by Craig | Jan 22, 2018 | Interior Painting
Many paints advertise “paint and primer in one” and this can potentially be a time saver. However, there are certain situations when priming will greatly help a paint job, either in terms of efficiency or durability and sometimes both.
Here is our definitive list of when to prime!
Primer is recommended for drastic colour changes
Certain primers are designed to have higher coverage than paint. Therefore, these primers are handy in a few different situations:
- When going from a dark colour to a light colour. A white primer can hide the dark colour better than the finish coat can. We recommend 1 coat of primer for most deep colours, and in some instances we’d recommend a 2nd coat for very dark colours. After the surface is primed you can usually get the finish coat to cover in 2 coats
- When going from a light colour to a dark colour. The primer can be tinted close to the finish coat colour. Usually 1 coat of primer will suffice, and then 2 coats of the finish paint and you’re done!
- When using an especially vibrant colour. Many bright reds, yellows, greens and blues can have coverage issues. To ensure good coverage a grey primer is recommended. A reputable paint store will be able to recommend the specific depth of grey that’s needed.
Helpful tip: If a paint store recommends a lighter version of a vibrant colour as a primer, don’t listen to them! A grey primer is essential under any vibrant finish coat!
Our recommendation for this application is Sherwin Williams Multi-Purpose Water-Based Acrylic-Alkyd Primer. This particular primer has great coverage so it’s perfect as an undercoat for colour changes.
Primer is recommended when adhesion might be an issue
Paint has trouble adhering to certain surfaces, these include:
- Glossy surfaces
- Bare drywall patch
- Bare metal
- Bare wood
Glossy surfaces can be either sanded to de-gloss, primed, or both sanded and primed. Sanding breaks open the surface and allows the paint to penetrate deeper and get a better bond with the surface.
Bare surfaces, such as bare patches, bare wood or metal should be primed as well. Priming acts as an intermediary step, it bonds to the surface and then gives a porous surface for the finish coat to bond to.
Priming is recommended where there are potential problems with stain bleeding
These areas include the following:
- Mould-prone areas such as bathrooms
- Wood where sap from knots are staining the surface
- Greasy areas such as kitchens
First off, what is stain bleeding? Paint has trouble covering certain substances, such as grease, sap and mould. Consequently when these are painted over, the stain discolours the paint and “bleeds” through the surface.
Greasy and stained areas should be washed first with TSP to clean the grease off the surface. However, even after cleaning there can still be a little bit of residue remaining, especially if there’s extensive staining. To completely eliminate the potential of the stain bleeding through one can use an alcohol-based primer.
Finally
If you’d prefer CAM Painters to take care of your painting needs why don’t you book a quote? We’d love to Transform your home with lasting beauty!
by Craig | Jan 16, 2018 | Interior Painting, painting experience
If you take a few simple steps to prepare your Toronto home you can have a great painting experience! The painting experience can run very efficiently and be done with minimal inconvenience, however, there are things that you should do to make this a reality. In this post, I’ll give you a checklist of the things that should be done to prior to painting.
Ensure that your colours are chosen well in advance
Colours are tricky, they can look different on your walls than on the paint chips. Also, they can look different on various surfaces and at varying times of day. 
What we recommend at CAM Painters is to have a colour consultation from an interior designer. We can even recommend interior designers based on your budget and location. A good interior designer will save a lot of time and frustration in the colour selection process, so it’s definitely a good investment! If you’re looking for a good selection of premium paints, visit your nearest Benjamin Moore paint dealer.
READ MORE: 3 Reasons to have a colour consultation prior to painting your Toronto home
If you’re wanting to do colour selection yourself, at least buy some tester pots of the colours you’re thinking about so that you can test them on the walls. A rundown of the procedure is here:
Colour Selection 101 for your Toronto Home
We usually like to pick up colours a few days before the job starts. If you can prepare your final colour selections a week before the job starts, that would be best.
Arrange access to your home with us
Our hours of work are generally 8:30 to 4:30. We don’t need someone on site with us in order for us to do our work, but we do need access into your house. If you are not available, we have lock boxes that you can leave a house key in. If you’d prefer to meet us in the morning to let us in, that’s fine too.
Make arrangements for your pets
We are pet-friendly at CAM Painters, so if your dog or cat wants to say hello, that’s fine with us. However, once we start working it’s best if pets are not in our workspace for their own safety. It’s best if they can be shut off in another area of the house, so they don’t get into our tools or wet paint. Yes, we have had cats get wet paint on their paws and track it all over the floor!
Prepare your rooms for painting
This is not as daunting as it sounds. All we are asking is that you remove any small, fragile objects from the room and remove pictures from the walls. If you are planning on putting the picture back in the same place please leave the picture hook in the wall. If you are planning on repositioning or leaving off the wall altogether, please remove the picture hook and we’ll be sure to fill in the nail holes.
We don’t mind moving a couple of pieces of furniture per room, which we cover with plastic to make sure it’s protected.
There are a couple of items that we prefer not to move, which you should make arrangements for before the painting begins:
- Wall-mounted TVs
- Fridges – these can damage floors if the wheels don’t move freely, and fragile water lines can break too
- Washers & Dryers – brittle hoses and vent ducts can be damaged during moving
So if you can arrange for these items to be moved that would be great!
Finally,
We at CAM Painters want to give you a great painting experience and if you follow these guidelines you can ensure that is what you get! Feel free to book a quote! We’d love to Transform your home with lasting beauty!
by Craig | Jan 2, 2018 | General posts
It’s that time of year! The time that everyone reflects on the past year and sets goals for the next.
How about setting some goals for taking care of your home in 2018? If you proactively take care of your home it will pay dividends down the road in terms of money savings and comfort.
Here are a few suggestions to get you started!
Don’t put off small maintenance items.
Changing your furnace filter is just one example. By changing your furnace filter on a regular basis you increase your overall comfort and lessen the chance of expensive furnace repairs in the future. It’s simple enough to pick up 20x20x1 furnance Filters, and the potential savings more than justify the cost. If you are looking for furnace repairs you may want to search online for your local furnace repair service or visit somewhere similar to CASTLEHOMECOMFORT.COM/HEATING/FURNACE-REPAIRS/ to learn more about what they offer.
Keep an eye on the humidity in your home
Homes can get extremely dry in the winter months, so be sure to monitor the humidity in your home. This can also be adjusted with your furnace, so make sure to hire someone like WWW.PAULTHEPLUMBERNH.COM/HEATING/REPAIR/ to keep an eye on it for you. I know of someone who’s place was so dry that all the glue in her wooden furniture dried out and it started falling apart!
Dryness can also affect your paint and wallpaper. Oh yes, if there’s not enough humidity the paste that holds wallpaper to walls can dry out and the seams in the wallpaper can open up. Also, if there’s not enough humidity in the home wooden trim can shift and open up cracks and gaps in the paint work.
A related tip..
Check the tops of your doors, door frames and window frames. Oftentimes these are missed or skipped by painters, however, it’s helpful to have them painted even though they’re generally not seen. If all sides of the wood are not painted as the more humid weather comes moisture can enter through the exposed surface and it can swell. This is the reason why when you shut a door it can feel tight at one time of year and loose at another.
How about some exterior paint-related tips?
Keep snow off your deck, front steps, window sills, basement window wells. Basically, if snow is sitting on a painted surface, it’s wise to clear it off. By removing the snow you not only protect the paint job, you also protect the wood underneath. Ice and snow build up can really take a toll on wood – even more so than a summer rain shower. When a rain shower comes, it generally passes in an hour or two. When snow comes, it stays for weeks on end. You should also keep an eye on any paint being taken away from the wood due to continuous water exposure as this could be a sign that you have a leak somewhere. It could just be your drains or it could be damage on your roof. If you find damage then contact some round rock roofing contractors to see if they can fix it for you. 
This moisture issue is compounded by the wood expanding during the spring thaw too. As the wood expands the grain opens up, it can crack the paint and allow the melting snow to penetrate into the wood. The more moisture that gets into wood, the greater chance of wood rot and degradation.
In summary…
Setting a goal for taking care of your home in 2018 can pay for itself in comfort and cost savings. It can also pay for a new paint job too!!! So why don’t you book a quote? CAM Painters would love to Transform your home with lasting beauty!
by Craig | Dec 19, 2017 | General posts, Pricing/Value, Uncategorized
Unfortunately this is a more common experience in Toronto than it should be. Here’s how you can avoid this occurrence and find a reliable painter…
Here’s the backstory,
You found someone either through a recommendation of a friend, or perhaps on Facebook, or a lawn sign.
He seemed like a nice fellow when he met with you for the quote.
He gave you a price, you accepted it and booked in a start date.
The start date rolled around and no painter! No phone call, no text, no email – Nothing!!
Why would this happen in the first place?
First off, it’s very easy to call yourself a painting contractor.
Barriers to entry are very low, a vehicle, some brushes, rollers, roller trays and you can call yourself a painter. However, with such a low startup cost some people treat their “painting business” as a part-time hobby.
Many of these “painting contractors” will do cash only, so that they can avoid taxes and proper insurances, which places a lot of risk on the homeowner that hires them.
To sum it up, they don’t have much invested in the process, so it’s easy for them to quit on their customers and leave them high and dry.
How can you find a reliable painting contractor?
You can minimize the chance of this happening to you by doing your due diligence. How so?
Ask your painting contractor how many years they’ve been in business?
As a general rule of thumb, the more years someone has been in business, the more they are invested in the success of their business.
At CAM Painters, we’ve been in business for 16 years. We’ve invested thousands of dollars in equipment, so that we can provide a great customer experience.
READ MORE: Which painting contractor offers the best value for my Toronto home?
Look for reviews and testimonials
People will always say good things about themselves, sometimes they can even get a couple of other people to say good things about them.
Look for reliable contractors with lots of social proof:
Make sure that they’ve got lots of Google reviews – not just one review from their mother! At CAM Painters, for instance, we currently have over twenty 5 star reviews and counting! Also remember that, in some cases, it is possible for businesses to remove a google review if it is inappropriate in any way. They shouldn’t be able to remove legitimate negative reviews, though. Therefore, Google reviews provide a good insight.
They’ve got video testimonials – and not just written testimonials because those can be fabricated. We’ve got a number of video testimonials both on our YouTube channel and our website
A reputable contractor will give a written proposal and back up their work with a written warranty
You want an agreement in writing, so that there is no gray area of “he said, she said”. At CAM Painters we have a written proposal that goes over every aspect of the job from start to finish.
A reliable contractor will offer a written warranty on their work. At CAM Painters we offer a 5 year written warranty on both interior and exterior projects, as well as one hour of free touch ups each year, so that your house always looks it’s best!
To sum it up…
If you do your due diligence when you select a painting contractor you can minimize surprises during the painting process, such as someone not showing up when they say they will, or any other myriad of missed promises.
At CAM Painters we strive to give an excellent painting experience from start to finish, so why don’t you book a quote? We’d be happy to Transform Your Home With Lasting Beauty!
by Craig | Dec 14, 2017 | Pricing/Value
Let’s say you’re presented 2 painting quotes for your Toronto home, one half the price of the other. Which quote is the best value for your Toronto home?
Well, it all depends on what you value. Sometimes the cheapest price is not the best value, so let’s peel back the layers and see what you get when you hire CAM Painters.
You get peace of mind
CAM Painters uses employees, not subcontractors. Employees are covered under our WSIB insurance and general liability insurance.
What does this mean for you, the homeowner?
When WSIB insurance is in place that means if any painter is injured on your property, you are not liable.
When general liability insurance is in place that means that if any damage is done to your property, you are not liable for that either.
Therefore, if you want peace of mind throughout the painting experience, hire a painting contractor with WSIB and liability insurance in place.
During the painting experience
We have highly trained painters who love what they do! Not only that, we ask you what a great painting experience looks like to you. We want to make sure that you have a great painting experience from start to finish.
READ MORE: A Great Toronto Painting Experience Part 3: During the Project
After the project is complete
At CAM Painters we have a 5 year warranty & complementary service package for both interior and exterior projects.
Basically, this means that if any part of the project fails because of poor workmanship, we’ll come back and fix it free of charge. This warranty is in place from the day we finish to 5 years hence. Having a warranty is often seen as the best way to ensure that your home is always in it’s best state without damaging your finances too much. With this in mind, you might be interested in the idea of having an american home shield home warranty on your house before you ultimately regret it. If you are unsure of what a warranty is and would like further information on this subject so you can make the right informed decision, you may want to go to websites such as firstam.com to read more about what a home warranty is.
Our complimentary service package entitles our wonderful clients to one hour of free touch ups per year. We want your painting project to look top notch, so if you get any scuffs or other wear and tear our service package can take care of that for you.
Finally
At CAM Painters we believe that the value that you get from a paint job should exceed the value that you pay for a paint job. It is our desire to give our clients the maximum value and the best painting experience. Why don’t you book a quote and have CAM Painters transform your home with lasting beauty!
