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Interior house painting in Roswell, Exterior Painter Roswell

Pros and Cons of Painting with Dark Colors

When I do both paint estimates and color consultations, I find that many people are intimidated by dark colors.  I understand that dark colors may seem scary because of all the things you hear people say about them –

“They make rooms look small”

“They can make rooms too dark”

“You have to use too many coats and it’s too hard”

“They are hard to match”

These are reasons I hear people use for not wanting to use dark colors when painting.

While all of these statements can be true, they are not always true.  If you know when, where, and how to use dark colors you can enjoy the beauty and benefits of them.

Dark colors are cool because they are more bold and expressive than lighter ones.  They are, however, more difficult to use.  No pain, no gain, right?  Let’s discuss how to minimize the pain.

First off, painting is not permanent.  You aren’t choosing a tacky spring break tattoo, you choosing a paint color.  Worst case scenario, you have to repaint.  So the stakes aren’t really that high.

Now that we have everything in perspective and no one is worried about destroying their house with a dark color, let’s discuss places where dark colors can always work.

  • Powder Rooms – Who cares if it’s dark in a powder room?  It is supposed to be tranquil and serene.  And I am leery of anyone who needs a ton of light for whatever they’re doing in there.
  • Dining rooms – Dark colors like reds and blues can evoke hunger or passion.  That is why they can work really well in dining rooms and…
  • Bed Rooms – Bed rooms can be tricky.  If your bed room doubles as a work space or family area, then you probably should stay neutral.  But if you have large or private bed room, dark colors are conducive to bed room activities.
  • Libraries – Not all homes have libraries or studies, but if you do have one, then you should explore dark colors when painting them.  These rooms usually will have judges paneling or wainscoting which can add to the beauty of these areas.

Now that you know where dark colors are appropriate to use, we will discuss when to use them.

Whenever you want.  That is the beauty of painting in your home – you can do whatever you want.  It looks good if you like it, Shallow Hal!

I want to address the limitations of dark colors.  These are the cons of using dark colors:

  • They don’t touch up.
  • They show wall imperfections, lap marks, and bad drywall finishing much more than light colors.

These limitations are real.  If you have kids or animals that are going to abuse the wall, then I don’t recommend dark colors.  If you have poorly hung or finished drywall, I don’t recommend dark colors.

Now that you know a little bit more about dark colors, I hope that you are feeling bold and ready to make a room in your house look like a magazine picture.

I do have one trick up my sleeve that makes using dark colors easier.  Sherwin Williams’ Color To Go quarts.  For $5, you can get a quart of sample paint in any color of the rainbow.  Buy these and use them.  Also, look at the color during morning, afternoon, and night.  Dark colors can change their appearance based upon natural light, artificial light, and shadows.

GreenWave Solutions offers color consultations and interior painters in Roswell.  We are offering Roswell house painting specials so call today to schedule your estimate when you need a Roswell painter – 404-549-7776.  We also serve Atlanta and its affluent suburbs.

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GreenWave Solutions – Simply the best painters in Atlanta

Stain Product Warning: Semi-transparent Stains are Horrible

I like to keep my product reviews positive, however, I must be honest and objective to provide value to my readers.  I want to discourage all humans from ever using a semi-transparent deck stain (STS).  This is not manufacturer specific as I have never seen any semi-transparent deck stain look good, even when applied by professionals in perfect conditions.

If you go into any paint store that has a trained and knowledgeable staff (typically not a big box) and ask them if they recommend a toner or a STS product, they will tell you to use a toner.  If you push and ask them why, they will tell you things like the toner looks better or some customers complain that the STS didn’t look good, etc.  They are just being polite because the manufacturer of that STS signs their paycheck.  I can be honest.

Semi-transparent stains suck.

This is a product that really shouldn’t exist.  The philosophy is to provide consumers with more product options, but that shouldn’t mean terrible options.  When it comes to painting, consumers already have a plethora of options, each boasting that it is the best.  It must be incredibly overwhelming for a “non-paint” person to walk into a paint store and know what to buy.  The following narrative of a husband and wife choosing a stain is common and reveals the allure of the dreaded semi-transparent stain.

Wife: I want a solid color stain so that the deck that matches the accent color of the shutters and doors.

Husband: We already have enough color and we paid extra to use the better wood for the deck.  Why would we cover the grain that you thought was so pretty with a solid stain.  Let’s use a toner that brings out the wood’s natural beauty.

Wife:  I changed my mind.  The toner looks boring.

Husband:  What about this semi-transparent stain?  This is perfect.  We can choose a color, but you can still see the wood’s grain.  We get the best of both worlds.

Wife:  That is perfect!  Let’s go to Cheesecake Factory to celebrate semi-transparent stains!  We can say it’s your birth and get free ice cream.

I hope they enjoy the Cheesecake Factory because the fun will be over after they put that STS on their deck.  The idea of STS is good.  You use color to enhance wood’s natural beauty.  The problem is that semi-transparent stains are either too semi or too transparent which results in an incomplete and uneven appearance.  I worked for Sherwin Williams for 5 years and have operated GreenWave Solutions for 5 years and the most common complaint I got was about semi-transparent stains looking bad.  Customer’s being unhappy with STS is so common that we will not use semi-transparent stains on any project, even at a client’s request.

I have done this long enough to know that no matter how well you apply them, they always look bad and I don’t want people thinking that GreenWave Solutions does work that looks hideous.  Clients think they want a semi-transparent stain, but what they really want is a colored toner.  That is where I steer my clients that ask for STS deck products; to colored toners.

I’m sure that there are some people that think semi-transparent stains look great and they are entitled to their opinions.  There are also people that think “Honey Booboo” is a good show.  Some people just have bad taste.

Please save yourself, your painting contractor, and your paint store a lot of headaches and don’t choose semi-transparent stains for your deck staining projects.  Instead, use a toner that has the color you like.  And remember, because all wood accepts stains differently, DO A SAMPLE TO SEE IF YOU LIKE HOW IT WILL LOOK BEFORE DOING THE WHOLE DECK.

Good luck and remember that GreenWave Solutions is the best painting company in Dunwoody.

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President of GreenWave Solutions, Atlanta painting company and Dunwoody house painters.  GreenWave Solutions offers the best painter services in Alpharetta, Atlanta, Dunwoody, Decatur, Sandy Springs, Roswell, Brookhaven, Duluth, Grant Park, Inman Park, Buckhead,Milton, Midtown, and more!

CMU wall with Efflorescence.

What is Efflorescence

Efflorescence.  What a weird word.

Efflorescence – ef-flo-res-cence (ef∋ le res∋ens), 1. a change on the surface to a powdery substance upon exposure to air, as a crystalline substance through loss of water. 2. to become encrusted or covered with crystals of salt or the like through evaporation or chemical change.

In English, efflorescence is that white, powdery stuff that you see on masonry walls.  Because this isn’t a chemistry class, we are going to focus on prevention and remediation, instead of causation.

Although efflorescence is ugly and sounds scary, prevention and removal are simple and inexpensive.

How to prevent efflorescence

This is very easy.  Make sure that the masonry substrate is  at least 14 days old.  If it seems uncured or “hot”, wait another week.  Then, prime it using a masonry primers.  Sherwin Williams makes a great product called Loxon Primer.

Once you have primed, simply apply an appropriate top coat and you are done.  If you followed all of the manufacturer’s instruction, you should not have any problems with efflorescence.

How to remove efflorescence.

This is more difficult than prevention, but it isn’t a huge problem.  First off, efflorescence is a cosmetic problem.  It does not degrade the monolithic strength of the substrate.  The efflorescence on the wall pictured above is ugly, but it won’t hurt the wall.  So if you have efflorescence and it doesn’t bother you, leave it alone.  If its unsightliness does bother you, here is how you fix it.

  1. Clean the efflorescence with muriatic acid.  Be careful; hydrochloric acid is nasty stuff.  You may need to dilute depending on the molar strength.
  2. Scrape the efflorescence.
  3. Make sure you have rinsed all of the muriatic acid and allow everything to dry thoroughly.
  4. Prime and repaint using the system described above in the “prevention” section.

I hope that you were entertained while reading this riveting expose` on efflorescence.

GreenWave is also the best interior house painters, exterior house painters, and house painting company and serves Atlanta, Alpharetta, Brookhaven, Buckhead, Chamblee, Doraville, Dunwoody, Grant Park, Inman Park, Johns Creek, Duluth, Milton, Roswell, and most major suburbs.

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Tannin Stain, Painting Company, House Painters, Atlanta, Alpharetta, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Brookhaven, Buckhead, Roswell, Marietta, Milton, Decatur

How to Avoid Wood Tannin Bleed from Knots

We completed a project last week that gave us some trouble.  Because this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this problem, I felt that it warranted an article so others can avoid this problem.  The problem is tannin and resin bleeding through knots and “self-priming” stains and paints.

Many of the new paints and stains boast “self-priming” properties.  The selling point is that “it requires fewer coats and products to finish the job so you save time and money.”  While this sounds awesome, it is misleading.

No current product that says “paint and primer in one” or “self-priming” is going to perform as well as separate primers and paints.  For simple applications such as interior painting on previously painted substrates, these products perform fine; but when getting into applications in a more demanding environment, they fall short.

I specifically speaking about wood stains that say “self-priming to prevent tannin bleed.”  My instinct is to ignore these statements and use a stand alone alkyd wood primer or shellac primer on wood, but this time I went just with the stain.  We used package white.  The painters sprayed and back rolled the product per manufacturers’ specifications.  It looked beautiful at first and everyone went home.  When we went back the next morning, every knot on one side of the fence had bled through the stain.

To be fair, this was the side of the fence that had the sun hitting it from first thing in the morning until about 2pm.  This heat causes the tannin and resin to be more active.  However, the data sheet should have said something about this.

I told the home owner I was unhappy with the product’s performance and I wanted to prime and put another coat.  Our client obliged so it time to research.  I have heard horror stories of people applying 3, 4, and 5 coats to still have the knots bleeding through.  I didn’t want to have a story of my own so I got on the phone with technical support.  They told the “self-priming” properties are weak and that it is still advised to prime.

I went with what worked with even the most “knottiest” wood (get the pun? knotty vs. naughty).

Shellac-based primers are the best primers for sealing in stains.  Shellac comes from the lac beetle.  I don’t remember how they beetle makes it, but I am positive that all shellac comes from this little bug.

We see shellac in our everyday lives.  The easiest example is on pills.  The shiny coating on pills or the plastic parts of capsules are examples of “food-grade” shellac.  Now that I provided a visual of what shellac is, it should be simple to see why it is such an effective sealer.

When shellac primers dry, they effectively seal the stain beneath a layer of plastic.

What makes these primers such great sealers is the same thing that makes them ineffective primers for exterior house painting.  Because shellac based coatings create a solid, rigid coating, they are only specified for “spot exterior” application.  This is because of the movement that exterior substrates exhibits due to expansion and contraction from temperature fluctuations.

For this reason, we spot primed the problem knots with an aerosol primer and repainted.  If the bleeding was throughout the wood, we would have opted for an exterior alkyd primer designed for bare wood.

After everything was completed, the fence looked beautiful, our client was happy, and GreenWave Solutions did another good job.  This is why we are consistently rated the best painters in Atlanta.

 

Daniel Macris is the president of GreenWave Solutions for 8 years.  GreenWave Solutions is Atlanta’s First “Green” painting contractor.  We specialized in commercial and residential painting.  We are launching our Atlanta kitchen and bath remodeling division soon!

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Professional house painters and painting services, Sandy Springs, Atlanta, Alpharetta, Buckhead

Exterior Painting Application Methods

What is the best way to apply paint?

This is another one of those questions that can only be completely answered with the question, “What are you painting?”  In an effort to keep this article from turning into a book, I will answer this question for the homeowner who is getting residential exterior painting.  We will assume that the house is previously painted and the paint is not peeling, cracking or having any other coating failures that will require getting into primers and more advanced painting techniques.  The paint is just oxidized, faded, and it is time to repaint.

Houses are usually constructed from either wood, brick, siding, stucco or a combination of these compounds.  Despite a few exceptions, a high quality exterior acrylic paint will work on any of these substrates provided the existing coating is in good condition.  Paints designed for stucco are thicker and have more elastomeric qualities in order fill hair line cracks and allow for movement.  Some paints designed for wood are self-priming to prevent tannin bleed.

So what is the best way to apply paint to the exterior of your home?

Some painting contractors boast “all work done by hand.”  While this sounds wonderful because of the allure of “handmade” and “handcrafted”, it is not really the best way to have things painted.  Here are the pros and cons of hand brush application of paint:

Pros:

  • No over spray or mess
  • Get into tight areas without having to tapes or cover with plastic or paper
  • No need for respirator or mask
  • Fast, easy clean up

Cons:

  • Slower (higher labor costs or more time painting)
  • Thinner coating of paint (Will wear out and need repainting sooner)
  • Uneven finish (brush marks shows)
  • Manufacturers recommend spraying most coatings

 

The other option for exterior house painting is by using a professional spray machine.  I don’t mean a Wagner paint sprayer you get from Lowe’s for $100.00, I mean a professional Graco, SpeeFlo, or Titan machine that can cost anywhere from $1000.00-$30,000.00.  Spraying paint using the right machine, gun, and tip will render a smoother more even finish than brushing by hand.  In some instances, like painting stucco or applying wood stains, it is necessary to back roll the coating after spraying it on to push the paint into textured surfaces.  Here are the pros and cons of spraying paint (assuming that a skilled professional is using the equipment):

Pros:

  • Thicker layer of paint (lasts longer)
  • Smoother finish and appearance
  • Faster (saves labor costs)

Cons:

  • Creates over spray so protecting eyes, nose, mouth, and property is required
  • Uses more paint due to thicker coating and over spray loss

As a professional painting contractor, I encourage spraying paints whenever possible.  It just renders a better final product.  There are some situations where spraying paint is not feasible due to population, wind, laws, etc.  If you have any questions about painting send the professionals at GreenWave Solutions an email and we will be happy to help you.

 

By:  Daniel Macris

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GreenWave Solutions is the best painting company in Atlanta.  We specialize in interior painting, exterior painting, residential and commercial painting, wall paper removal, deck staining, cabinets and more!  Call us for an estimate.

Exterior painting company in Atlanta. Painting contractors in Dunwoody, Brookhaven, Roswell, Alpharetta

Exterior House Painting Time!

Hello Atlanta!

Spring is here, pollen is gone, and it’s time to start exterior house painting.  This is always a fun time of year to be a painting contractor because after the cold, dark winter, we get to be outside and beautify your homes in this beautiful weather.

GreenWave Solutions is an expert at residential exterior painting.  We have the knowledge and skills that create the perfect dynamic to great exterior painting projects at great prices.

Why is GreenWave Solutions the best painter in Atlanta?

Because we know what we are doing.  Our painters know that a great paint job starts with thorough preparation.  That’s why we rarely start painting on the first day of a project.  Day 1 is for pressure washing, scraping, caulking, priming and doing carpentry work.  After complete preparation, we start this painting.  I’m sure that some painting contractors will disagree, but our hundreds of happy customers who’s homes still look great after years will agree with GreenWave Solutions.

So when you are looking for professional painters in Atlanta, look no further than GreenWave Solutions.

Contact us to schedule an estimate.

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GreenWave Solutions has the best painters in Atlanta.