Standard residential electrical outlets operate at 120 volts. That is enough current to cause serious injury or death, and it is the baseline condition of every unprotected outlet in a…
The moment a roller starts moving across a wall, the room’s air chemistry changes. Volatile organic compounds released from wet paint begin accumulating immediately, and they build faster than most…
Gloss units are the actual measurement behind paint finish names, and the numbers reveal why the differences matter. At the 60-degree measurement angle used as the industry standard, flat paint…
A 9-inch roller loaded with flat ceiling paint creates a wet edge that closes in 5 to 10 minutes at 70 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 percent relative humidity. That window…
Paint drips are not a question of if, they are a question of when. A loaded 9-inch roller throws micro-droplets in a three-to-five foot radius with every pass across the…
AZEK PVC trim expands approximately three times more per unit length with temperature change than wood does. Run a 16-foot length of AZEK in a south-facing trim application in a…
Hydrostatic pressure is the reason that most standard exterior paint fails on retaining walls within a few years even when the prep and application were done correctly. A retaining wall…
A paint film measurement tool pressed against old wood clapboard siding sometimes produces readings above 20 mils total thickness. That number is the accumulated weight of every paint job applied…
Paint blistering on south-facing entry doors is not random. It follows a predictable pattern tied directly to surface temperature: the paint looks fine through spring, shows bubbles by midsummer, and…
Oriented strand board sheathing that gets wet before siding goes on swells at the edges, delaminates at the surface, and loses structural integrity from the outside in. The degradation does…
North-facing walls on houses surrounded by mature trees can develop visible mildew growth within 18 months of a fresh paint job if the conditions are right. Those walls get almost…
Gravity works against every brush and roller stroke when the surface being coated is above your head. Paint that would spread evenly on a vertical wall runs toward the low…
A detached outbuilding with no insulation and no climate control experiences temperature extremes that attached structures never reach. On a summer afternoon, the interior of a metal-roofed shed can hit…
A freshly painted concrete step with a smooth, gloss finish is more slippery than the bare concrete surface it replaced, especially when wet. Paint fills the micro-texture of the concrete…
The math on exterior lattice makes it one of the most inefficient surfaces to coat by hand. A four-foot by eight-foot panel of standard diagonal lattice has approximately 200 individual…
Alkyd paint was the exterior painting standard for most of the twentieth century for good reasons. It leveled well, adhered aggressively to bare wood, and dried to a hard, glossy…
Pre-1978 homes in the United States were painted during a period when lead was used as a standard paint ingredient. The older the home, the higher the likely lead content…
Fascia boards run along the roofline for a reason. Removing them means lifting the gutter from its brackets, dealing with the roof edge flashing or drip edge that overlaps the…
Standard exterior paint on a chimney is one of the more predictable ways to accelerate masonry deterioration rather than prevent it. Chimneys are unique among exterior masonry structures because they…
A fence board that has been sitting outside for two summers without any coating has already told you something important. The surface has turned gray, the fibers have opened and…
The surface of an unpainted concrete masonry block wall presents a challenge that most exterior paints are not designed to handle without preparation. The face of a standard 8-inch block…
A steel garage door facing south can reach surface temperatures above 150 degrees Fahrenheit on a July afternoon. By midnight, that same surface drops to ambient, sometimes 80 degrees cooler….
Cedar and redwood contain water-soluble extractives that move through wood fibers the moment moisture contacts them. Apply a standard latex primer to bare cedar, and you will see it within…
South-facing walls fade measurably faster than north-facing walls on the same house. The UV load on a south or west elevation can be two to three times higher than on…
A dark green vinyl siding job in Arizona made news in painting contractor forums several years ago when the homeowner matched the color by label rather than by formula. The…
Two houses on the same street, painted by the same crew with the same product on the same day, and by August one has blistered and the other looks fine….
Efflorescence tells the story of a foundation wall before any paint is applied. Those white, crystalline deposits on the concrete surface are soluble salts that have migrated from inside the…
Plastic sheeting suffocates plants in direct sunlight within an hour. This is not a hypothetical risk. The temperature inside a plastic tent over a shrub on a sunny painting day…
Iron oxide is not inert. The rust that forms on bare steel railings, gutters, and downspouts is an active chemical process that continues consuming the metal until the moisture source…
Deck boards painted without anti-slip additive in a climate with wet winters are a liability. The smooth paint film on a wet, shaded board is nearly as slippery as ice….