Calgary Residential Exterior House Painting

Helpful, continuing communication before, during, and after we paint the exterior of your home is key to a job well done. We promise to keep you well informed of each step and move around the house in a safe and timely fashion.

Challenges to Painting Older Home Exteriors

• Lead Paint –  Homes built prior to 1976, we always test for lead paint
• State of Exterior Surfaces - Best method for preparation of surface.
• Paint Choice –Determining  old coatings and choosing new ones

Lead Paint

Eco Star painting uses best practices for lead containment. We employ wet scraping and wet sanding methods to go along with our dustless sanding equipment which has Hepa rated filters. Our commitment to health and  safety  ensures that your family members will not be exposed to toxic paint chips and lead containing dust.

When working with lead-containing paint, a clean job site is a safe job site for children and pets alike.

Paint Choices

One of the biggest challenges to painting residential exteriors, including older homes, is figuring out the product selection. In recent years paint companies have been updating and changing coating formulations regularly, so it has become especially important to determine the best paint for a specific home exterior.

The current state of the industry suggests that oil-based products are quickly being phased out and water-based paints are being manufactured largely because of the newly legislated VOC laws in Canada. The availability of Low VOC acrylic paint formulations are growing at an exponential rate. The allowable 250 g/l VOC for paints  is still too high in my opinion, so we avoid them. Our painting company having "ECO" in the name is no accident. We have been involved with eco-friendly coatings from the very beginning.

We think it's important to explain to our clients the differences in paints, whether it is a semi-transparent stain for decks, a hybrid oil/acrylic for fences or a 100% acrylic formulation for siding, or a tough enamel paint for doors. Each paint offering will differ in performance and appearance in terms of sheen.

An important part of the decision making process when deciding on a paint is product sampling. Looking at paint chips and fans decks is a nice place to start but we suggest applying paint samples directly on the house. Paint  colors can look much different under natural sunlight so we can help you narrow down the choices.

Understanding of Exterior Surface Conditions

Surface Prep is one of the most important factors to a professional paint job. At Eco Star Painting we do our research. Each job has a unique fingerprint and we seek out answers to questions about a home's maintenance history which may include asking for an old paint can  that may be stored away in a basement. While we almost never use the old paints, they do help in the decision making process We are probably familiar with most of the paints manufactured in the last 2 decades, so we use this knowledge as a basis for the transition to a modern acrylic paint.

Another important consideration is determining what material the siding is made of. The types of paints used may differ for vinyl,wood, aluminum or Hardy Board siding.The species of the wood, porosity, hardness, number of previous paint layers, and condition of the surface are all key factors to consider.

By researching this information before the start of the job, we are able to put together an appropriate plan which will determine how we repair damaged and weathered surfaces prior to applying primers, paints and stains.