COLOR TOUCH PAINTING
Welcome to Color Touch Painting and Decorating!
We are a custom-painting-oriented company, based in San Francisco and serving the Bay Area since 1994. Our specialty is high-quality residential painting, yet we’ve also lent our personal touch to many commercial projects. We offer conventional and specialty paint finishes on both interior and exterior projects. Our highly competent staff has an average of 15 years' painting experience, allowing us to provide our clients with efficient, well-organized and properly executed paintwork.
What makes us different from other painting crews?
We believe in a team philosophy based on integrity, pride in workmanship and a solid work ethic. Our hiring practices and training principles reflect this (as do the finished products!). Our painters are the type of people who simply want to do the best work they can. We encourage this by ensuring that each crew has a lead person, a friendly work environment and all the supplies and technical support needed for success. They not only understand the procedures for effective painting, but also aim to understand each client’s objectives and specific needs.
Much of our work is referral-based.
We hope that this is a reflection of our commitment to client satisfaction.
We understand that the painting process can be unsettling, so we do our best to keep job-sites tidy, show up smiling and timely, and move things along.
COLOR TOUCH PAINTING TIPS: A SAN FRANCISCO PAINTING CONTRACTOR'S JOURNAL
Welcome to the Color Touch San Francisco House Painting Journal!
Our latest project is the restoration of a San Francisco Victorian home. For us, It's a big step, because it involves a lot more than just paint removal, priming and re-painting. In this case, the original facade was stripped, leaving only the roof-line corbels to indicate the grandeur that once was. The redwood siding had been covered with fiber shingles and then these had later been re-stripped and replaced with new siding and tacky, flimsy 2 1/2 inch wide trim.
The owner wanted to bring back some of the original detail of this historic, late 1800's home. We started by taking photographs of everything similar we could find, and checked a few books out of the library. What we discovered was that for this style (Italianate) with slanted bays, the corners of the bays were always capped by columns. We decided that the entryway and a large upper window would need pediments (overhanging caps), which would be supported (at least cosmetically) by corbels (tying into the style of the existing roof-line). Some additional decorative details would be borrowed from an unmolested square bay window on the right side of the house.
After submitting our sketches and gaining approval from the historical planning people at the San Francisco DBI, we approached American Wood-turning (formerly Gail Redman Studios) for the columns and corbels, and we are on our way!
We realized that the existing window sills would not support the 5" diameter columns, and so we ended up cutting a channel into the siding/sheathing and sliding a 2" by 6" redwood sill under the existing one to build it out.
We have found mock-ups to be very helpful in pre-determining how things will look before actually committing to building them. We spent a good amount of time tacking trim into place and checking out the look before actually mitering and nailing them. Our most recent mock-up was for the bay window pediment; we actually just tacked a few trim and moulding samples to the side of the house until we found an arrangement we liked.
The owner has given us artistic license which is fantastic, because we have the freedom to not only create a great design, but also a fantastic color palatte. The end scheme will probably be fairly simple, yet elegant, with maybe four colors and some gold leaf, yet we are excited and can't wait to pull the netting and expose this restored Victorian!.....
San Francisco Painting contractor notes%3
September and October are great Months for exterior house-painting in the San Francisco Bay Area, so I thought I'd share some thoughts on exterior painting process and techniques. Below is a sample sequence from prep to finish.
Start by CLEANING, which Entails manual scrubbing or 1500-2000 psi removal of dirt and other organic material from the building. If necessary, bleach is used to kill mildew, and we'd use a bucket and stiff bristle brush to remove any organic material left by the power washing process. Care must be taken not to use the power-washer near windows and doors so as to avoid getting water into the house. Window frames can be washed by hand.
SCRAPING: Removal of the loose and peeling paint is probably the most important step in ensuring a long-lasting paint job. Paint that is imminently failing but not peeling may be removed using heat guns or chemicals. We prefer heat-gunning as chemical stripping can be messy and the results hard to control. We use high quality scraping tools, such as "Pro-Prep" or "Sandvik" carbide. Areas of degraded paint that are in risk of imminently failing, but are not readily scraped, should be removed using heat guns. The prepped areas are then be rough-sanded to knock down the edges and prepare the surface for priming.
A word about LEAD: Before scraping or sanding lead-based paint one should take the proper steps to protect self, others and the environment. I won't get into lead ordinances here. We follow proper lead abatement procedure, and use 4-6 mil. plastic, hepa-vacuums and particulate respirators.
* NOTE-- In cases where you want to prep less, or wish to avoid creating a lead-abatement issue, you can improve your shot at durability by apply an (eco-friendly!) clear binding primer like XIM "Peel Bond" or Global Encasement's "Prep LESS primer".
A word about WINDOW GLAZING: Glazing takes over a week to cure before painting, so try to get your failed glazing removed, primed and re-placed as soon as possible.
SANDING: Sand the scraped areas/paint edges to remove loose matter and minimize the profile to help prevent further peeling. Sanding can also be used to de-gloss shiny paint. However, if the pre-existing paint is highly glossy, then it is best to use a primer with high adhesion.
FILLING HOLES: Bottom line with filling is don't use exterior spackle; it absorbs moisture and bubbles later on. Use epoxy fillers like bondo or better yet, the slower-drying but FAR superior "Restore-It". You can find a ton of great fillers at West Marine or Tap Plastics! But first make sure the substrate is sound. If there is dry-rot present, or the wood is not solid, use a liquid wood hardener (We've used Zinsser clear binding primer as an eco-friendly alternative to the noxious "Restore-It" hardener.
CAULKING: We use urethane-reinforced caulking (55 year) to caulk all vertical seams and window/door openings. In challenging situations (Front Steps) we may use a poly-urethane caulk like "sika-flex"
REPAIRING STUCCO: Make sure the substrate is clean and sound, (wash/prime first) then fill/bridge cracks with flexible caulking or elastomeric patching compound as required. For larger repairs use a cement-based, rapid-setting stucco patch.
PRIMING: Try to pick an appropriate primer for the job. We like the acrylic multi-purpose primers that stick well, block stains and handle galvanized metal or recently cured concrete. Dunn Edwards "Ultra-Grip" and ICI "Gripper" come to mind.
Wood-- Prime all bare wood with SLOW-drying exterior grade oil primer to penetrate, seal and block tannin bleed-through. Next, fill nail-holes, caulk seams and re-prime using an exterior grade, stain-blocking acrylic primer. We always prime bare wood twice to really seal it and prevent future bleed-through.
Bare Stucco-- Spot-prime using Ph-resistant acrylic primer to seal surface against flashing and peeling. Galvanized Metal: Prime with acrylic primer suitable for galvanized metal. (Like Zinsser's "1-2-3", or ICI "Gripper")
Rusted Metal-- Etch and then prime with two coats of rust converter.
FINISH COATS: Apply two finish coats of paint, preferably using a brush or roller. We prefer 100% Acrylic products for their flexibility, mildew resistance and color-fastness.