Painting

Paint is the part of a job everybody sees and almost nobody watches being done. That is unfortunate, because everything that decides how long it lasts happens before the first coat — and by the time you can judge the result, the prep is already sealed underneath it.

Interior and exterior, for houses, apartments and offices across the Bay Area.

The prep is the job

A wall that has not been properly cleaned will take paint beautifully and start releasing it eighteen months later. So most of the hours on a paint job go somewhere other than painting:

• Washing and degreasing — kitchens and exterior walls both hold more film than they look like they do
• Scraping and sanding anything loose or chalky
• Filling holes and dents, then sanding those flat
• Caulking the gaps where trim meets wall, so the line reads sharp instead of shadowed
• Spot-priming bare patches, stains and any repair work
• Masking floors, fixtures, hardware and glass

On exteriors there is an extra step people skip: old paint oxidizes into a chalky powder, and fresh coats bonded to that powder peel off in sheets. It has to come off first.

Sheen — the decision people regret most

Color gets all the deliberation and sheen gets almost none, which is backwards. Sheen decides how the wall wears and how much of the surface underneath it you are going to see.

• Flat and matte — hides imperfections best, cleans worst. Right for ceilings and low-traffic walls
• Eggshell — the sensible default for living rooms and bedrooms. Slight sheen, wipeable
• Satin — hallways, kids’ rooms, anywhere that gets touched. Takes scrubbing
• Semi-gloss — trim, doors, bathrooms and kitchens, where moisture and cleaning matter more than hiding

The trade-off is simple: the more sheen, the more light skids across the wall and reveals whatever is beneath. If you want satin or semi-gloss on a large wall, the finish underneath has to be good enough to carry it — that is the conversation about level 4 versus level 5, and it is worth having before the paint is bought, not after.

Roller or spray

Both are correct in the right place, and we choose based on the surface and whether you are living there.

Spray lays down the most even film and is the faster, better answer on new work, cabinets, textured surfaces, ceilings and exteriors. It also demands far more masking, because atomized paint travels.

Roller and brush wins in occupied houses, single rooms, and anywhere cutting in around finished surfaces beats tenting the whole area in plastic.

Exteriors and Bay Area weather

Exterior work here is a scheduling problem as much as a painting one. The marine layer puts moisture on the walls overnight, and paint applied over a damp surface — or applied late enough that it is still curing when the temperature drops — will not bond the way it should.

So exteriors get planned around the dry season and around the day itself: start after the surface has dried out, stop early enough that the film sets before evening. South- and west-facing walls take the most sun and fade first, which is worth knowing when you are deciding whether to do the whole house or one elevation.

Where painting comes up

• After drywall or taping work — new surfaces need priming before anything else goes on
• As part of a full remodel — sequenced after the dust-producing trades finish
• Rental turnovers — between tenants, on a schedule that fits the vacancy
• A single room — the smallest jobs are still worth calling about
• Exterior refreshes — often alongside stucco or siding repairs, since both should be sound before they are painted

What it looks like while we are there

Furniture gets moved to the center and covered, floors get protected, hardware comes off rather than getting cut around. We use low-odor products indoors where the product range allows it, but paint still smells for a day or so, and rooms need ventilation.

Coats need drying time between them. If you are staying in the house, tell us when you call — we work room by room so you always have somewhere to be, and we say up front which rooms are out of use on which days.

Across the Bay Area

We paint in San Rafael, Tiburon, Mill Valley and across Marin, in San Francisco, and out through Berkeley, Orinda, Walnut Creek and Vallejo.

Call and describe what you have: how many rooms, whether it is interior or exterior, and what condition the surfaces are in. If there is peeling, staining or a repair involved, mention it — that is usually what decides the real scope of the work.