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LOCAL: 703-504-2000
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.
Top Five Reasons Why Paint Fails
Hasy application of a second coat of paint before the first coat is fully dry is a major cause of alligatoring.
Nothing is more frustrating than a failed paint job – especially if it fails right after it is applied. Luckily, the most common reasons for premature paint failure are well-known, and can be prevented. Here, Blue Door Painters lists the top five reasons for paint failure, and what can be done to prevent them.
1. Inadequate preparation. A surface needs to be thoroughly stripped of loose material, scraped, sanded, caulked, cleaned, and primed prior to application of a new coat of paint, or that paint does not have good odds of staying successfully adhered to the surface. Blue Door Painters follows a strict regimen of surface preparation before all of our jobs in order to prevent this form of failure.
2. Bad weather. The weather cannot be too cold or too wet while paint is drying and curing, or the film will not form adequately. For this reason, Blue Door Painters pays close attention to the weather when scheduling exterior jobs. Ideally, conditions should be warm and dry for 24 hours following a new paint job.
3. Cheap paint. While you don’t necessarily need to buy the premiere designer paints, the extremely cheap paints contain a surplus of useless filler components, and are not built to last. Blue Door Painters recommends purchasing a good, solid, tried-and-true brand of paint like Duron or Sherwin-Williams.
4. Improper priming. While some brands of paint claim that their products can be used without a primer, in our experience painting most surfaces without a primer is a recipe for coating failure. A prime coat is specially designed to adhere to the substrate – and should be selected to adhere to the specific substrate you are dealing with. It takes a different kind of paint to adhere well to metal, wood, drywall, old paint, masonry, etc. – and this is the specific purpose of your primer. In Blue Door Painters opinion, this is not a step that shoudl be skipped.
5. Hasty Application. Failing to wait for full drying and curing between coats, laziness in prepping the surface, and hasty application of paint leaving gaps in the continuous film are all leading causes of paint failure. Painting a wall may seem simple, but it really does need to be done right. Which is why Blue Door Painters staff are all held to the highest possible standards of craftsmanship, so that we produce a paint job that we can stand behind.
Prep: The Bedrock of Any Paint Job
Prep your surfaces before new paint jobs.
A paint job is only as good as the preparation that goes into it.
If there were a stone onto which the ten commandments of painting were carved, that one would be right at the top, all in capital letters.
In order for a paint job to work correctly, it has to stick to the surface it is meant to coat. That paint does stick to the surface is something that most people take for granted, but it is actually the result of years of clever engineering. Paint is a liquid, which, when spread across a vertical surface (or even applied to a ceiling, directly in opposition to gravity), rather than running down and collecting on the floor, stays adhered in a thin film where it is applied, forming a solid coating. Only a mixture with just the right viscosity and chemical composition can manage this feat that we take so much for granted.
And that is when the surface to which it is being applied is a continuous solid. What happens when you put a new coat of paint on top of a surface covered in loose material – dirt, grease, chipping or peeling remnants of an old paint or wallpapering job? Well, the new paint attempts to do what it was engineered to do – form a strong, continuous film. The problem is, when you form a continuous film over a discontinuous surface, tension gets added to the loose particles, and they tend to loosen further, pulling away from the rest of the surface. The film of paint covering therefore starts to get torn in different directions and pull away from its close adhesion to the rest of the surface, causing all sorts of problems. Take a wall with chipping paint, for example. If you paint over it, as the new paint dries, it contracts and adheres to the whole surface, including the flakes of loose paint. By contracting, it pulls some of those loose flakes off the wall. This may form cracks in the film between the paint adhered to the loose chip and the paint adhered to the rest of the wall. It also creates a void behind the film, in which moisture and mildew can collect, leading to the steady erosion of the film.
What is the solution to this problem? Extremely careful preparation of the surface before a new paint job is administered. Blue Door Painters follows a strict preparation regimen of stripping, sanding, scraping, caulking, replacing failing drywall and plaster, and thorough cleaning before administering any new coatings to a substrate. That way, we ensure that we have put up a coating that was truly prepared to last.
Where Can I Buy Paint?
Get to know paint quality. Then decide what suits your needs. (photo by Simon Howden)
Tips for purchasing paint and painting supplies from a Washington, DC/Northern Virginia area Contracting Company
Navigating the coatings industry (“coating” = paint, stain, sealant, wallpaper, etc) can be a little overwhelming for the beginner. This is mostly because what seems like a simple product to the uninformed consumer (aka, paint), is actually an intricately engineered concoction, and the variety of different mixtures on the market is actually pretty wide. What kind of store you go to determines what kinds of products you will be offered, and what kind of product you select will go a long way toward determining the quality of your final paint job.
Paint can typically be purchased either from a general home improvement store, like Home Depot, or from a specialized paint store, like Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore. While they have obvious overlap, these two types of store have different primary goals, which translates to a different selection of paint products.
The purpose of a store like Home Depot is to provide a one-stop-shop for homeowners who want to do home improvement projects themselves. Typically speaking, do-it-yourselfers have a lower budget, less expertise, and less equipment than professional contractors. With this target audience in mind, generalized home improvement stores tend to provide cheap to medium-luxury brands of paint, a comprehensive collection of equipment, and simpler, more straightforward tools. Most signature brands of paint that are sold in specialty paint stores are not offered in general home improvement stores, because they are proprietary. So stores like Home Depot carry the more generic, widely distributed brands of paint. While these brands of paint will do the job, they do not have the extra care taken into the engineering that you will find at a specialty store. They will also likely not cost as much.
The purpose of a specialty paint store is to sell paint, period. Paint stores sell specific brands, which have been engineered to excel in various arenas. High durability or opacity, waterproofing or flameproofing, mildew-resistance, low-VOC content, bold color retention, high clean ability, and custom finishes are all examples of the special purposes for which designer paints can be engineered. Paint stores also sometimes sell a type of paint known as “contractor grade”. Contractor grade paint, ironically enough, is actually extremely low – quality, intended for covering large areas in new construction. Since specialty paint stores sell to contractors as well as homeowners (and that includes general contractors working with new construction as well as high-craftsmanship refinishing contractors like Blue Door Painters), the types of paint offered are focused on very specific goals, from the cheap new-construction paints to the extremely reliable designer paints that a refinishing contractor can stake his reputation on.
So when you are shopping for paint, you should consider the level of quality you are looking for, as well as your budget and whether you are going to have help in the execution. Understanding what kind of paint is sold where is a solid first step toward navigating the complicated world of paint products.
How Much Color Do You Want in an Interior?
This amazing color wheel was created by Moses Harris (1731-1785)
Tips from expert color consultants on interior design in the Washington, DC area
There are six basic strategies for using the color wheel to develop harmonious color palettes. We’ve listed them below, in order from the most conservative to the most daring. All you need is a basic subtractive color wheel (3 primary colors, 3 secondary colors, and 3 tertiary colors), and you are ready to get started trying out combinations. When deciding which strategy to use, you will need to consider what kind of visual and emotional impact you want your space to have.
SIX COLOR PICKING STRATEGIES
- Monotonal: Take one small slice of the wheel, and pick three our four shades that are both close together, and similar in value (light vs dark) and chroma (bright vs dull), and you have a monotonal color scheme. Monotonal color schemes are ideal for settings where you want the decor to fade into the background, perhaps as a setting for brightly colored art or furniture. If you intend to use monotonal furnishings and decorations as well, you should be careful that the color concentration doesn’t become overwhelming.
- Monochromatic: Monochromatic color schemes involve a similarly small slice of the color wheel (i.e., all blue, or all yellow) – but cast the net wider to include a variety of values and chromes. So a monochromatic blue scheme, for example, might include a pastel baby blue, a grayish slate-blue, a deep navy, and a bright cornflower blue for accents. The strength of monochromatic schemes is that they usually do come out looking harmonious, and they can maintain a consistent mood, but they allow for enough contrast to give the decor some texture.
- Analogous: For an analogous color scheme, you get to carve out a slightly larger slice of the wheel, collecting several base hues clustered on the same side. Blue and green, for example, or blue, green, and violet, could be combined to create an analogous color scheme. Analogous color schemes provide for a greater variety, while still maintaining a constant color ‘temperature’ (meaning the psychological impression of temperature, not the actual physical temperature) and offering a good chance of coming out harmonious.
- Complementary: Moving into the more daring color combinations; complementary color schemes involve jumping across the wheel. First you pick a favorite color, and then you jump across the wheel and also collect its opposite. The contrast you get from complementary color schemes is vivid, but they tend to look good together because colors that are directly opposite each other on the wheel develop good aesthetic balance.
- Split-Complementary/Double-Complementary: A more sophisticated strategy involves splitting each hue in a complementary color scheme into two. Each pair of hues should be equally offset from the original central hue, and the variation should be slight, so that the color wheel balance is still achieved. You can balance one color against one pair, or create two pairs opposite each other on the wheel. Complementary color schemes offer a high degree of intricacy, and can create a pleasant combination, but you need to take care at this level of complexity that your colors do not start to clash.
- Triad/Tetrad: Finally, you can usually create a harmonious scheme using the triad or tetrad color picking strategy. For this technique, you pick three colors that are evenly distributed around the wheel (like red, yellow, and blue, for example) – or four colors that are evenly distributed. Once you pick the colors, you can play with the value and chroma to create a complex arrangement that is pleasing to the eye.
How Are Colors Classified?
A few examples of changes in hue.
Artists and poets have fallen in love with color for as long as there has been human culture, and there are a million beautiful color names that have been invented to describe the rich palettes that fill our world. However, in an attempt to standardize a language of color for optimal communication, and to bring color analysis into the realm of science, several color classification systems have been developed. The Munsell Color System, created by Albert H. Munsell in the early 1900s, is an example of a good, comprehensive classification system for organizing colors and analyzing the relationships between them.
Albert Munsell observed that the colors we see actually have three different dimensions, which vary independently of each other. Two of these dimensions come from the two types of photoreceptive cells in our eyes, and the third is a combination of the two working together.
The Three Characteristics of Any Color
1. Hue – the particular wavelength in the rainbow or color wheel (detected by the cones in the eye)
2. Value – the lightness or darkness of the color, measured by the amount of black and white mixed in (detected by the rods in the eye)
3. Chroma (Sometimes called “intensity” or “saturation”) – the degree of pure color versus neutral tones (black/white/gray) in the mixture (detected by the rods and the cones together)
When you discuss color for the purposes of architectural decorating, all three of these characteristics are important, and all of them have a distinct impact on the color scheme that they create. The hue, for example, determines the warmth or coolness of the color, and also plays a role in its psychological impact (we will discuss the basic psychological impact of all of the basic rainbow colors in another installment). The value determines how much light the color reflects, which plays a role in “color contouring“, or using color to affect the perceived dimensions of a space. Lighter colors make an area look lighter and more spacious, while darker colors make an area look heavier and more enclosed. Finally, the chroma of a color plays a strong role in how aggressively the color grabs your attention. If you want your decor to fade into the background, you want to use colors of a lower chroma than if you want your decor to attract attention.
When deciding on a color scheme, consider the hue, value, and chroma of all of your colors carefully, and watch how you mix and match – there is an infinite variety of beautiful color schemes out there.
What Is Color?
Discussion of Color Relevant to Painting and Refinishing in the Washington, DC Area
What, exactly, is color? It is such a pervasive aspect of our lives that the question almost sounds absurd. Color is color, and there isn’t anything else to it. However, a deeper understanding of the physics and biology that create our experience of color can shed light on some of the intricacies of picking color for an interior or exterior painting project.
Human perception of color results from sensitive tissues in our eyes registering visible light of differing wavelengths and intensities. Red light has the longest wavelength, shrinking as we proceed down the rainbow all the way to violet light, which has the shortest wavelength of the visible range. Having visual sensitivity to this specific range of the electromagnetic spectrum (ie, being able to see in color) has been evolutionarily critical for human beings, because color is such a helpful cue in navigating our environment. Important objects in our environment – like plants, water, and other animals – are more easily identified by their characteristic colors.
The path from a beam of light to our mental perception of color, however, has multiple steps involved. First, light comes into our eye, both directly from a light source (such as when you look straight at a neon light), and also reflected off of the objects around us. When reflected off of the objects in our environment, that light gives us critical information about our surroundings. To formulate our visual field, and help us navigate, our eyes collect two kinds of information; the color’s value and the color’s hue, and there is a specialized type of photoreceptive cell in our retina (the area on the back of the eyeball that receives light) for each.
First, the rods in our retina collect information about how much (or little) light is being reflected off of each surface, we see giving us a visual field full of bright spots and shadows. The amount of reflected light coming off of an object is sometimes called its color “value”, and it can be depicted on a grayscale. Perceiving color values in our environment is critical for depth perception; our brain analyzes the lights and darks to figure out what is in the foreground, what is in the background, and what direction the light is coming from.
Unless you are black-white color blind, there is also a second set of photoreceptive cells in your retina, called the cones, which are oblivious to the amount of light coming in, but instead react to the wavelength, “color”, or “hue”, of that light. In perceiving wavelength, the cones offer your brain a whole new set of inputs with which to make sense of the visual field. While seeing in black and white is sufficient to detect depth, motion, and all of the fundamental attributes necessary to go about your daily life without bumping into things, color gives you critical information about the state of the objects in the world. A leaf’s color, for example, can tell you if it is alive or dead; a fruit’s if it is green or ripe, an insect’s if it is poisonous or harmless, the sky’s if it is going to stay fair or rain. In nature, many creatures use color as a language to communicate across species lines: the flower encourages insects to pollinate using bright colors, while the bright red frog warns predators that it is poisonous. Perception of hue also lends a finer degree of detail to our sense of space and light; being able to tell that a shadow has a bluish tinge gives us a subtly different understanding than simply sensing how dark it is; perhaps the sun is setting, and the extra orange in the light is giving the shadow its complimentary tinge.
Finally, the information collected from the rods and cones in the eye has to be sent up to the brain in order to turn into a perception. It is here that the brain taps into all the personal associations that you have formed with that particular color, and forms a unique experience of that color for you. So as you can see, color perception is a complicated process, and one that allows for a wide variety of color perception between individuals.
How Do I Deal With Water Damage?
A couple of water damage stains on an interior ceiling.
Information on Managing Moisture in Interior Surfaces in the Washington, DC/Northern Virginia Area
One of the major purposes of shelter, for any living creature, is to keep out the elements. Heat, cold, sun, wind – and, undeniably, water – need to be kept under strict control in an indoor environment if it is to remain a suitable shelter. Modern homes and buildings utilize thousands of years of complex technology in order to keep out the elements, but it is still an ongoing struggle. In this blog we share our years of contracting experience on what to do when unwanted moisture ends up inside your home.
First of all: why is interior moisture a problem? Obviously, no one wants to live in a swimming pool, or to have their furniture and belongings soggy, but moisture can also cause serious problems when present in far less dramatic quantities. Moisture undermines the structure integrity of most architectural building materials, encourages the growth of mold and mildew, and can cause paint jobs to completely fail. While exterior substrates (vinyl siding, stained decks, roofing) are designed to resist water, interior substrates are vulnerable, and will degrade rapidly in the presence of persistent moisture.
Second of all: where does interior moisture come from? If your basement or another part of your home floods, or if your roof or upstairs bathroom leaks aggressively through the ceiling, then the source of your moisture will not be a mystery. But sometimes a slow but steady leak in unexposed plumbing, a capillary effect, or even a place in your home that has a cooler microclimate, can cause subtler examples of moisture damage.
Third of all: how can you tell you have moisture damage, and what the source of the moisture is? Moisture damage will be detectable in a building because it leaves behind a stain on surfaces like drywall, paint, wood, and stucco. The shape and location of the stain will offer some clues as to what kind of moisture source you are dealing with. A round stain on a ceiling, or upside-down teardrop shaped stain on the wall, both indicate a long, slow leak, likely in the plumbing. If the stain grows more rapidly when it is raining, then the source of the water is the exterior of the house. If the stain is in a long line on the ceiling, it may come from a more diffuse leak in the plumbing. Stains from capillary action usually come up from the ground in line in a moist area, and stains from condensation are usually irregularly shaped patches near a microclimate change in the house.
Finally: what do you do about moisture damage? Because moisture damage is associated with both structural and health threats, it is essential to fix water damage as soon as the problem is observed. The steps are simple. First, locate and eliminate the source of the moisture. Second, cut out and remove all of the damaged substrate: drywall, wood, paint, and all. Finally, replace the damaged substrate with dry material, close the seams as thoroughly as possible, and repaint or refinish the patched area (as well as some of the surroundings, if you are concerned with the patched area sticking out).
Blue Door Painters is proud to offer water damage remediation as one of our services in the Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia area.
