You’ve chosen the best exterior paint colors for the siding and trim, budgeted appropriately, picked up your supplies, and maybe even taken time off work for your big house painting project, and now you’re ready to begin.

The first part of any exterior house painting project is lots of prep work.  You’ll need to scrape, sand, caulk gaps, etc., but before you do any of that, there’s an important prep work step that cannot be skipped: pressure washing.

Many homeowners wonder, do I really need to pressure wash my house before painting?  What are the benefits of power washing a house before it is painted?  Here’s why it’s important to pressure wash your home before painting it:

1. Remove Grime – Pressure washing your home removes grime and buildup. Cobwebs, mold, mildew, insect nests, mud, sand, and salt are all removed with a high-quality pressure washing job, particularly when done by a good professional pressure washing company with the best quality equipment.  If you don’t power wash your house before painting, you’ll paint right over the dirt and debris, which can cause the coatings to fail.
2. Remove Old Paint – Pressurized water and cleaning solution will remove not only dirt and insect infestations, but also loose and peeling paint. When this peeling paint is washed away and removed by pressure washing, it will make it much easier for you to do subsequent prep work of scraping and sanding.
3. Review Repairs – After pressure washing your home’s exterior, all grime and loose paint will be removed, and you’ll be left with a “blank slate”, ready to prep and paint. Just as importantly, good pressure washing will reveal any areas of your house that are in need of repair prior to painting.  You’ll be able to more easily see rotten wood, holes, gaps, warped wood, rusted nails, and other areas that will need to be handled as part of the prep work.

Don’t skip the pressure washing.  Pressure washing cleans debris away from your home and gets it ready to receive primer, paint, or stain, and ensures those topcoats will adhere better and last longer.

Exterior house painting is a big project, and most homeowners opt to find the best local painting contractors to do the job.  Great painting companies employ great painters who know how to complete the multitude of prep work required, including pressure washing, and ensure the exterior painting looks great and is done correctly and thoroughly.

There are many great painting services in Northeast Florida, but The Painting Craftsmen is the best painting contractor Jacksonville FL homeowners trust with their homes.  Our commitment to quality and our eye for detail make us the trusted painting company in Mandarin, Ortega, Riverside, Southside, and throughout Jacksonville and the Beaches.  Give us a call and let’s get started planning your exterior painting project!

The time has come to paint your house, and you know it’s going to be an investment of time and money, so you want to be sure you do it right.  How can you make sure your exterior paint job will last?  Our pro tips can help!

• Clean the House First – Before you mix the paint, your house needs to be thoroughly pressure washed. The paint simply won’t adhere correctly to your siding if the siding is coated in dirt or debris.  Every exterior painting project starts with power washing because grime, insect nests, salt and sand, and other debris needs to be removed in order for the paint to be applied.
• No Shortcuts on Prep – For a paint job that lasts, don’t skimp on the prep work. Take the time to remove rusty nails, fill nail holes, scrape and sand, repair rotten wood, and apply caulk.  If you’re not sure how to do the prep that is needed, hire a good local painting contractor and let the team take care of everything!
• Quality Product – Cheap paint begets a cheap paint job. Invest in highly pigmented, good quality paint and topcoats, and you’ll love the results.  You’ll also most likely be done with the exterior painting faster, since high quality paint covers better.  If you go for the cheap stuff, you may need to put on so many coats of paint, it’ll end up costing more than if you had sprung for good quality paint in the first place!
• Plan it Right – Good exterior painting jobs need to be planned. If you’re painting your home’s exterior yourself, plan to take a chunk of time off for the pressure washing, prep, and painting.  Plan to have friends help, if possible, since most exterior paint jobs include wrangling ladders, rolling, brushing, spraying, and can sometimes require a few trips to the hardware store for supplies you don’t realize you needed.  The easier way to have your house painted the right way, and at no hassle to you, is to hire great professional painters to take care of it all.
• Do it Right – House painting is not an average household chore. You can’t really knock it out in an afternoon. For a good quality paint job that will last, you need to be sure you caulk and seal certain areas, apply the paint in certain ways to certain types of siding, and above all, work safely, particularly on ladders, roofs, wet surfaces, etc.  Many Riverside, Ortega, Mandarin, and Jacksonville homeowners opt to hire a great professional painting company so that the job will be done right!

There are many good painting contractors in the area, but The Painting Craftsmen is the best painting company Jacksonville FL neighbors rely on for their homes.  We have specialized teams that focus on interior painting, exterior painting, cabinet refinishing, and more, and we’d love to help you with your painting projects!  Let our trained and experienced painting technicians take care of the whole house painting project for you.

You’re getting tired of the same ol’ kitchen, but what’s the best way to update or refresh it?  A total renovation can cost a fortune, but a deep cleaning and a few new fixtures are not enough of an update.  The solution that more and more Riverside, Southside, Ponte Vedra, and San Marco homeowners are discovering is custom cabinet refinishing from The Painting Craftsmen!  Here’s the scoop on why our artisan cabinet refinishing services are a great way to update your kitchen:

• Easy – High quality cabinet refinishing companies make it easy for you to get the look you want for your kitchen. All you need to do is find the best local cabinet refinishing service, book a free estimate so you can meet with a member of the team and describe exactly how you want your updated kitchen cabinetry to look, review the estimate, and schedule the work!  Good painting and cabinet refacing companies take care of everything for you.  If you want new knobs and drawer pulls, we’ll order them for you.  If you want a specific color, we’ll get it mixed exactly how you want it.  All you need to do is let us know what you want, and we’ll take care of it!
• Affordable – Custom cabinet refinishing is the cost-effective way to redo your kitchen. A total renovation can cost a lot of money, especially in the current market where materials – in particular building materials – can be hard to locate, expensive to procure, and slow to be delivered.  Save money by calling on a high-quality professional cabinet refinishing company and let the craftsmen create the feel of a new kitchen by simply refacing or refinishing your cabinets!
• Total Customization – When you hire a good cabinet refinishing service to update your kitchen cabinets, you are in control of the outcome. Great cabinet refinishers provide total customization, which means you choose the paint or stain color, the design details, the hardware, everything.  More and more homeowners are choosing cabinet refinishing because they can customize the look they want for their own kitchens.

There are many great cabinet refinishers in the area, but the best cabinet refinishing company Jacksonville FL homeowners rely on is The Painting Craftsmen.  We specialize in cabinet refinishing and have honed our skills to perfection.  Give us a call and let’s get started on your kitchen cabinet refinishing project!

Should I paint my brick house?  This question is a contentious one among homeowners, and even among professional painters.  Do you give your home’s fireplace or brick exterior a new life with a fresh coat of paint?  Or do you leave the brick untouched as an homage to the past?  Because of the permanence of painting brick, it’s a big decision!  Here are some pros and cons of painting brick houses to help you decide:

Benefits of painting brick:

• Fresh Appearance – If you find the brick on your house to feel drab, dated, or dingy, nothing will be better than a coat of fresh paint. Cover that dark or soot-stained fireplace with a warm white or neutral and fall in love with it!  Or hire a good painting company in  your area to coat the brick exterior of your home with gray, beige, or any color you want so that you can finally make your home your own.
• Uniform Look – Each brick is different, sometimes including its texture, color, hue, or size. If these discrepancies are bothersome to you, a coat of paint will give the brick wall or feature a uniform appearance.
• Easy to Clean – Painting over brick creates a smooth, polished surface that’s much easier to maintain and keep clean than the porous and rough texture of unpainted brick.

Downsides of painting brick:

• No Going Back! – Once you paint over your brick feature, fireplace, or exterior, there’s no going back.  It’s not like painting wood furniture or something that you can “strip” or peel off if you don’t like the look.  If you’re not crazy about the brick siding on your house, first consider if a good pressure washing will make it look more pleasing, or consider painting the wood trim, or even changing the landscaping before you go full throttle and paint over the brick.
• Repainting – Once the brick is painted, like any surface, it will need to be repainted as part of its maintenance.
• Prep Work – Painting brick can be a taxing job. It requires extensive prep work and can call for specially formulated paint and supplies.  Most homeowners who decide to paint their brick homes check out the best painting contractors in their area and choose a good professional painting company to do the work!

If you’re thinking about painting the brick on your home, you’ll want to call on a highly rated painting contractor for the job.  There are many great painting services throughout Northeast Florida, but The Painting Craftsmen is the best painting company Jacksonville FL residents choose when it comes to painting exteriors.  We’re committed to serving our customers in Riverside, Nocatee, Ponte Vedra, Atlantic Beach, and Jacksonville with the highest quality service, and we’ll tackle your painting job with the same passion, skill, and attention to detail.

You know the bedrooms or living room in your home need to be repainted, or maybe even the entire exterior of your house needs a fresh coat of paint.  The next step is to choose the right colors, but how?  Use our tips for testing paint colors to find the best color for your home!

1. Determine the general tone you desire. Do you want a bold or dark color, or a neutral?  Do you want to stick with generally the same tone that’s already on the wall, or start fresh with a vibrant new color?  If you have a general idea of the value, intensity, and hue you want before you head to the paint store, you’ll be less likely to be overwhelmed by the color selection.
2. Use an app. There are many apps that allow you to upload a picture of your house or room and then apply different colors to the image to get a general idea of what the area would look like in a certain color.  These apps can be very useful, especially if you’re going into the repainting project with no idea what color to choose.
3. Confer with a professional. All the best professional painting companies offer help with color selection.  If you’re not sure what color will look best on your home’s exterior or in a particular room, and you don’t want to hassle with an app, call on a good local painting contractor and get input from the pros who work with paint every single day!
4. Choose your top picks. Zero in on your favorite colors and pick up swatches from the paint supply store.  Or you may choose to order a small sample can of each of your top color options.
5. Put color on the walls. Tape the swatches up on the wall, or if you ordered samples, apply a small amount of each color to the walls.  It’s best to apply the swatch or paint sample to several areas in order to see what the paint looks like in daylight, shade, next to certain objects, etc.  You need to get an idea of how the color will behave in all settings and scenarios.
6. Get second (or third) opinions. Once the swatches or paint samples are up, call in family members and trusted friends to help make the decision.  If you need yet another opinion, you can call on a local professional painting service and trust the pros to offer sound advice.
7. Make your decision! Once you’ve gone through these steps, it’s time to make your final decision.  Choosing which colors to paint your living room, bedroom, kitchen, or exterior is a big decision, but don’t get hung up on it.  You may need to just find the color you love and get painting!

More and more Northeast Florida homeowners are choosing to call on professional painters when the time comes for a fresh coat of paint.  The Painting Craftsmen is the best painting company Jacksonville FL homeowners rely on for repainting the exterior, applying a fresh coat to the interior, refinishing cabinetry, and more.  Our technicians are highly trained and skilled painting contractors with a passion for doing high quality work and taking care of customers.  Our customers in Ortega, San Marco, Southside, Riverside, and along the Beaches love the work we do, and we know you will too!

High quality custom cabinet refinishing is the quick and painless way to give your kitchen, mudroom, or bathrooms a totally new look for far less cost than it takes to install new cabinetry.  When it’s time to redo your kitchen cabinets, what are your cabinet refinishing options?  Great professional painting companies typically offer many choices:

• Unlimited Colors – The best professional cabinet refinishing companies offer a multitude of choices of color of paint and sheen. If you need help choosing the best cabinet color for your kitchen, you can consult with the color experts!  All the best Jacksonville painting companies hire team members that help with color consultation, and you can speak with the professionals at painting supply stores.
• More than One Color – Trends in cabinet refinishing often include more than one color in a single room. For example, many homeowners throughout Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra, Atlantic Beach, and Riverside choose to have their upper kitchen cabinets refinished in one color, and the lower cabinets refinished in a different color.  Refinishing your kitchen cabinets in bright white is a popular contemporary look, especially when paired with black, navy, beige, or gray cabinetry on the kitchen island.
• Stains & Lacquers – In addition to choosing from a bevy of color options, you also get to choose from an array of refinishing materials. Good professional painting contractors are skilled at applying all types of topcoats to your kitchen cabinets to produce the look you’ve been dreaming of.
• Refacing – What is cabinet refacing? Many great local cabinet refinishers offer cabinet refacing, a process in which all new drawers and door fronts are ordered and customized and then replaced on your existing cabinet boxes.  If your cabinet doors and drawers are in rough shape and need more than just a fresh coat of paint, cabinet refacing is a great option!

Changing the look of your cabinets does not have to be a protracted and costly project.  There are many great professional painters who have teams of cabinet refinishing experts ready to transform your kitchen, entryway, and bathroom with a custom cabinet refinishing job!  The Painting Craftsmen is the best cabinet refinishing company Jacksonville FL homeowners trust with their homes, and we’re ready to get to work on your kitchen too!  Call the experts, then sit back and relax and get ready for the transformation!

If your home has cedar shake or natural wood siding, you get to make the choice between paint and stain when determining how to protect it from the elements.  Many homeowners choose paint, which safely and completely seals the wood under the film of quality paint.  But what exactly is exterior stain, and how do you know if stain is the right choice for your house?

Benefits of Stain:

• It protects your home from the elements and water damage, just as other quality topcoats do.
• It’s easy to apply, and it doesn’t require the rigorous surface prep and primers that paint requires.
• It’s resistant to peeling.
• It showcases the wood’s natural grain or texture while still providing protection.
• It’s available in 3 major types, so you can find the best stain for your home’s exterior!

Types of Stain:

• Solid Color – These opaque stains behave much like paint and hide much of the wood grain and other imperfections on the home’s surface. Sanding is recommended prior to applying solid color stain.  Solid color stains offer high protection and a high-quality solid color stain application done by one of the best painting companies in the area can last for 5-7 years, and in certain cases, up to a decade!
• Semisolid / Semi-transparent – Semisolid stain, also known as semi-transparent stain, does not include as much pigmentation as solid color stain. Good quality semisolid stain generally needs to be reapplied every 3-5 years.
• Clear – Clear stains, also called clear toners, are extremely translucent. The pigments in clear stains block UV rays and therefore offer protection, and can offer a tint of warmth or color, but do not affect the wood grain.  You’ll need to reapply every few years, or even annually.

If your home has cedar shake or natural wood siding, exterior stain is a great way to keep it looking great and protected from the weather.  Paint is also a great choice, and there are many high-quality topcoats to choose from. But you must choose one or the other; if you leave the wood siding bare and uncoated, the wood will turn gray and rot, and water intrusion issues will occur, among other issues.  The best thing to do for your house is to hire the best local painting contractor to apply a high-quality topcoat to your house to keep it safe and looking sharp!

The Painting Craftsmen is the best painting company Jacksonville homeowners have relied on for years.  Here in Northeast Florida, we realize the importance of keeping homes protected against water damage, UV rays, and other issues, and our teams of expert painters excel at exterior painting.  We’re the trusted painting service for homes throughout Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra, Atlantic Beach, Riverside, and San Marco, and we’d love to take great care of your home as well!

Shiplap continues to be popular interior design trend, appearing in everything from farmhouse design to transitional homes.  So how do you paint shiplap siding?  Our pro tips can help!

1. Clean & Remove Dust – Prior to painting nearly any surface, you’ll lightly sand the surface in order to help the new coating adhere. In the case of preparing shiplap to be painted, you’ll want to be careful and take extra time to remove as much dust as possible from the grooves between the shiplap boards.  If you don’t clean the grooves, they’ll be trickier and more time consuming to evenly coat.
2. Prep Nail Holes – If nail holes are visible in the shiplap siding, remove any dust from around them and fill them with paintable caulk. When the caulk has dried, lightly sand the areas and wipe away the dust.  As you roll the paint, take note of the nail holes and be sure the areas are getting coated evenly.  If they aren’t you may need to re-caulk and re-sand them.  With shiplap siding, smoothness is the look you want!
3. Roller & Artist’s Brush – Use a roller to evenly coat the shiplap boards and use a small paintbrush, sometimes called an “artist’s brush” to paint inside the grooves between shiplap boards. When painting panels or shiplap, pay close attention to the grooves to be sure no area gets skipped.  Once you pass over the shiplap with your roller, use the small brush to make sure paint gets into every crack and crevice.

Different types of siding require different skills and even different types of material, and shiplap siding is no different.  Many homeowners in our area, including Ponte Vedra, Riverside, San Marco, Fleming Island, and the Beaches, choose to skip the hassle and call on a highly rated professional painting company for their interior painting projects.  The Painting Craftsmen is the best painting contractor Jacksonville FL residents trust with their homes, and it’s because of our commitment to quality, our attention to detail, and our devotion to our customers.  If you’re ready for a high quality paint job, call on The Painting Craftsmen!

One of the best reasons to live in Northeast Florida is because we get to spend time outside on the deck and patio all year long!  An important tip from good painting contractors in the area is that when the Fall weather arrives, you should think about what your deck needs to stay in great shape for the coming season.

1. Repair Damages – Take a good look at the surface and edges of your deck. Are any boards loose?  Is any wood rotten?  Have any nails popped, or are there any areas of rough wood or splinters?  Any of these things can be dangerous when you and family and friends are enjoying the deck, so these problems need to be addressed.  Plan on a weekend deck refinishing DIY project or call on one of the best local painting contractors and tell them you need a team of deck refinishers to remove the rotten wood, replace damaged boards, and get your deck back into shape.
2. Deep Clean – Is mildew or mold growing anywhere on your deck? Or has dirt and sand been building up for far too long?  Often the first part of giving your deck a “facelift” is to pressure wash the boards.  You can rent a DIY pressure washer and invest in the right cleaning products, or you can call a highly rated pressure washing service in your area and leave the job to the professionals.  We recommend First Coast Home Pros pressure washing team to our Jacksonville FL customers, and they love the results!
3. Fresh Coat of Paint or Stain – Is the paint peeling on your deck? Have you noticed cracks in the finish?  A fresh coat of paint or stain is one of the best ways to make your deck look great, but it’s also an important way to protect it from the elements.  When the coatings fail on your deck, they will crack and peel, causing moisture to get in and absorb into the wood.  This will cause wood rot, and your decking will be in trouble.  The ultimate way to give your deck a facelift and protect it is to call the best painting company in your area and let the professionals take care of your deck.

You deserve to enjoy your outdoor spaces year-round, and the best local deck refinishers help make that happen!  The Painting Craftsmen is the best deck staining service Jacksonville FL residents trust with their homes.  We’ve provided high quality work and outstanding customer service to homeowners throughout Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, Ponte Vedra, Mandarin, and Riverside who call on us for exterior painting, interior painting, garage flooring installation, cabinet refinishing, and deck refinishing.  We’d love to help keep your home and patio looking great!

You’ve heard a lot about cabinet refinishing, but might not know exactly what it entails.  Maybe it sounds too good to be true – a great cabinet refinishing team comes to your home, finds out exactly what you want for your cabinets, applies quality stain to the cabinet boxes, and removes all doors and drawer fronts and takes them to their shop to work their magic and create the custom look you’ve been dreaming of!  It’s not too good to be true.  In fact, it’s exactly what the best cabinet refinishing companies in the area do.

Here are reasons to refinish the cabinets in your kitchen, bar, mudroom, and bathroom:

• Save Money – Redoing or completely renovating your kitchen or bathroom costs an exorbitant amount of cash. Hiring a good painting company with an expert cabinet refinishing team to redo the cabinets will help to create an all-new look in your kitchen at a fraction of the cost.
• Custom Work – Good cabinet refinishers are true artists. They’re trained to apply the best topcoats and then add detail work by hand, creating truly custom, one-of-a-kind cabinetry in your home.  You’ll never walk into your neighbor’s house and find the same cabinets there, because yours are completely unique, just for you and your home, and exactly what you’ve imagined.
• “Start Over” – Even if you like your kitchen and aren’t looking to give it a facelift or different look, cabinet refinishing provides a great way to “start over.” Over time, cabinet drawers and doors take a real beating.  They get spattered with juice, cooking oil, and any number of other things, and they get dented, scratched, and covered in a thin (or not so thin) layer of grime.  The best cabinet refinishers can make these problems go away and can give your kitchen or mudroom cabinets a fresh start.  Cleaning, sanding, finishing, and applying a fresh coat of the paint or stain will freshen up your kitchen like you won’t believe!
• Good Investment – Any improvement you make to your home increases its value, and custom cabinet refinishing is no different. Furthermore, you spend a lot of time in the kitchen, whether preparing meals for your family, hosting friends, or just naturally congregating in the heart of the home.  Make the kitchen look good by investing in quality cabinet refinishing when your cabinetry needs to be refreshed.

Is it time for your master bathroom or kitchen to have the cabinets refinished?  The Painting Craftsmen is the best cabinet refinisher Jacksonville FL homeowners trust with their homes, and we’re the ones to call on for your custom cabinet refinishing and refacing.  Cabinet refinishing remains one of our most popular services year-round, and it’s because we really are exceptional at it.  Our highly trained cabinet refinishing team has provided outstanding services to homes throughout Ponte Vedra, Atlantic Beach, Mandarin, Riverside, Nocatee, and throughout Jacksonville Florida, and we’d be honored to add you to our list of raving fans!