A little hygiene never killed anybody. Just leave through the back door and go straight home and scrub.”

Do you see the dilemma? I didn’t want to look dumb–I needed to figure out what he wanted me to say, but I didn’t know. So we just sat there, looking at each other. My gooey eye made squishy sounds as it blinked repeatedly. Finally, I said, “Nope. I don’t let soap get near my eye.”

And of course, that was the wrong answer.

He said–and I quote–”it wouldn’t hurt to use a little baby soap around your eye–it’s dirty.” He then wrote that on my paperwork–which will now be with me forever: “Patient has dirty eye and displays profound inability to clean himself adequately–use latex gloves when handling.” He wrote that all down, I’m sure, and sent me out to the desk.

At the desk, the next blow came when I discovered the visit wouldn’t cost me $15 dollars, but $45. When I asked why, they explained it was because I didn’t have an eye exam. (Imagine palm slap to forehead).

Now, you’d think that was the end, right? Nope. They gave me those great big horrible sun glass things and sent me on my way. I felt like I was 94 years old driving out of that parking lot and pulling onto the highway. My eye was tearing up, my crazily dilated pupils were sucking in so much sunlight I could barely see and then, at a stop light, I pressed on my brakes and noticed that my foot went straight to the floor.

I though that was odd–unusual–not the way things normally worked–but then the light changed and I started going again. I tested my breaks as best I could and realized that they weren’t working very well at all. Something had gone wrong and now I had extremely limited breaks.

Think about that for a moment: my eyes were dilated to the breaking point, I was wearing those huge sunglasses that shrouded the world in deep and profound darkness, my goopy eye was tearing up and blurring my already limited field of vision and, to top it all off, I was driving down the road in a car that had almost no breaks. If I hadn’t spent most of that drive just trying to stay alive and keep other people alive, I think it would have been hilarious.

In the end, I made it to the repair shop, parked my car, took off my big dumb sunglasses (because I didn’t want to look stupid) and then staggered blindly into the building, waving my arms out in front of me to make sure I didn’t bang into the siding or another person.

When I finally made it to the counter, I dropped my key there and the guy at the computer looked at me. He saw my big goopy, drippy eye and said, in a very conciliatory tone: “Bad day, huh? Well, it’ll be ok. Just tell us what’s wrong and we’ll get it fixed.”

Yeah, I’d been humiliated at the Dr’s office, dropped $45 bucks, lost the breaks on my car, was almost killed at least 5 times all in the hopes of fixing my eye and in the end, people talking to me still thought I was crying.

Paint Your Front Door and Change the Look of Your Home for $30!

Posted on May 25, 2011August 6, 2019

Summer’s getting closer! And with it, comes a natural desire for many of us to get outside and do some work on our homes. There’s just something about nice weather, sunny days, warm breezes, and all the beauty of Spring that makes us want to “spruce” up our homes a little bit.

Unfortunately, money is a little tight for a lot of us right now and the thought of dropping a few hundred dollars on a big paint job can be daunting to say the least.

Well, if that sums up you (as it sums up me!), then consider this: what about a smaller paint project that will still have a huge impact?

I’m talking about your front doors. Doors can be painted, typically, in a matter of just a few hours. The cost? Typically under $30. The results? (To use the over-used formula): Priceless.

A new color on a front door can bring your home from “boring” to hip in just a matter of minutes. A new color on a front door can give your siding–what you may think of as tired and old–a new look. A new color on your door will interact differently with your shutters, your roof, your landscaping, everything.

In short, a new color on a front door can give your entire home a subtle new look. All for under $30 (tools included) and a couple hours worth of work!

So, if you’re looking for a project , but aren’t quite ready to repaint your entire home, give this a try!

Peeling Paint on a Deck . . . Now What?

Posted on May 24, 2011August 6, 2019

closeup of paint peeling on a railway station at sunset

I was out of the office and working in one of our RepcoLite stores last week Friday and a contractor walked in with some questions about a deck.

Here’s the scenario: He’s been hired to fix a deck for a homeowner. The deck had been painted before and was now peeling. He’d power-washed it and managed to remove about 20% – 30% of the old paint. He was at RepcoLite to pick up some primer and some paint so he could prime the bare spots and get everything coated.

Well, that sounds easy enough, but there’s a problem and after explaining the situation to him, I decided it was perfect for a blog entry. So, here’s what we covered at the counter:

OLD, FAILING PAINT CONTINUES TO PEEL: The first concept I needed the contractor to understand is the notion that once the paint starts to fail and peel, it will continue until it’s mostly gone. Unfortunately, it doesn’t typically do this all at once. So, even though the contractor had done a good job and had power-washed the deck, the problem was that much of the old paint remained. The reason this is a problem is because…

NEW PAINT/PRIMER WILL NOT MAKE OLD PAINT STICK BETTER: Putting new paint overtop of old paint–old paint that has started to peel–will not bond that paint to the surface. The new paint WILL bond to the old paint . . . but if the old paint is starting to fail, it will eventually peel and take the new paint off as well. This is bad news because…

ALL THE WORK YOU DO CAN BE WASTED: If you go through all the work of power washing, priming and painting a deck that is covered with old paint that has started to peel, the chances are the spots where you primed and painted BARE WOOD will hold up alright for a couple years. However, equally as likely is the chance that the old paint that you couldn’t remove will peel soon, taking the new paint with it. In the end, you (or your customer) will be left with the same situation they just thought they rectified.

Well, we covered those problems and I could tell it sunk in and made sense to the contractor I was helping. He then asked the obvious question: WHAT DO I DO TO FIX IT, THEN?

That’s a bigger concept, but to briefly sum it up:

POWER WASH! A good place to start is where my contractor DID start: a good power washing. Much of the time, the pressure from the wash will blast off much of the loose and flaking paint.

SAND/STRIP THE DECK! If the power washer doesn’t completely remove the paint–or at least remove 80% – 90% of it, you may want to consider stripping the deck with chemical strippers or possibly renting a sander and sanding the paint off.

FLIP THE BOARDS OR INSTALL NEW! This is a hard-core solution to the problem, but would typically fix the issue. Some decks are in good enough condition that flipping the boards to the uncoated side gives a new surface to work on. Other decks might be better suited simply being replaced.

BITE THE BULLET AND DEAL WITH THE FAILURE! Another option–though not terribly appealing–would be the option of simply accepting the failure. This means you weigh all the options and decide that for your situation, you’re better off just cleaning the deck as well as you can and then priming and painting and accepting the fact that next summer you’ll probably have to do it again.

In the end, I write all of this for two reasons: first, to give you some tips if you’re dealing with a deck that’s been painted in the past. It’s important to understand the limitations and the struggles you’ll have trying to make it look good. Sometimes at least knowing those issues up front will help! Secondly, I mention this mainly for this reason: To help you realize that paint on a deck is NOT THE WAY TO GO. It sounds good, it looks like a good option, it’s appealing to many people . . . but the problems quickly arise and then, dealing with them can be extremely time-consuming and expensive! Paint’s great for many surfaces. A Michigan deck, however, isn’t one of them!

4 Tips to Help You Decorate With Color!

Posted on May 17, 2011August 6, 2019

Have you tried bringing color into your home only to find that it didn’t work? That the colors didn’t look good together? That they were too bold or too overpowering? And then, when that happened, did you simply go back to painting in soft whites and neutrals?

This happens to a lot of people we run into at RepcoLite–they branch out into the world of “color” only to find that the colors they chose didn’t look very good. Typically, many of those folks then assume that “color’s not for them” or that “they’re just not cut out to decorate in color” and they return to the safety of neutral.

If that’s you, then hold on for a second: color adds interest and visual appeal to our decorating. It can take a boring room and turn it into something that turns heads and starts conversations. The trick is to use the right colors in the right quantities.

And here are 4 quick ideas to help you do that:

CHECK OUT YOUR COLOR IN ALL LIGHTING SITUATIONS

Many folks come into the store, pick out some color samples, scrutinize them, and then order a gallon or two of paint. Then they go home and paint their walls only to find that when night comes and the room darkens the color’s way too dark on their walls. Avoid this mistake by taking your color chips home and examining them in YOUR lighting and in all lighting situations. Look at the colors at night in the rooms in which they’ll be well before you start rolling them out!

CHOOSE YOUR PAINT LAST

In the decorating process, many folks start with the paint. They’ll come to the paint store and try to establish their paint colors before they step into the furniture stores or the carpet stores. This is a mistake. Folks will come in, pick a bold, bright color for their walls, and then later discover they can’t find a couch or carpet that looks good with those colors. They then, mistakenly, assume that bold colors are just not their thing. The problem isn’t bold colors, it’s the timing of the color choice. Remember: Paint is the most adjustable aspect of any home decorating project and should therefore, be selected after everything else is chosen. First find your couch, your carpet, your wall hangings, etc. and then have the paint made to pull colors from those items. Doing it this way makes decorating with color easy. Doing it backwards makes decorating with color seem impossible!

PLAN AHEAD

Another thing to think about applies especially to those folks who are working their way through their house. They start with one room, get it finished and then move on to the next one. If this is you, plan your steps and your decorating with an eye on your next move. Don’t find a beautiful, bold color for your living room, make everything work together beautifully only to discover that you have no idea what color will go with it when you move to your hallway. Plan your living room with your hallway in mind. Make sure the colors will harmonize as you work your way through the house.

DON’T BE FOOLED BY COLOR CHIPS

This last tip is important! When you look at a standard color chip, you’ll see a light color at the top and a darker version of that color at the bottom with five or six variations in between. The typical response many of us have to this way of displaying color is to assume that the top color is an off white. From there, we gauge the depth of the subsequent colors on the chip. The mistake comes in our initial assumption: often, the colors on the top of the chips are already significantly darker than off whites. So, while the third color on the chip may look–by comparison to the other colors–to be a “medium-toned” color, we are often surprised to see how dark it actually is on our walls. So all that to say, one of the best things you can do is take that color swatch you like and hold it up to some standard whites or off whites to give yourself a good perception of the true depth of the colors–that way you won’t be too surprised when you get them on your wall.