So you want to freshen up that door....

Let me just start out by saying that its not always that easy depending on ones situation.  Here are some tools you'll need for painting a door with latex paint: A 2 or 3 inch professional brush, a 3 inch mini roller, a roller grid or pan, 120 or 220 grit sand paper (depending on roughness), blue painters tape, a small drop cloth, a rag, and primer (depending on your situation). 

Now that you have the tools, you need to do as follows:

1. Lay out your drop cloth. 

2. Sand and scrape the surfaces to be painted. This not only gets it smooth, but it promotes adhesion. (You may not need to scrape)

3. Wipe off the dust with a damp rag. 

4. Tape off anything that you don't want to get paint on such as hinges and door knob etc. this especially helps when it is hot and you need to work fast.

5. Apply a latex primer for any bare wood areas to seal them. You may need to apply an oil based primer if the previous painter has painted latex paint over top of an oil based paint(latex paint does not adhere to oil based paint). To test for this simply scratch the door with your nail. If the paint comes right off then you will need the oil primer (oil based primer requires an oil based brush)

6. Now you are ready to apply the finish coat. 

A. If you are doing a multi panel door, start out by doing the panels first. Then everything else. 

B. If you are doing a completely flat door use your roller and go to town(you may need a larger roller depending on the size of the door). 

C. If you are doing a door with any glass always do close to the glass first then the rest using your roller. Here is an example of a door I recently did: 

As you can see since I was painting the door red again I hit the bad areas with a gray primer. This is the only color primer one should use for red. Then I proceeded to spot paint over the gray areas with the new red paint. This could save me from having to do extra coats. 

Not the boss for a day

I'm a foreman day in and day out. There are lots of responsibilities on my shoulders. Driving to and from the job sites, telling the other painters what to do and sometimes how to do it, Checking everyone's work, making sure everything gets done in a timely fashion etc... 

It's refreshing to have a day where I ride with another foreman to a job and he tells me what to do. Some people may not like that, but I sometimes miss those days. Today was one of those days. Although I was confined to a relatively small bathroom for five hours I was happy. I got to focus on my little project and nothing else. Ahh such a breath of fresh air! Anyone else feel the same? Who's with me?

Power washing Weems & Plath

So here are some before and after pics of a commercial building. The green that you see is actually oxidation similar to what is on the Statue of Liberty.

As you can see there is a dramatic difference not only in color change, but also with how much paint chipped off.

BGE had to disconnect the power lines

as well. Safety first!

Then I proceeded to use a pump sprayer to apply my geni magic washing solution.

Power wash it all off and voila!! Tune in next time for the after pics of painting.