Michael Holigan: Well now that the house is prepped, it's time to get started painting. What type of paint do you use for the woodwork?
George Rodriguez: Well the woodwork, it's always best to use the oil-base enamel.
M.H.: Good long lasting hard coating.
G.R.: Yes, exactly. And on the walls they normally want a flat paint on it.
M.H.: And a latex is really easy to touch up, isn't it?
G.R.: Yep, it is. That's the thing about the latex enamel, the ones with a little shine on the wall, those don't touch up so good because then you have like a little blob, a smear, because of the shine you distort it. Flats, they don't have no shine, so it hides a lot of defects. So if you have walls that are real old, and they have a lot of defects, just an old house and you can see that there's a lot of defects, well, you don't want to apply anything with a shine on it because it's just like your car. If you get a nick in it, the car's so shiny that you see every little dent. If you have flat, I mean, it's got nicks, it's got bad texture job, it hides that sort of thing.
M.H.: When kids write on the wall you can come back with a paint and go back and....
G.R.: Exactly, touch it right back up, like I said....
M.H.: And that's a good idea, isn't it, to keep some extra samples of your paint once the painter leaves so you have that same match.
G.R.: Oh yeah. Exactly. Yeah, there's a little tool, like a little box and it's called a touchup paint and it's little quarts that we always leave everybody and you mark 'em and file it if you can, because I mean, people normally don't go back and paint the house for quite a few years. Afterwards they say, "Hey, I don't know, the painter might know. Let me call him up and, no, you didn't keep up with it, I didn't either.".
M.H.: How about on the ceilings here? Now that woodwork's done, all the crown molding, the guy's coming back by hand and actually painting the flat next to it, why is that?
G.R.: Well, I always like to brush out the edges first and then roll it out. Some people might roll it out and then brush it out. The thing about if you roll it first and then brush it out, the last thing that you will see and do will be the brush marks. If you do the brush marks first and then you can always roll the roller over it, the roller always leaves a little texture on it so it hides the brush marks. When you're doing like latex enamels, it's not so much because of the marks, it's just because of the shine, so you always want to make sure you brush out the final coat. If you're only doing one coat, brush first, and then roll it out.
M.H.: George I noticed you're not using a spray rig, why is that?
G.R.: We just like to brush 'em and roll 'em out. You apply more paint on it by rolling it on and I just don't like that technique of spraying walls inside. You know, spraying the woodwork I do when there's a bunch of it and you're able to just leave a nice, slick finished wood.
M.H.: Very smooth and shiny.
G.R.: Exactly right. Everything has it's purpose as far as rolling and spraying and brushing. It just depends on the job.
M.H.: Why did you go back and tape off the base trim?
G.R.: Well, since the woodwork's done already and now we're doing the walls, normally when you roll out the walls, you have a bunch of little specks coming down, so we put a little tape on the base to create like a little roof to protect it so that way when we roll, all the little specks will land on the tape to protect it, you know, from not getting on the woodwork after we've already sanded it down and vacuumed it and wiped it and painted it. No sense in specking it up, so that's why we do that.
M.H.: If your base trim is in an enamel and you're putting latex on the walls, can you remove that latex with a wet rag in case you do get a little spill on there?
G.R.: Yeah, you sure can. The latex is always easy. Basically, any paint's always easy to remove. Of course, the faster you get, the easier it comes off. If you leave it on there, I mean if it doesn't come off easy, then sand it down and repaint it with some oil.
M.H.: And George, what is the normal order of painting a house? It looks like here you're doing woodworking, then ceilings, then walls. What should the order be?
G.R.: Well, there's really not a particular order. And there's not a normal order for it. Every job requires a different method, different technique. I mean, you might do a certain job, this particular job, I did the woodwork first because there's a lot of it, and the walls it didn't matter if I messed 'em up knowing that I can always cover up just the base and roll it out. But if I was doing a room in my house, for instance just one room, then of course I'm not going to spray the woodwork, I'm just going to brush it out because it's just one small area and there's furniture and there's people living in it and all that good stuff. So, too much of a mess, too much stuff to do. So, I would roll out the ceiling first, roll out the walls, sand my woodwork, vacuum it up, wipe it down, and brush it out.
M.H.: Okay. Well George, one last question. I've always wanted to know, why do painters always wear white?
G.R.: I don't know that one.
Episode 019 1995 - 96 Season
| Painting Prep | Roach Bait | Painting Your House | Architectural Salvage | What is Job Stability | LIST |
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