Exterior Painting
Preparation is the job. Paint is what goes on afterwards, and it only lasts as long as what is underneath it.
An exterior paint job in this climate lives or dies on preparation. Scraping, sanding, priming bare wood and dealing with rot before a brush comes out is what gets you eight to ten years instead of three.
Most exterior paint jobs that fail early were not painted badly, they were prepared badly. Paint applied over a chalky, dirty or poorly adhered surface will look excellent for a season and start peeling in the second. It is the least visible part of the job and it is most of the work, which is exactly why it is the part that gets quietly skipped when a quote comes in unusually low.
The Northeast is hard on exterior coatings for the same reason it is hard on roofs. Timber takes on moisture in summer humidity and gives it up in dry winter cold, moving as it does so, and any film on top has to move with it. Freeze and thaw finds every unsealed end grain and every gap in the caulk line. Southern and western elevations then take the UV load that fades and chalks the surface.
Because we do carpentry and roofing as well, we deal with the rot rather than painting over it. A soft window sill or a rotted trim board gets replaced before finishing. A painting-only crew will often caulk and coat it, which looks fine on handover day and is worse than doing nothing eighteen months later.
What we handle
Washing, scraping, sanding and feathering edges so the transition between old and bare does not telegraph through the finish. Bare wood spot-primed the same day it is exposed.
Rotted trim, sills and clapboard replaced, not filled and coated. Failed caulk cut out and redone rather than layered over.
Clapboard, cedar, shingle and fiber cement, plus trim, soffit, fascia, porch ceilings, railings and doors.
Products chosen for the substrate and the exposure. A south-facing elevation and a shaded north wall are not the same problem.
How it runs
What is on there now, how well it is holding, and where the rot is. This determines the scope far more than the square footage does.
Surfaces cleaned, loose material removed, edges feathered, bare wood primed. Plants and hard landscaping covered before anything starts.
Rotted timber replaced, joints and gaps sealed with the right product for the movement they will see. End grain sealed, because that is where water gets in.
Applied at the spread rate the manufacturer specifies rather than stretched. Watching the weather, because paint applied ahead of a cold night or a rain front does not cure properly.
Why us
Rotted trim gets replaced by carpenters, not caulked by painters. Paint over rot is a cosmetic fix on a structural problem.
It is most of the labour and it is the reason a job lasts eight years instead of three. A quote that is dramatically cheaper is usually cheaper here.
Freeze and thaw, humidity swing and UV load all differ by elevation. The product gets chosen for the wall it goes on.
Reviews
Google reviews from a customer we did exterior painting for.
Was a pleasure to work with Upstate KC-Builders! Fixed some exterior damage on my house, then scraped and painted it to look beautiful again! I would recommend Upstate KC-Builders to anyone who needed work completed! Stephen is a kind, honest, hardworking, awesome person! Thank you for all you have done for me!
Where we work
We paint throughout our service area. The older clapboard and cedar stock across Rensselaer County, Bennington County and the Berkshires needs the most preparation and repair work, while the newer developments in Saratoga County are usually straightforward recoats.
We cover Albany County, NY, Rensselaer County, NY, Saratoga County, NY, Schenectady County, NY, Bennington County, VT, Berkshire County, MA.
Questions
Late spring through early autumn. The constraint is temperature and dew point rather than the calendar. Most exterior coatings need to stay above roughly fifty degrees for a set period after application, and a cold night too soon after a coat goes on will stop it curing properly. We would rather delay a day than put a coat on ahead of the wrong overnight.
Eight to ten years on a properly prepared surface with a quality coating, and longer on protected elevations. South and west facing walls take the UV and will always go first. If your last paint job failed within three or four years, the cause was almost certainly preparation rather than the paint.
We wash, but carefully and at low pressure on older timber. High pressure drives water behind clapboard and into end grain, and on soft old wood it raises the grain and damages the surface you are about to paint. Aggressive pressure washing causes more problems on historic houses than it solves.
Not successfully. New paint bonds to what is beneath it, so applying it over material that is already letting go simply adds weight to a failing layer. Loose paint has to come off and the edges have to be feathered so the repair does not show through the finish.
Anything built before 1978 may have it, and most of the housing stock we work on predates that comfortably. It requires specific safe work practices for containment and disposal. We will discuss how it is handled on your property before starting rather than treating it as a detail.
Related
New decks, structural repair, and stripping and refinishing decks that still have good bones underneath.
Learn more about Deck Building & Restoration
Vinyl, fiber cement and wood siding, plus seamless gutters and guards that move water away from the foundation.
Learn more about Siding & Gutters
Kitchens, bathrooms, flooring and whole-home renovations, run by the same crew from demo through punch list.
Learn more about Home RemodelingWe will look at the substrate, tell you what repairs it needs first, and give you a written estimate covering both.
Tell us about your project and we will get back to you with a written estimate.
