Embarking on an exterior house painting project can be a daunting task, but with proper preparation and execution, the results will be rewarding.  Use these steps to ensure your painting project gets properly prepped so that it goes smoothly and leaves your home looking refreshed and vibrant.

1. Set Up Your Workspace: Before diving into painting, set a dedicated area in your yard to organize your tools, materials, and equipment. Any great house painter will attest that having everything easily accessible will streamline the painting process and minimize downtime.
2. Clear the Area: Remove anything “extra” from the surfaces to be painted.  For example, take down shutters, light fixtures, house numbers, mailboxes, and anything else that may hinder your painting progress.  As all the best local painting companies know, clear workspace allows for efficient movement and efficient application of paint.
3. Surface Preparation: A clean surface is essential for proper paint adhesion.  Thoroughly wash the exterior surfaces to remove dirt, grime, mildew, and other debris.  Scrub vigorously with a sponge or rag, then rinse thoroughly to ensure all residue is removed.  Ideally, you’ll hire a professional pressure washing service to do this but note that the best house painting companies offer in-house pressure washing.
4. Surface Repair: Inspect the surfaces for any damage or imperfections and make necessary repairs.  Replace rotten siding, repair damaged stucco, and fill in cracks and gaps with caulk.  Smooth out rough spots and remove loose paint to create a uniform surface for painting.  If you hire a good professional painting company to paint your home, you can trust that the trained professionals will take care of all such prep related repair.
5. Smooth the Surface: Achieve a smooth surface by scraping off old paint, removing nails and staples, and filling in imperfections with wood putty.  Sand the surface to create a smooth, even texture, paying special attention to problem areas.
6. Mask Off and Protect: Protect surrounding areas by laying down drop cloths to catch paint drips and spills.  Use painter’s tape to mask off windows, trim, and fixtures, ensuring clean lines and preventing paint from spreading where it’s not intended.

With the preparation complete, you’re ready to start painting!  You’ll then need to choose high-quality primer and latex paint for the best results.  If you’re like most homeowners in Ponte Vedra, Riverside Avondale, Mandarin, and throughout Jacksonville, you’d likely prefer to leave the painting – including the prep – to the experts. The Painting Craftsmen is the best professional painting company homeowners rely on for interior painting, exterior painting, cabinet refinishing, and more.  With years of experience and a commitment to quality craftsmanship, we specialize in exterior house painting services that will transform your home.  Call and let us get going on your 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.

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.

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!

Choosing the paint for your home’s exterior is a big decision!  A high-quality paint job will last for years, so you want to select the right colors, taking into account your personal taste, as well as the neighborhood and environment your home is a part of.

Here are tips from the best local painting company – us! – to help you can find the best exterior paint colors for your house:

1. Style – Think about the style of your home and whether you want colors that reinforce that style. For example, Riverside Avondale neighborhoods have many Craftsman style homes, which typically incorporate warm neutrals and earth tones.  San Marco and Miramar neighborhoods include midcentury modern homes and Spanish colonial style houses which are often painted white or cream to complement terra cotta roof tiles and dark ironwork accents.  Beach houses along Ponte Vedra or Atlantic Beach are often more contemporary in style and would look great in color schemes of light, airy neutrals or seaside hues that reinforce this style.  Many house styles incorporate 3 colors – the main color, trim color, and an accent color, and homeowners often like to research the style of their houses and then choose colors that enhance it.
2. Unchangeable Elements – Be sure to consider the parts of your home and property that are permanent, or at least cannot be changed easily. You’ll want to find a paint that does not clash with the color of your roof, or brick pavers, or stone accents you intend to keep.  Also consider the landscaping, particularly any flowering trees, to be sure you choose colors that will go well with the natural elements that surround your home.
3. Setting – Consider your own neighborhood and street. If you are part of a homeowners’ association, you may need to review any rules or restrictions that pertain to house paint.  Even if your neighborhood is not part of an HOA, there may be bylaws about house color that you should review before hiring a good Jacksonville painting company to paint your home.  If you’re neighborly, you’ll also consider your neighbors’ preferences.  If you’re planning to sell your home in the future, you’ll also consider the tastes of others and steer yourself away from particularly bold or daring choices.

For more help choosing the best paint colors or color schemes for your house, you can always work with a highly rated painting contractor to find the right colors!  All the best Jacksonville FL painting companies can provide color consultations, and employee technicians who understand paint, including which coatings work best on which surfaces, and which colors will look great on a house of any style.  There are many great Jacksonville FL painting contractors, but for true craftsmanship, outstanding customer service, and a high-quality job that will last, call on The Painting Craftsmen.  Let us turn your house into your dream home!

One of the simplest yet most effective way to add value to your home is to apply a fresh coat of exterior paint.  When preparing to put a house on the market, many homeowners choose to call on a great professional painting company because they know this will increase their chances of selling quickly!  Here are several ways that a coating of fresh paint will benefit your home and add value to it:

• Curb Appeal – Nothing boosts curb appeal like new coating of paint! Whether you repaint your house in the same hue or make a dramatic color change, fresh paint will enhance the way your house looks every time.
• Checkup – While planning for your house to be painted, it’s also a great time to give your home’s exterior a “checkup.” Your painting contractor may point out rotting wood panels that should be replaced, cracks in stucco, rusted nail heads, brittle caulk, mold infestations, or any other issue that should be resolved in order to be sure your home stays in great shape.
• Repairs – A quality exterior house painting project includes a significant amount of prep work. Problems that are identified during the “checkup” can be fixed and checked off your list at this time!  While prepping your house for painting, a great local painting contractor will caulk gaps, fill holes, repair drywall, replace rotten wood, and make other repairs that may be needed to be sure your home looks exactly as you want it to after the project is completed.
• Protection – Fresh paint helps protect your Florida home from the elements, including rain and high humidity. Siding is less likely to splinter or crack when it’s sealed with a good coat of paint.

This summer give your home a facelift as well as an increased level of protection with a fresh coat of paint.  Set aside the time, grab your tools and supplies, and find the right colors for your home’s exterior and get going.  Better yet, if the though of a massive DIY painting project in the summer heat has you feeling overwhelmed, call on the best professional painting contractor in your area to take on the job.

The Painting Craftsmen is the best painting company Jacksonville FL homeowners call on for interior and exterior house painting, cabinet refinishing, and more.  Our teams of highly trained professionals work skillfully and efficiently to help create the home you’ve been dreaming of!  Houses throughout Mandarin, Riverside, Nocatee, Atlantic Beach, and Jacksonville are looking sharp with a fresh coat of paint from The Painting Craftsmen.  Trust your house painting job to the painting pros

Here in Northeast Florida, though the temperatures rarely fall below freezing, many customers ask how to know if it gets to cold to paint outdoors.  Here’s what you need to know about painting your home’s exterior in cold weather.  Paint goes on best in warm weather, and the weather in Mandarin, San Marco, Jacksonville, and on the beach seldom dips low enough to cancel your house painting project.

If you do need to paint your house in winter, here’s what you can do to make sure your painting project is a success:

• Check your product labels. Read the labels on all types of coating to be sure they are formulated to be applied during low temperatures.  Many common house paints and stains are applied best when the temps are 50 or above, but the label on the material will indicate whether it can be applied successfully in colder weather.
• Use the right applicators.When you purchase the paint for your house, check with the paint experts to find out which brushes, roller covers, and other applicators they recommend for applying the specific paint.  Though it’s a good idea to do this whenever purchasing house paint, you’ll especially want to do it when there’s a risk of cold weather.
• Work in the warmth. Plan your project so that you’re painting from midmorning to midafternoon, when the day is typically at its warmest, and follow the sun as you work.
• Call the professionals. Avoid all hassle whatsoever and call on a great professional painting company to do the project instead!

There are many great Jacksonville FL painting contractors, but The Painting Craftsmen is the best painting company Riverside, Sawgrass, and Southside homeowners call on for their painting projects.  Our teams specialize in interior painting, exterior painting, cabinet refinishing, and more, and our technicians are trained and coached to be the best in the field.  We believe you and your home deserve the BEST—the best in customer service, quality work, and an end result you’ll love.

A new coat of paint or stain adds tremendous appeal to your home and goes a long way in helping you create the home of your dreams, boost the curb appeal, or simply provide protection against the elements.  Many homeowners don’t fully realize the size and intensity of an outdoor painting project until it’s already underway.  Here are a few reasons you should leave your exterior house painting project to a great Jacksonville FL painting company:

1. Prep– Exterior painting projects require extensive prep work. The house must be pressure washed with a chlorinated mixture in order to kill bacteria and mold, remove debris and insect infestations, and create the cleanest surface possible for sanding and scraping.  Even houses that are well maintained need to be sanded and scraped in areas, caulked, repaired, and more.  Areas must be taped off, dropcloths must be arranged, and all surrounding landscape must be properly protected.  The prep work alone could take an unexperienced homeowner multiple days of labor before the first can of paint is even opened!  It’s best to leave the prep work to experienced and trusted painting contractors who specialize in exterior painting.
2. Skill– It’s easy enough to hold a brush or roller, but only trained and experienced painters know how to hold the tools in order to achieve maximum efficiency and coverage with minimal drips and spatter.Even a homeowner who is relatively “handy” does not have the skill to move through a large exterior house painting project with the efficiency that a skilled painting contractor has.  If you want the house painted fast and well, you’ll need to hire the best Jacksonville FL painting company.
3. Dangers– Certain dangers befall nearly any type of exterior home painting job. The job may require you to climb extension ladders, walk along a hot rooftop, work in and around thick vegetation, insect infestations, and worse.  Surfaces can become slick and dangers, fumes can be noxious, and there is a host of other dangers, risks, and general annoyances that come standard with exterior painting.
4. Weather– Jacksonville FL is beautiful, but it is hot, humid, prone to thunderstorms, muggy and unbearable in the middle of summer, and oddly chilly in winter months. It’s easy to see why countless homeowners choose to call on a highly rated painting company rather than do the work themselves!

The Painting Craftsmen is the best house painting company Jacksonville FL homeowners trust with their homes!  We’ve spent years perfecting the skills needed for exterior house painting, and we offer the highest level of professional painting services in Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra Beach, Atlantic Beach, Mandarin, San Marco, and throughout the region.  Each of our painters has been specifically trained for the job and will provide expert craftsmanship from the prep work all the way through to the final coat of paint. Call today for your free estimate and let our team of professional exterior house painters give your home a fresh coat of paint.

Part of each painting project planning involves selecting the right sheen level for the room.  You wouldn’t want a high gloss paint on the walls of your bedroom, or would you?  Is matte paint alright for the bathroom?  These are questions that most homeowners struggle to answer, so we’ve put together a quick list of the ideal sheen levels for each room in your home.

The best sheens for interior rooms:

• Kitchen: Eggshell, Low Lustre, Satin, Pearl, or Semi-gloss
• Bathrooms: Eggshell, Low Lustre, Satin, Pearl, or Semi-gloss
• Bedrooms: Flat, Matte, Eggshell, Low Lustre, Satin, or Pearl (TIP: Avoid painting Flat paint in young kids’ rooms – you won’t be able to successfully scrub away crayon marks or other toddler “wall art.”)
• Living Room / Dining Room: Flat, Matte, Eggshell, Low Lustre, or Satin
• Ceilings: Flat or Matte
• Trim: Satin, Semi-gloss, Gloss, or High-gloss
• Doors: Satin, Semi-gloss, Gloss, or High-gloss

The best sheens for your home’s exterior:

• Doors & Windows: Low Lustre, Satin, Pearl, Semi-gloss, Medium Lustre, Gloss, or High-gloss
• Trim & Accents: Low Lustre, Satin, Pearl, Semi-gloss, Medium Lustre, Gloss, or High-gloss
• Siding: Flat, Low Lustre, or Satin

Once you’ve decided on the best choices of paint sheen for your painting project, invest in high quality paint, do the required prep work, schedule the time on your calendar, and let the painting project begin!  Or, of course, you can trust your painting project to the best painting contractor in your area instead!

The Painting Craftsmen is the best painting company Jacksonville FL homeowners trust with their house painting projects. We specialize in high quality paint jobs done right.  Our technicians are highly trained and have extensive experience painting all types of homes.  Our expert Project Coordinator will even help you decide on the perfect sheen, color, and material for your specific project. If your Mandarin, Riverside, Avondale, San Marco, or Atlantic Beach home needs a fresh coat of paint, The Painting Craftsmen is the best local painting company and the best company for the job!

Painting projects take a lot of work, and the idea of simplifying the process by using two materials in one is very tempting. This is where 2­-in­-1 paint and primer combination comes in. Nearly all paint manufacturers have come out with their versions of this combination, but to mixed reviews. So, how do you know if it’s right for you to use a paint primer combination on your own home?

Understanding Paint And Primer
To begin, it’s important to understand the difference between primer and paint. Primer is a specially­ formulated application meant to adhere to the substrate and create a smooth and uniform surface that is ready to be coated with paint. The substrate may be anything, including metal or raw wood, or a surface that has already been painted, whether the paint is fresh or beginning to peel. The substrate may also have issues with rust, mildew, or any number of other issues, and the primer may be formulated to alleviate any such problem. In short, the primer prepares the surface so that the paint will look and perform as well as possible.

Paint, of course, is the topcoat that you’ve selected in the perfect color for your home. The higher the quality of the paint, the richer its pigment, and the better it will look and perform. When the proper prep work has been done, and a good quality primer has been applied, a high quality paint will make the job complete, and will look great and last for a long time.

Paint and primer are unique, and they are formulated to do entirely different things. If you were to try to create your own paint and primer combination, you could not simply pour a can of primer and a can of paint into a bucket and begin applying the mixture with good results. Chemically, this is just not possible. Paint manufacturers, therefore, formulate their own 2­in­1 paint primer combinations, which usually consist of a thicker than usual coating, designed to cover the substrate in a single coat.

When should I use 2­-in-­1 paint primer?
● Similar paint types ­- If you are painting a surface that has already been painted, you can use a paint primer combination product and expect good results. There are several caveats to this situation. First, the existing paint must be in good shape. It can’t be chipped or peeling, and there certainly cannot be any issues such as rust or mildew present. Second, the existing paint must be the same type as your 2­-in-­1 product. For example, if the existing paint is latex­ based, and the paint primer combination is latex based, then the product should work. You cannot, however, coat oil ­based paint with a latex­ based product.

When should I use traditional primer and paint?
● Dissimilar paint types -­ If you are covering a previously painted surface, and will be using the opposite type of paint, you’ll need to use traditional paint and primer. Using the example above, if you are covering latex paint will oil­ based paint, only a high quality primer formulated for oil­ based paint, followed by oil­ based paint will do. Dissimilar paint may also refer to color. If your walls are white, but you’d like to paint them a deep shade of blue, only traditional primer and traditional paint ­ and perhaps several coats of each ­ will give you the results you want.

● Raw substrate ­- If you are painting bare metal, raw wood, concrete, or any other substrate that has never been painted, you will need to stick to the traditional painting process and avoid 2­-in-­1 combination products. Only a
true, high quality primer will prepare such a substrate to accept and hold paint.

● Substrate with surface issues -­ If your substrate suffers from mold, mildew, rust, or any other problem, a 2­-in­-1 paint primer will not be able to properly coat it. You’ll need to find a high quality primer that is specially formulated to protect against the issue. Then, after properly ridding the substrate of the buildup, apply your primer, using more than one coat, if necessary, followed by the topcoat.

● Cost matters -­ If you are painting your home on a budget, you will most likely want to avoid using combination products. Contrary to what we want to believe, investing in high quality primer, and especially in high quality paint will save money in the long run. With quality products, you will apply fewer coats, and they will provide a finish that lasts longer and performs better.

● Quality and appearance matter ­- The traditional method of prep work, high quality primer, and high quality topcoat will always provide the most beautiful results.

After all the steps that go into proper prep work, it does sound nice to simplify the subsequent steps by using a paint primer combination. However, for the best results, stick to the traditional process of painting ­ including all prep work, 1-­2 coats of high quality primer, and then 1­-2 coats of the highest quality paint. Beautiful and long lasting paint jobs not only require the right materials, but also the right process!

The Best Jacksonville FL House Painters
At The Painting Craftsmen, we believe that painting is a process and an art form. We believe that in order to give our clients the best possible paint job, we need to complete each step of prep work, primer application, and topcoat application, using the eye of an artist, and the steady hand of a skilled technician with years of experience. We pride ourselves in offering only the highest quality coatings and products, and using the best equipment in the industry to paint your home. We specialize in providing durable coatings, in a high quality luxury finish that your neighbors will envy.

Homes throughout Jacksonville Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, Sawgrass, Ortega, Mandarin, and beyond are looking beautiful, thanks to our award­ winning teams of expert painters. Let us do the same for your home!