Michael Holigan: To get a great paint job on any home, you need to spend some real time on prep work. We've got a master at prep work or painting. We've got George Rodriguez with Rodriguez Contracting with us. Good to have you here George.
George Rodriguez: Nice to be here. Thanks for having me.
M.H.: Hey, George I see you prepping this in a way I've never seen before. You're actually using a car Bondo to fill in your nicks and cracks on the woodwork. Tell me about that.
G.R.: Right. Well, you don't see it a whole lot. A lot of people really don't know it, to be honest with you. They're so familiar with just the simple spackles and wood fillers and that sort of thing. They don't really know about the Bondo a whole lot. They think that Bondo's only for cars, that's what they're going to use it for.
M.H.: Well why don't you use the normal wood spackle fillers?
G.R.: Well through the years I did use it a lot. When you go to sand them they sand off. If somebody doesn't know how to sand real good then they end up sanding them off and all that filling goes to waste.
M.H.: And what happens with this Bondo?
G.R.: Well the Bondo's a lot more durable. If you sand it with a rough sanding paper, however fine of a nick it might be, it stays. I mean, and you know actually when to stop because you don't see no more except for that little hole that you filled up. The color always helps also. If you've got, say white woodwork, the wood filler's white, you put it on and you miss it.
M.H.: You don't know to go back and sand?
G.R.: You don't know where it's at exactly. But sometimes if people tend to use, you know, the regular spackling it's always good to put like a little tint of color in it so they know exactly where they went. It might take a little more coverage, but at least you'll know where you put the filler. Before I even realized that as far as the color went, I would spackle a whole lot and it was white. So, I would have the guys go over there and sand it. I mean, you can actually see the guys going up to the woodwork and just kinda looking like, well where'd they put it? You don't see it. And then a lot of it got left behind. So after we went and painted we didn't realize that that got left till the paint got put on.
M.H.: But this is very obvious.
G.R.: Yeah, and it dries real quick. This is an instant deal.
M.H.: Okay.
G.R.: I mean, he just applied this on a little while ago. You give it about a minute, depending on how much hardener you put in it.
M.H.: Well can you show us how you mix it together?
G.R.: Yeah. You take a little body filler and this is the hardener. If you don't put any hardener in it, then it won't ever dry. And if you don't put enough on it, then it'll dry eventually, but it'll take a lot longer. The key is, is to play with it a little while.
M.H.: Are you ever going to be able to see the Bondo at all once you paint over the trim?
G.R.: Not if you don't sand it properly. But the thing is, after you sand it nice and smooth, if it actually goes...after you finished it, to see if you feel it. If you feel a little lump, then you know you need more sanding. On the Bondo, to sand it down to what we need to sand it down to where it's smooth, we'll use the 100 grit. After we've got it down to a certain level, then the final one we'll use 150 so it's nice and smooth. If you use 150 on this it'll take you about 20 wipes. When you get 100 you'll do it in five and then you get the 150, about two little wipes just to leave it nice and smooth.
M.H.: What do you see happen with the normal wood fillers that most people try to sand?
G.R.: If they don't use Bondo, the thing would be to get the filler and just be careful not to sand it all off completely. Don't put a lot of pressure. Most wood fillers are made to sand nice and light. But if you sand it off, then all that went to waste. The material, the time and the purpose. You'll get tired, you'll say, "Aw, forget it. I'm not doing it. Just paint it." But if they use Bondo, like I said, it works real good.
M.H.: Well now that all the woodwork's prepped, what do we do on the walls to get them started George?
G.R.: Well, basically the same. All you're really doing is using a different product. Like for instance, this mud here, which is drywall mud that you can get anywhere in any paint store, any store wherever you go, you just basically put some on your mud knife and apply it on there. You don't want to get a whole bunch and blob it on there, 'cause you've got to sand it once it's dried. So you want to make sure you just use so much. You don't want to put it on and wipe it all off 'cause then you're going to have to do another. Just build up a little bit, 'cause you know you've have to sand it off. Just do something about that much. When you have little nail holes like this, instead of wiping it on like we're doing there, you can always just grab some with your finger and say there's all these little nail holes, they're so fine there's no need to really wipe this big of a blob. You can always do this and just rub it off.
M.H.: And how long do we have to wait for this before you can start sanding on it?
G.R.: There's mud that will dry in 20 minutes, like this particular one will dry in 20 minutes. There's a 90 minutes, so it just depends. But of course, when you start speeding up the process you know you have to apply it on a lot quicker than you do regular mud. You can't just sit there and go, "Oh, I'll come back do it in a little while after lunch.".
M.H.: Gotta keep 'em moving, huh?
G.R.: Once you used it up, then take your break.
M.H.: What sand paper will you come back with on these?
G.R.: Well normally, we'll use like an 80 grit. But, when these areas are so fine, they don't have a whole lot, you didn't apply a whole lot, you can always use a wet rag.
M.H.: Really?
G.R.: Yeah, just get a rag, fold it up a little to where it's nice and square, and you want to keep the rag a little wet and you can actually wet it. It'll go back down to a wet product, but not this wet and it'll sand out. That way you don't create any dust, any mess and that's...'cause this is about the finest dust there is and that gets pretty messy.
M.H.: Well it's a lot of work to get ready, but once we're ready it's going to look sharp. And as soon as we get back we're going to start painting.
Episode 019 1995 - 96 Season
| Painting Prep | Roach Bait | Painting Your House | Architectural Salvage | What is Job Stability | LIST |
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