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FAX: 703-550-3755
EMAIL: contact@bluedoorpainters.com
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Painting 102: Anatomy of a Roller Stroke
After you find a roller with a sturdy frame, make sure you get the right container for the job, an extender and a roller cover that matches your paint and substrate.
Detailed Instructions on How To Use a Roller from Washington, DC Area Contractor
Presumably you’ve been following along on our detailed description of how to paint a surface, and you’re now looking at an area with all the edges and corners masterfully cut in with a brush (in accordance with our instructions). If not, take a minute to check out Painting 101: Anatomy of a Brushstroke, to get you caught up to that point. If you’re just curious for some advice on how to wield your roller, you’ve come to the right place.
First of all, while there isn’t quite as much variety in rollers as there is in brushes, you still need to take some care to purchase high quality equipment. The cheap all-in-one roller set-ups will not usually give you the same longevity or smoothness of finish as a pro set-up; and the rip-off is, the pro set-ups aren’t really that much more expensive! Here is what you’ll need:
1) A good sturdy roller frame. It should be expandable, with bearings at the sides and threads at the bottom, and made of strong, heavy-gauge wire. (Reusable)
2) An extender or thread-ended broom handle to help you reach out-of the way spots. (Reusable)
3) A paint container. While most hardware stores push paint trays, you can get more use, and better utility, out of a 5-gallon bucket with a vertical bucket-screen mounted inside it. The bucket can hold a lot more paint than a tray, allowing for less time between refills, it is easier to transport from spot to spot, or to cover if you need to take a lunch break, and the vertical tray draws extra paint off the roller more effectively than the nearly-horizontal tray. Most professionals use a bucket and screen set-up; there is no reason why you shouldn’t, too. (Reusable).
4) High-quality roller covers that match your paint and substrate. The general rule of thumb for rolling is, the rougher the substrate, and the more viscous the paint, the longer the roller nap. Smoother surfaces and thicker paint can be rolled with a smoother, short-sheared cover, while rough surfaces and runny paint will benefit from a longer-napped cover. Good quality covers have a plastic core, rather than cardboard. Cardboard cores can start to soften after absorbing paint, and the glue holding the nap can dissolve in certain solvents, causing the roller to fall apart halfway through the job. Each paint you use needs its own roller cover.
Once you have your equipment, load the roller by submerging it halfway into the paint, then rolling it up the screen. Repeat this motion several times, until the roller is saturated and nearly dripping with paint.
Next: how to actually roll your paint? There are several competing strategies for creating the smoothest possible distribution of paint with a roller, all of which expand upon the principle of “wet-edge”. Wet-edge is the theory that a fresh stroke of paint should always be overlapped with the wettest paint from the previous stroke, so that the paint dries to form a continuous film. With a roller, using wet-edge techniques can avoid both seams and roller marks; two common imperfections of an amateur paint job. Here we are going to describe the classic ‘W’ technique.
Start from one corner of your surface, about six inches from each edge. Move your roller up and down to create a large ‘W’ shape, filling in the center of a large section. Once you have your W, use small strokes to spread out the paint, filling in the remaining unpainted space. You can leave paint stokes and roller marks at this point in the process, the goal being to get as much wet paint on a large surface area as possible. Next, reload your roller and move to an adjacent section of your surface, and repeat the process, creating another W and filling it in, overlapping the old section slightly with your small strokes to fill in the margins. Finally, without reloading your roller, go over both sections together, smoothing out lumps, eliminating roller marks, and making the paint film continuous.
Since it covers so much area so quickly, and since it usually marks the end of a job, rolling is a very satisfying process. Invest in the right equipment, purchase the right paint, and by the end of this step, you will be ready to celebrate a beautifully coated surface and a job well done!
Painting 101: The Anatomy of a Brush Stroke
Experienced painters, like the one shown above, have steady hands and lack the need for painters tape to get a clean-cut edge.
Detailed Description of the Painting Process From a Washington DC Area Contractor
Many handyman articles will tell you the basics about paint: what it is, what types there are, common pitfalls associated with it. They will tell you what paint to buy, what colors to pick, what equipment to use, how many coats to apply, and when to apply them. They will tell you how to know if you made a mistake, how to deal with complications, and what steps to take to fix any errors. But when it comes time to get started painting your house, you may still find yourself staring dubiously into a freshly opened can of paint, paintbrush gripped nervously in one hand, feeling a little bit unsure about your next move.
So what Blue Door Painters is going to share with you today is exactly how to make that first move: a single brushstroke of paint.
You’re going to start your project with brushing. That’s true for almost every project; a typical room, for example, will need to have the edges and corners of the paint area cut in with a paintbrush before the larger open surface area is rolled. For corners in between two surfaces that are going to be painted, the whole corner should be brushed, up to 3 inches out on each wall. For edges between a paint surface and a non-paint surface, applying painters’ tape on the non-paint surface prior to brushing will make your project easier and less stressful, (though experienced painters with reliably steady hands sometimes skip that step). The paint surface should be coated up to 3″ from the edge with a paintbrush prior to rolling. For other surfaces, like trim or stair steps, you may do the entire project with a brush, lacking the surface area to justify a roller (although in some cases a mini-roller will yield a better finish). For these, if there is a large enough space to distinguish the edges from the center, the edges should still be coated first.
So your paint can should be open, and your paint adequately mixed (if you detect any irregularity in the color, stir thoroughly with a paint stirrer, making sure to distribute the pigment all the way through the depth of the can). You should have a paintbrush – ideally, one picked specifically for your type of paint and substrate – in hand. Now it is time to dip your brush into the paint for the first time. Which brings up an often overlooked – but extremely important – question: how to load your paintbrush.
In order to get a thorough coating, you need to make sure that your paintbrush is completely saturated with paint on the inside. This means in between the bristles, where you can’t see it. Paint nested in between the bristles will release slowly and evenly over the course of your strokes, creating an even finish. You don’t want your brush overly saturated with paint on the outside of the bristles, however, because this extra paint will spread in unexpected directions, and will create drips and sags in your finish that can be challenging to correct.
So in order to load your paint onto the brush in the ideal manner, you should stab your paintbrush gently into the can of paint a couple times, working the paint up in between the bristles. After repeating this vertical motion your brush will be filled, and you need to remove excess paint from the bottom and outside of the brush. To do so, first hold it up for a couple seconds so that loose paint can drain. Once all remaining paint is staying on the brush in spite of gravity, run the bottom edge of the brush gently along the rim of the paint can or bucket, smoothing off the excess. If you are cutting an edge, repeat that motion with the face of at least one of the sides of your brush, wiping the paint on the outside of that surface against the rim. You should be left with a paintbrush that is saturated with paint on the inside, but is not dripping and is, if intended for an edge, cleared off on one face.
Start your brushstrokes at a corner of your surface, so that you can work outward from there is a continuous line. When you start the stroke, watch how far your paint spreads, and how thickly it is applied. Some types of paint (like semigloss) will be more viscous than others: DO NOT be tempted to spread this extra-runny paint more thickly to make up for the apparent lack of coverage. Doing so will lead to drips or paint sagging as the thick, runny paint fails to hold up to gravity for as long as it takes to dry. The only way to fix sags is by waiting for the paint to dry completely, sanding them down, and recoating that area – so prevention is really the best approach.
When your brush first touches the surface, you only need to press gently, because there will be paint on the outside of the brush. As you continue your stroke, however, you will need to increase the pressure, so that the paint from the inside of the brush comes out. The brush should bend gently in the opposite direction of your stroke, squeezing out the internal paint, and your grip should allow maximal control of both the direction and the pressure of the stroke. Use a full-hand grip for larger brushes, and a pencil grip for smaller ones. After a few tries, you will learn how your particular paint flows through your particular brush, so that you can perfect the exact right motion to ensure a stroke that is smooth, even, and the desired width.
Your next stroke should start off right where your previous stroke left off. This is called the ‘wet edge’, and it is a key principle in paint technique. Matching wet paint to wet paint usually causes two different strokes to blend together into a continuous whole, rather than developing an unsightly seam. If you find that you can still see a seam, wait until your next stroke is complete and the brush is relatively dry, but the paint is still wet, then lightly brush at the seam with the dry brush until the coat looks even.
When cutting in an edge, place the ‘clean’ side of the brush (meaning, the one you wiped against the paint can) against the edge. If it is taped, you will be able to press it firmly; if it is not taped, you will need to watch closely to find the perfect placement to give a thorough coating that doesn’t blot over to the non-paint surface. Working non-taped edges goes a lot more slowly, which is why taping is almost always worth the perceived trouble it causes.
Okay, now you’ve had your ‘next move’ described down to minute detail – and the 500 or so moves you make after that will all be the same until your brushed area is complete (that’s one thing about painting – it is a very repetitive process, and it gets easier as you get more experienced!) In our next blog, we’ll tackle the anatomy of the paintbrush’s big brother – the paint roller – and you will have your entire paint process laid out before you.
Architectural Exterior Accents in DC: Places to Put Your Color
Adding nicely painted shutters, an accented flower box or repainting your door are just a few ways to heighten your curb appeal in the DC area.
Blue Door Painters Discusses Parts of the House to Use for Accent Colors
An accent color is an essential aspect of any color scheme, and it is a critical element of establishing curb appeal. A color in your design scheme qualifies as an accent if you don’t use very much of it, and if you put it in a place that stands out in some ways from the rest of the architecture. A very well-tested design strategy involves using a color that is either unusually bright, or radically different from the rest of your scheme, as an edgy accent. Across the panorama of Washington, DC construction, there are five frequently found architectural features, visible from the road, that provide ideal spots to host an accent color. We’ve listed them, along with some suggestions for maximizing their effect, below.
1. Shutters. With urban roots in very traditional Georgian, Colonial, and Federal-style architecture, Washington DC and Northern Virginia have many buildings that pair plain brick or siding with shutters as the only adornment. While you need to be careful adding too much bold contrast in your shutters, since they actually cover a fair amount of visual surface area, playing with color in your shutters is an excellent way to manipulate your overall design without expending too much time or paint. If you have a window that stands out from the rest in any way, experiment with painting the shutters on that window only a more dramatic color to create the ‘eye-catching’ effect used by many realtors to help stage houses. Also remember that color can be used to contour the space: lighter shutters will make a window seem slightly larger than darker shutters. Have fun: the cool thing about shutters – and accents in general – is that they are easy to change. If you take a risk and don’t end up liking the effect, you can always paint over it!
2. Doors. Doors are a classic candidate for a bold accent color. First of all, they are centrally located, creating a natural visible focal point for the house as a whole. Second, they are symbolic: the entryway to a space is automatically assumed, on a subconscious level, to encapsulate its spirit. (This is why the doorways to many houses of worship are very ornate). Adding some energy in the door area in the form of a burst of bold but tasteful color shows viewers that the home is lively and engaging, not dull and listless.
3. Cornices. While most modern construction has a minimal amount of cornicing, many of the historic buildings in the city and its surrounding urban villages feature cornices added for both decorative and functional effect. The narrow horizontal lines provided by cornices often accentuate certain architectural features, and offer an ideal opportunity to add in a splash of color. If you do not have cornices, but want to take advantage of that horizontal accent style, you can look into creative alternatives like creating a stripe out of a single line of siding, or even painting your gutter!
4. Chimney. Many houses in DC have chimneys, primarily constructed out of brick. Sometimes they are located on one end of the house, and sometimes they come straight out of the roof, creating a little architectural crown. While you have to take special care when painting chimneys, both to ensure you use the right kind of paint to adhere to the masonry, and to make sure your paint job can withstand the added environmental stress of fireplace smoke, painting chimneys is an excellent way to add a splash of color. You can experiment with both painting the entire chimney, or painting individual bricks scattered evenly throughout. Just remember that visual balance is essential: strong color on one side of the house should be balanced in some way on the other, and strong color on the roof should be balanced by something (like a detail in the landscaping) lower down.
5. Planter Boxes. The good thing about planter boxes is: if you don’t have them, you can easily get them! Planter boxes are an easy way to alter the aesthetic of just about any design, and they are an excellent avenue for adding color. Living green is an excellent neutral: brightly colored planter boxes filled with blooming flowers or vivid foliage can brighten up almost any exterior, without looking gaudy.
Color Combo Special #3: Analogous Color Schemes
Analogous color schemes are taken from a 1/4 piece of the color wheel with varying hues, values and saturations.
Analogous color schemes provide a classic balance between variety and similarity that is both timeless and universally appealing. While monochromatic schemes might be the #1 most reliable color strategy for conservative purposes, analogous schemes are a good way to add a little bit of flavor without departing too far from the beaten path of easy-to-match colors.
How is an analogous color scheme developed? Using a near-identical technique to the monochromatic scheme, good analogous schemes are built upon the foundation of one initial color. Whether this first color is a personal favorite, or a pre-existing ‘given’ color in the architecture, it will be the color around which the rest of the color scheme pivots.
Working from there, you locate that color on the color wheel, and then take a look at its immediate neighbors. With blue, for example, green and purple are the immediate neighbors, and hues from the green and/or purple range could therefore be used in any combination to create an analogous color scheme. With a range of roughly 1/4 of the color wheel available, you are free to pick and choose the hues, values, and saturations that you find the most appealing. While you need to be aware of how much contrast you are adding to your composition by varying the value and saturation (i.e., using bright colors, versus pastels, versus dull earth tones), you can be pretty confident that most combinations you come up with, provided they are confined to that tight segment of the color wheel, will be pleasing and unlikely to clash.
One of the benefits to analogous color schemes is that it can offer a great degree of internal variation while maintaining a constant mood, tone, or psychological ‘temperature’. A ‘warm-toned’ analogous scheme can have deep oranges, dull reds, and bright yellows – each underscoring the warmth of the composition in a distinct way. A ‘cool-toned’ analogous scheme, alternatively, might employ blues, greens, and violets with the opposite psychological effect, but an equal degree of internal consistency.
The analogous color scheme is the first color strategy that we’ve discussed so far that allows for some creative variation, putting the final choice to your discretion. Using your natural aesthetic instincts is a good way to choose which specific color alignments really click, and which are discordant. Make sure to envision the colors in the proper proportions, and covering a large surface area, when you are making the final decision. Remember, there is no harm in purchasing a few quarts of paint and coloring in a sample area – sometimes you can be very surprised by how a color looks when spread out over a large surface!
If the choices involved in crafting an analogous color scheme are too much for you, you might want to consider looking into a monochromatic scheme, or turning to our complimentary color consultation service for support. If, on the other hand, you like the challenge and the creative potential involved in the analogous scheme, and you’d like to learn some techniques that allow for even more creativity, stay tuned for our next Color Combo feature: the Complementary Color Scheme!
Paint in the City: Early Washington DC Architecture
Washington D.C. has a stark, yet beautiful and historical architecture. Preserving it can be a major task.
A brief history of early Washington, DC architecture, and discussion of how it affects modern remodeling.
Washington, DC is an unusual city.
Most urban centers develop for practical reasons, which can be boiled down to physical terrain: proximity to a port, easy defensibility, accessibility to a natural resource, etc. From the practical use of the land, urban growth is organic. But Washington, DC is an exception. While the conjunction of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers, just downstream of the fall line, (and therefore the farthest upstream port for oceangoing boats), makes it a natural location for an urban center, neither of the two cities that developed naturally in that location were Washington, DC. Instead, they were Georgetown and Alexandria. Located across the river and slightly offset from each other, Georgetown and Alexandria thrived quietly until 1791. Driven by the need of a young, bickering nation, and by the desire of President George Washington to keep everything close to his Mount Vernon estate, Washington DC was forcefully superimposed atop the two natural port towns. The result is a city whose growth, even at the core, started off strictly choreographed rather than organic.
The modern-day result is a series of historic neighborhoods with architecture that bears the mark of many years of political and symbolic pressure, as well as practical and aesthetic concerns.
Most of the earliest pre-DC buildings in Georgetown are now gone, but some of the initial planned developments remain. George Washington, as the closest thing our country has ever had to a king, had a huge degree of influence on the architecture of the city. He dictated that residential development in the District of Columbia be in the form of long, rectangular row houses with contiguous fronts. The row houses were to be between 35-40 feet tall, built of brick and stone, and parallel to the streets. Many of these historic row houses – along with more modern replacements that stay faithful to the classic style – can still be found from Georgetown to Capitol Hill. Their relatively narrow street-fronts and masonry construction offer a unique challenge in exterior design. Creatively playing off of the neighbors’ decor is important in settings where houses are clustered so closely. Too much contrast will make a particular unit look tacky, while a lack of contrast makes a street look dull and monotonous. Typically, each street in historic Washington, DC has developed its own aesthetic “tone” (earth tones, vibrant pastels, natural masonry, etc) derived from the hue, chroma, and value typical of the palette for that street. So it is important to pay attention to the neighbors, and to the ambience of the street as a whole, when deciding on a design scheme.
Farther out in the city, beyond the dictates of the president’s aesthetic (i.e., on the far side of Florida Avenue), single family homes with larger lots were developed to house wealthy dignitaries with business in the city. These historical homes attempted to capture a piece of the greenery that used to make the DC area a popular hunting and outdoor exploration area, while remaining publicly prominent and convenient to the seat of political business. Most of these homes, as well as most of the public buildings, adhere to conservative Greek Revival / Federal style, indicative of the strong builder tradition in DC’s early years. Typically paired with a muted, conservative color palette, Greek Revival buildings can be painted in historical colors (usually involving low-chroma terra-cotta, gray, beige, steel blue, and sage green) to retain that stately early Federal look. Many paint companies, including Sherwin-Williams and Banjamin Moore, have a line of historical paint colors that mimic the colors popular (and possible) 200 years ago, but use modern paint technology to ensure improved coverage and durability.
Preserving our city’s national heritage is an important task, and one that every designer, developer, and contractor should be aware of. Relatively young compared to many European cities, Washington, DC is nevertheless reaching an age where its historical buildings need care, attention, and preservation so that the city can prepare for the exciting new modern age while retaining the signature of its roots.
My Deck Is Made Of . . .
Do you know what your deck is made out of? Blue Door Painters can help you apply the right coat to protect it.
Outdoor Building Materials and How To Coat Them (Part Two)
Blue Door Painters, DC area coatings contractor, discusses the nature of various outdoor building materials – and the coatings that protect them.
My Deck is Made of . . .
. . . Cedar or Redwood
Is your deck naturally a warm, rich, reddish color? If so, it probably cost more to build than its green-blonde pressure-treated cousins – and it was probably worth it. Unlike the dry-climate conifers used in SPF and pressure-treated lumber, cedar – specifically, Western Redcedar – and redwood both come from trees grown in damp climates, which have developed natural moisture and rot-resistance. The heartwood of red cedar, for example (which is the part of the tree that has that beautiful reddish color), is infused with thujaplicin, a combination of related chemicals that have powerful anti fungal and antibacterial properties. Redwoods offer similar protection.
However, if your deck, fence, or siding is built from cedar or redwood, you need to make sure that it is constructed primarily – if not solely – out of heartwood. Heartwood is the wood located at the center of the tree, which is not actively engaged in nutrient cycling and metabolism. The active outer wood, called sapwood, has not developed rot-resistance because it is still protected by the tree’s living defenses. The larger the tree, the higher the percentage of heartwood – but with old growth forests dwindling and an increasing need to protect these resources, more and more cedar and redwood is harvested from newer growth tree farms. The percentage of heartwood coming from these younger trees is much lower, leading to wood that has neither the color nor the rot protection that has come to be associated with redwood and cedar.
If your exterior cedar or redwood is largely sapwood, it should be treated with the same care and attention given to SPF or other vulnerable types of wood: either stained and coated with a strong water-repellant sealant, and re-coated regularly, or primed and painted with a solid stain or appropriate wood-protecting exterior paint. If the wood project is heartwood, then it ought to be regularly stained and treated with water-repellant sealant to ensure that it retains its beautiful warm red tones (which will bleach out without re-staining), and that moisture does not warp or crack the boards.
. . . Composite Wood?
With all of the care and maintenance required for a natural wood deck or fence, the call has gone out to the innovative: can we manufacture a better alternative? The best answer on the market to date is composite wood. Created from a mixture of recycled plastic and wood chips or sawdust, composite wood is crafted to look like wood, but to share none of wood’s vulnerabilities. The plastic in the mixture protects the wood from rot and moisture-induced warping, and because the wood is factory-uniform, its performance is more reliable. Composite wood is easy to clean, and does not require the same degree of protection as its natural counterparts. For many, the benefits of composite wood outweigh the extra cost, artificial look, and colder feel of the material.
However, despite being heralded upon its arrival on the market as a “zero-maintenance material”, composite wood is still vulnerable to both mildew and color change if not properly protected. Due to its density, composite wood projects often develop small, tightly clustered pinpricks of mildew, and the color of the wood pulp included in the mixture will change in the elements just like any other type of wood. To ward off mildew, the use of a special composite deck sealer is recommended, in conjunction with periodic cleaning with a combination of bleach and water (pressure-washing with a composite wood mildew removing detergent is an ideal method of cleaning). And staining the deck every five years or so can correct the color change; just make sure you use a stain that is intended for use with composite wood products.
In conclusion, all wood-based outdoor building materials require some TLC, and applying the right coatings at the right time is a critical element of that care. Being in the know about your deck, fence, or siding, and its specific strengths and vulnerabilities, is the best way to maximize your relationship with your outdoor space.
My Deck Is Made Of . . .
Certain types of Spruce, Pine or Fur (SPF) may not hold up to the elements so well. Don't let your deck end up looking like this.
Outdoor Building Materials and How To Coat Them (Part One)
Blue Door Painters, DC area coatings contractor, discusses the nature of various outdoor building materials – and the coatings that protect them.
My Deck is Made of . . .
. . . “SPF”
Hopefully not. In the lumber world, ‘SPF’ does not refer to sunscreen: it is an acronym for ‘Spruce-Pine-Fir’, three kinds of lumber used interchangeably by builders for a variety of purposes. Depending on your region, the exact species of SPF wood will vary (Red Spruce, Jack Pine, and Balsam Fir typical in the west; White Spruce, Englemann Spruce, and Lodgepole Pine in the east, among many others), but all of them share similar characteristics that make them ideal for building. They all come from softwood conifers that are cheap to grow and harvest, and the finished lumber is reliably strong and workable.
The problem is, this type of lumber is NOT suitable for exposure to the elements. While buildings framed in SPF hold up perfectly well when the wood is protected by layers of insulation, siding, and drywall, exterior decks or fences constructed with SPF will rot at lightning speed. The quick-growing SPF conifer species produce lumber with wide, hungry pores which suck in ambient moisture and invite all types of rot, against which the lumber, adapted to a dry climate, has no natural defenses. Coating this kind of lumber, while it can buy you time, will not halt this deterioration completely.
So the best advice is, don’t build any outdoor construction out of SPF. If it’s too late, and you already have an SPF deck or fence that you won’t or can’t replace, your only hope is to coat it very aggressively, and re-coat it frequently as part of your routine upkeep. Consider using a few layers of stain followed by a fully waterproof clear-coat sealant, or select a hardy, weatherproof primer paint followed by a few layers of water-resistant topcoat. Make sure that all six sides of the wood are coated. The end grains, where all of the pores are cross-cut and exposed, are the most vulnerable, and it is well worth giving them a few extra layers if you want to hold your own in the battle against the elements.
. . . Pressure – Treated (PT) Lumber
If your deck is made of pressure-treated lumber, then you are in good company; pressure-treated wood has been one of the most popular outdoor building materials since the development of pressure-treatment in the 1940s. Frustrated with the vulnerability of the otherwise-convenient softwood lumber, Dr. Karl Wolman invented a procedure that drove artificial preservatives – antimicrobial and anti fungal chemicals – deep into the pores of the wood, so that moisture-borne rot could not easily take hold. The variety of softwood used for pressure treatment varies by your region – Southern Yellow Pine is the most common species used in the Washington, DC area – and the specific chemicals used to protect the wood varies based largely on when your deck was built. Until 2003, most companies used chromated copper arsenate to pressure-treat their wood, since it was (and remains) the most effective preservative available on the market. However, CCA’s toxicity to microbes and fungus extends to animals and children, and over the years a great deal of concern was raised over the long-term health effects of exposure to wood treated with CCA. The chemical has now been discontinued for use with residential lumber, and modern pressure-treated lumber is infused with alternative, less toxic chemicals.
Coating a pressure-treated deck or fence is of the utmost importance, both to extend the life of the wood and to protect against exposure to the preservatives. If you have an older deck, the EPA recommends applying a penetrating oil-based finish to block human exposure to CCA. Many companies offer clear preservative coatings that are intended for use on fresh pressure-treated wood; these sealants should be used immediately to guarantee ideal protection. However, it is essential that you find a product intended for use on fresh pressure-treated wood, and you wait one to two months before applying any further paint or staining. The reason is that fresh pressure-treated wood has moisture in it from the PT process that takes a while to dry out, and if you coat it while your project is still wet, both the coating and quite possibly the wood itself will be destroyed. Once you have sealed your fresh PT project and given it adequate time to dry, staining or painting your wood with products intended for use with PT wood will give it the extra protection needed to ensure true longevity.
Stay tuned for the skinny on Redcedar, Redwood, and Composite Decking.
Washington DC’s 2012 Extended Spring and the Homeowner
If the simple sight of this picture makes you want to sneeze, you may want to brace your home for the extended allergy season.
What does this year’s unusual weather mean for the Washington, DC homeowner?
We’ve all been shaking our heads about the weather this winter in the Washington, DC area. We braced ourselves for our usual two and a half months of unpleasant cold, windy, and wet . . . that never came. Instead, we found ourselves sneezing with allergies in late February and snapping photos of the Cherry Blossoms around March 20th.
The upside is – well – four months of Spring. Complaining about the current cold spell is half-hearted at best; being well past the equinox, we know the cold weather can’t really last. We’re out of the danger zone: Washington, DC has officially cheated winter this year.
The downside is that our local ecology (and arguably, our psychology as well) is adjusted to expect a period of downtime. Without winter to make us rest, the flora and fauna of Washington, DC are apt to go a little bit overboard. The allergy season, for example, came earlier this year, will last longer, and is unusually virulent. Trees can afford to put energy into generating more pollen that they would usually have to expend weathering the winter. The bug season has already started, and by early July we are probably going to be shunning our backyards due to the unusually high insect populations we can expect with an extended breeding season. And finally, the data coming in from our financial markets is skewed. The local economy usually takes a little dip in the winter, which never came this year. Which is good for business at the moment – but may mean that we see an alarming slump during summer months when we’re usually booming, and that our selling seasons come at unexpected times.
What does this mean for the homeowner in 2012?
1. The hot home selling season will probably start early. After over five years of a major slump, there is some tentative evidence that the nationwide real estate market might be starting on an upswing. Each neighborhood in the DC area is different, but with interest rates low and home prices attractive, there is some reason to hope that 2012 might be a good year to try and get your home sold. Usually homeowners have March and April to get their remodeling and staging done, and then hit the market with open houses in late May and June. This year the earlybirds may have already started out of the gate with their groundwork, and be ready to start their open houses in late April. It isn’t too late to catch up, though; with the blooming season set a few weeks early it could be time to invest in a good landscaper, do a thorough exterior pressure-washing, get your home cleaned and decluttered, throw a fresh coat of paint up on your interior and exterior, and hit the market!
2. You may want to pay extra attention to your indoor air quality. First of all, allergies are greatly worsened if you inhale the allergens while sleeping. In addition to making sure you shower and wash your hair before going to bed at night, you may want to take extra precautions like tightening up your windows, pressure-washing the pollen off of the siding and hardscaping on your property, and removing your shoes when you enter your home so you don’t track pollen indoors. Of course, with the windows closed, it is a good idea to inspect your home for indoor air contaminants like mold or chemical VOCs. When air conditioning hits this summer, you want to make sure that all interior mold has been mitigated and any remodeling projects have taken advantage of products with low VOCs so that the air you breathe at night is clean. When flu system hits in the fall, you want to greet it with a healthy and well-rested respiratory system.
3. The battle against the bugs will be long and fierce. If you have been considering screening your porch, this might be just the right moment. If the screens on your windows and doors need repair, now is the time. And if you want extra protection against pests like ants, termites, and cockroaches, you may want to fortify your exterior with added caulking and coatings that contain natural insecticides as additives. You will probably have to bring out the big guns (read: pesticides) by the end of the summer, but the more effort you put into prevention, the less you will have to resort to chemicals that are expensive, unhealthy, and bad for the environment.
So enjoy the weather, make hay when the sun shines, and don’t forget to give your home a little TLC!
Color Combo Special #2: Monochromatic Schemes
This is an example of a very natural monochromatic color scheme. It's warm and inviting, isn't it?
Monochromatic schemes are probably the easiest way to “get it right” when it comes to color combinations. Practical for staging houses and other times when a tried-and-true method to create a simple, pleasing decor is what you want, monochromatic combinations follow a simple formula that gives you nearly guaranteed success.
That formula? Just pick one color. It could be your favorite color, the color that creates the mood you’re trying to inspire, or the color that will appeal to the widest possible audience. For staging purposes, it is usually good to go with a light-toned, space-creating neutral like white, cream, or beige. For personal decoration purposes, think of a color that you will really enjoy over a long span of time, and in many different moods.
Once you’ve picked your color, you get to do the fun part. Without varying the core color, or hue, in color classification lingo, create several different shades of that color by varying the value (lightness or darkness), and the chroma (brightness or dullness). You can start with a buttery cream, for example, and mix in black to create a darker umber color for one of the accent colors, and then turn up the intensity to create a bold, warm mustard yellow for another. As long as you stay within the same hue (or an extremely tight range), you can play with the value and the chroma almost indefinitely, and you will still end up with a pleasing color combination. The variation created by the shading will give your composition texture, but your colors are very unlikely to ever clash.
And there is actually a surprising range of effects you can create using a monochromatic scheme. For example, a blue-based scheme that starts with a main color of bright cornflower blue, and accents it with a strong navy and a shocking bright-sky color, is going to make a much bolder statement than a dull blue-gray that is accented with a paler blue-gray and some slate-colored trim, even though in both cases you have essentially an all-blue room.
Remember to take into account the other objects in your composition that will provide colors that you might not have predicted: your rugs, furniture, and other decorations in your interior, or your bricks, deck, patio, roof, and landscaping in your exterior. If it becomes too difficult to keep everything exactly the same color, you might want to look into analogous color schemes as a method of providing more variety, which will be discussed in the next installment. Stay tuned!
Color Combo Special #1: Monotonal Schemes
This is very close to monotonal, but not quite there. Still, it's quite a bold color scheme.
Sometimes, extreme conservatism can turn into daring.
As a general rule of thumb for design, the more colors you use in a decoration scheme, the bolder or “louder” that design becomes. And the bolder it gets, the more clever you need to be to keep all the wild colors you choose from clashing with each other. Also, the more “personal” the scheme becomes – meaning that its effect is unique, impressive, and creative, but may appeal to a smaller set of viewers than a more conservative collection of colors (for this reason, bold color schemes are not usually recommended for staging houses). For those who want to take the easy road with their design scheme, however, fewer – and more neutral – colors are what the doctor usually orders.
Usually. True monotonal color schemes are the exception that proves the rule. A “monotonal” color scheme is one in which only one color is used. Literally, only one color. For interiors, that would be the same color for the walls, ceilings, furniture, rug, flooring material, etc. For exteriors, that would be the same color for the siding, brick, doors, window trim, chimneys, etc. And where the use of just a few neutral colors with little variation around the color wheel can create a mellow, conservative composition, the use of literally one shade of one color on everything looks daring and wild – and most of the time, rather overwhelming.
That’s because you will almost never find a scene in nature composed of only one color. When you look closely at a stream bed full of seemingly “gray” pebbles, you’ll find that upon closer inspection, the rocks are a veritable crayon box of different hues; lights and darks, reds and blues, stripes and speckles. To come upon a scene where there is only one color, no matter how closely you inspect the details, is to come upon a scene that shows off humanity’s control over our environment in a rather startling manner.
Such aggressive monotonality has been a hallmark of certain edgy modern styles. An all-white living room or an all-red dining room creates a living space that really attracts a lot of notice, and garners a certain amount of respect in some social circles for the bold statement that it makes. With only one color, the variety of textures and light sources in a space get thrown into high relief, creating a fascinating visual effect. In some cases, a monotonal color scheme can be made even more vivid by breaking the strict adherence to one color only by adding a bright, splashy accent color.
However, for many of us, a monotonal color scheme does not provide for a very relaxing living space. The same field of uniform color that is exciting and edgy in a club or restaurant can quickly become grating and irritating when you have to look at it day in and day out. When you start at the far edge of uniformity, allowing some variety into your color scheme will actually make it more relaxing, less conspicuous, and more conservative. Taking that first step into variety brings you out of the monotonal color scheme and into the monochromatic scheme, which we will discuss in our next installment in this series. Stay tuned . . .
