To Prime or Not to Prime

Paint stores encourage their consumers to use a primer under the top coat of paint. This makes them a lot of money of course, but is not the best advice. When someone wants to use primer, they only think of two different capabilities – priming and sealing. In reality, primer is about two different applications and probably two different products.

1. A sealer is meant to ‘seal’ something into the wall, like water stains or ink from a pen. Have you ever tried to paint over a pen mark on the wall? If so, you probably noticed that the ink bled right through the paint you just put on. Then you paint it again, and the same thing happens – you still see the ink. A sealer will fix this. The sealer will seal the ink into the wall and not allow it to bleed through the finish coat of paint. You will notice that the ink will bleed through the sealer, but that’s fine because you will still need to apply the top coat. Once that is done, you will never know that there was ink on the wall.
2. A primer does something a little different. It primes the surface to make it ready for the top coat. For example, you need to prime raw wood for the top coat to stick to it. There are three main substrates that need priming – raw wood, new drywall, and raw metal. Some paints have a primer built into it and you may be able to use it as a primer and a top coat all at once. But most of the time, you will have to prime these substrates before applying your latex topcoat.

Remember this rule – If the substrate is already painted, you DON’T NEED a primer anymore. You may need a sealer if there are pen marks or a water stain, but not a primer.

So the next time you question buying primer, remember these tips. If you have any questions or would like a FREE estimate, call Five Star Painting at 1-866-965-STAR (7827).

Preparation for the “Will it Paint?” Video Series

Is there a better way to paint? This past year Five Star Painting has been creating a video series taking suggestions on which method is a better way to paint. These suggestions have come from people all across North America. We have taken into consideration to attempt these different methods and here is a sneak peek of a few shots we captured.

Stay tuned later this week for when we launch these videos.

To Freeze or Not to Freeze

One of our professional painters has learned the hard way when freezing his paint brushes over night. He mentions that back in the good old days when he used to be able to freeze his brushes instead of cleaning them, it helped greatly because the paint didn’t dry on the brush. He didn’t have to spend the time cleaning them out at the end of the day. He was only able to do this because he used oil paint on just about everything – and oil paint does not freeze. Nowadays, the use of oil paint is long gone.

There are many people who still think they can use the freezer method with the paints we use today. Since oil paint hasn’t been used in years and latex paint is the new thing, it will freeze and you’ll find yourself with a brushsicle in the morning. It will be quite some time before you can actually use the brush again. Paint brushes can be quite expensive and it would be a shame to throw them out. Most latex paints, once frozen, will not go back to their natural viscosity – it turns into a jelly mess, rendering the brush completely useless. If this occurs and goes unnoticed, your painting project could end up being a disaster and a waste of time and money.

The moral of the story is –take the time to wash out your brushes after you paint, unless you’re still able to find some old oil paint lying around. It is worth it in the end for a professional looking paint job. For any questions that you have please contact us at 1-866-965-STAR or visit our website to chat live with a representative.

Spring Ahead

Spring is the perfect time to give your home a fresh look. Liven up traditional design with the hottest spring colors, serving as inspiration for the entire home. Spring traditionally awakens a sense of freshness and new beginnings, with sprouting shoots and blossoming flowers that inspire people to breakout of the winter blues. From serene shades to vivid hues, here are some color schemes you’ll want to try this season.

Bright & Clean

Spring hues are ideal for a girl’s bedroom. Use a polka-dot pillow and damask fabric in apple green as inspiration to complement a pink wall. A white headboard would make the pink wall pop.

Energizing Appeal

One of the most appealing shades of spring is the deep blue. Combine it with other favorite hues, like tomato red, turquoise and apple green, to create an energetic and bright design.

Luxurious Surroundings

The classic blue and yellow combo is always a favorite. While white is often paired with this palette to keep it light and airy, using black accents to create a richer, more sophisticated atmosphere also works well.

Serene and Restful

Welcome nature into the bedroom with a soft green. The great thing about shades of green is that they look fabulous and they’ve got a nice calming effect. Add some floral textiles to create this calming retreat. Refer back to a previous blog post on Color Trends for 2010 for more details.

Accessorize Your Home

Create a fresh and open space with cheery spring accessories. Use a color to paint the walls and the remaining colors for pillows, lampshades, rugs and other great accessories.

Five Star Painting would be happy to present some helpful color schemes, as well as decorating tips to give your home a fresh look. Please call us at 1-866-965-STAR.

Before and After Paint Jobs

It is amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do to a home or commercial building. What a difference it can make in the curb appeal of your home or the business that it can bring in.

For a FREE estimate, give Five Star Painting a call at 1-866-965-STAR or chat with a local representative on our website for any questions that you have.

Check out these great Before and After examples that have been completed by Five Star Painting franchises.

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Why are Email Signatures Important?

An email signature is usually a few lines of text placed at the bottom of an email message, forum or newsgroup that identifies you, your company, and your product or service. People don’t fully understand the effectiveness of email signatures and therefore lose out on an opportunity to gain new customers.

There are many ways you can create your email signature, but having a poor signature can hurt your professional reputation. With that said, here are some general instructions that can guide you in formatting a professional signature.

Email Signature Tips

• Include your name, your phone number, email address, company or website title, and your website address.
• Compact your information into fewer lines by using pipes (|) or colons (::) to separate the text.
• Keep it short (four lines is standard).
• Recommend matching the theme and personality of your website.
• Simple plain text is best; skip bright colors, special fonts, and graphics.
• Avoid including multiple phone numbers and email addresses. Pick your contact preference and get rid of the rest.
• Include links to your most important social media profiles, only if they are appropriate.
• Skip your mailing address — not every recipient wants or should have access to that information.
• Use the signature delimiter (– ) to help your signature get recognized
• Be careful with HTML formatting because it may not appear how you want it to for everyone.
• Optimize your logo or other graphics, upload the files to your server, and use an absolute URL.
• Consider using an email signature service. Here are a few to check out:

1. Exclaimer
2. CodeTwo
3. WiseStamp

• Instead of using hyperlinks, be sure to write out the full URL to ensure that the link will go through in the sent message.
• Update your signature on your cell phone if you frequently use it to send messages. Here are some easy guidelines on popular devices:

1. iPhone
2. BlackBerry
3. Nexus One

• Reconsider including a quote; you never know when you might offend someone or give the wrong impression.
• Avoid including a legal disclaimer unless required to do so.

Examples of Email Signatures

Default version:

–

John Smith
President | Top Web Design USA
555-555-5555 | john@johnsmith.com | http://www.websiteurl.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/twittername | LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/linkedinname

Replies:

–

John Smith
555-555-5555
http://www.websiteurl.com

To optimize the effectiveness of your email signature, you need to also track them. You’re your website address is written out in your signature file, you can redirect it by tracking the full URL. The best way to go about this is by using ad tracking software. This allows you to keep track of any traffic that comes your way through your email signature.

Give Your Home’s Exterior a Face Lift

Freshening up the exterior of your dwelling can add immediate value to your home and increase its curb appeal. However, doing so can also be a big commitment – in both time and money – so make sure you get the job done right the first time by consulting experts at a specialty paint store.

From planning to application to clean up, a specialty paint store can help make the project a smooth one with professional tips and expert advice. This type of store can also help with color selection, choosing products that will last for years to come and determining the right tools needed for the job.

When preparing to paint your home’s exterior, one of the first tasks at hand is to select color, and there are a variety of tools available to help you choose just the right hue. For example, Sherwin-Williams offers an online color visualizer that allows you to experiment with hundreds of shades before you even leave your house. Once at the store, to inspire your creativity, the company has idea cards available to help you visualize how to use a particular color, be it on the front door, shutters or main facade. You can also refer to generously sized 3 X 5-inch take-home samples, available with suggestions for complementary colors noted on the back of each paint chip.

Once you’ve chosen your colors, it is important to buy exceptional quality paint products. When it comes to paint, you definitely get what you pay for, and when you put a lot of energy into an exterior painting project, you want it to look fabulous for decades.

A specialty paint store can offer advice on choosing the right product needed for the job. For example, Sherwin-Williams innovative paint, Resilience, allows you to get the job done even if rain is in the forecast. And with just two coats, it’s guaranteed to last for as long as you own your home. Resilience is made with MoistureGuard technology to provide superior moisture resistance—and it cures in about half the time of most conventional exterior paints. Resilience ensures you will not have to forfeit a weekend paint job due to impending bad weather.

After you’ve made your color and product choices, a specialty paint store is your one-stop shop for purchasing tools to help you complete the project. Ask about quality exterior brushes and rollers, which are sturdier than their interior counterparts and will give you better results. After the colors and products have been chosen, the tools have been prepped and you have your game-face on, the fun begins! For more tips, tools and techniques for exterior painting, visit the Sherwin-Williams website or your neighborhood Sherwin-Williams paint store. To receive a FREE estimate for any paint job, please call Five Star Painting at 1-866-965-STAR or visit our website.

How Can Social Media Improve Business?

It is time to advertise online using social media. 2009 was a pretty wild year in the world of marketing. While social media was building up steam in previous years, it pretty much went mainstream this past year. As the hype mediated and people began to understand how to use these new programs, more change was developing. The expansion of social media in 2009 prepared some significant trends to pop up into the world of small business in 2010.

Most accounts for advertising through social media are free, but for some you will need to be educated on how to function them. Because social media is so cost effective, you can determine the cost by choosing how much production time you want to put into your content. Professional quality is extremely crucial.

The major goal is to stay on a personal level, so that you get a connection with your audience. It is to share one’s voice, to be authentic, and to encourage a community. Others will notice that they can relate to you in similar experiences. The more the audience connects with your business, the more they will want to work with you. When a business owner shares their passion through social media, it really shows how much they love their work. It can be far more effective compared to an ad.

Here are some ideas before you jump into the social media scene:

• Find out what forms of social media your clients or customers use. The most popular are Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.
• Search the forms of social media that your business could benefit from.
• Use advertising content that you already have and be creative with new ideas for new content.

Below are a few tips when maintaining your accounts for social media:

• Answers your readers’ emails
• Be prepared to speak with customers
• Keep your content original
• Good quality design and easy to read

We will see small business owners finally start to embrace these significant expansions in the New Year. It is essential to understand how social media plays a beneficial role in your business. You would be surprised the number of customers social media brings in. It also expands your search engine optimization, which improves the volume or quality of traffic to your website in a natural or unpaid way. To better your understanding, you can sign up for webinars regarding Social Media 101.

Temperature Issues & Touching Up

Service Temperatures

Here is the scale for the maximum service temperature for paints:

• Latex and oil: 200˚F or 90˚C
• Epoxies: 300˚F or 150˚C
• Aluminum: 400˚F or 200˚C
• Inorganic Zinc: 750˚F or 400˚C

*These products will fail if they are exposed to temperatures higher than listed above.

Thermal Tack

Thermal tack is caused when the humidity and temperature rise enough to make the coating soften on latex gloss and semi-gloss paints. Even if the paint was applied a long time ago, this problem may still occur. The surface will become tacky to the touch initially, but will go away once the temperature and humidity drop. In areas where this might happen on a frequent basis, it would be wise to paint front doors and jams in an oil based paint instead. If the doors become tacky, they tend to stick to the weatherproofing and cause a mess.

Paint Viscosity

The thickness or viscosity of the paint depends greatly on the temperature of the paint. When a paint is colder, the molecules huddle together as if they were cold, which makes the paint thick. When you try and apply that paint to the wall, it will tend to sag and will not flow very well because of its viscosity level. On the flip side, warmer molecules want to spread out, which almost thin the paint. Because of this, the paint will go on too lightly and you will have problems with coverage. For the best results, try and regulate the temperature of your paint by having it be between 70˚F or 21˚C and 77˚F or 25˚C before you start to paint.

Sheens and Touch Ups

Touching something up can sometimes be a difficult thing to do. It is quite dependant on the sheen, the type (latex or oil), and the age of the paint. First, let’s talk about oil paints. Oil eggshell and semi-glosses will lose a quarter to a third of their sheen after about three months. Trying to touch up a surface that has been painted with that type of paint after the three months could be very obvious. It is better to repaint the entire area instead of just touching it up. Latex paints also tend to lose their gloss, but at a much slower rate and quantity as oil paints. Latex paints are easier to touch up, but remember that you might have some flashing depending on the amount of time since the original paint was applied. With oil and latex paint, you also might run into the problem of fading paint due to sun or other environmental issues. Fortunately, both oil and latex flats are the easiest to touch up, even after a period of time. A quick tip: using an HVLP to touch up the surfaces seems to blend the sheen differences the best.

Temperature Ranges

Be sure to do any touch ups to a surface at the same temperature in which the original paint was applied. There is a rule of thumb in the painting world, that you should not paint any surface below 50˚F or 10˚C, or if that surface will dip down below that temperature at night, until the paint has sufficiently dried. There are, however, some paints out there that have been developed to extend the exterior painting season that will allow the paint to be applied in 35˚F or 2˚C, (ICI’s Fortis and This Old House). If you do touch up something under the recommended temperature, it might dry a little lighter than the original paint. Therefore be sure to apply the touch up paint at the same temperature in which the original coat was applied.

Touch Up Applicators

(This is especially true for smooth walls.) If you are going to touch up a surface, make sure that you use the same applicator as was used originally. Different applicators leave different finishes on the surface. It would be very obvious if there were a brush mark in the middle of a rolled wall. Try and be consistent with the applicators you use and you will find that you will have better results. The more the wall is textured, the easier it is to touch up using any tool, even using a brush over a rolled surface.

Primer 101

Preparation is the key to beautiful, long-lasting results for any painting task. Why spend all that time choosing astounding paint colors for your living room remodel or baby’s first nursery if you aren’t going to take the first step to ensure your new colors will withstand the test of time? Five Star Painting is proud to be partnered up with Sherwin Williams who has supplied us with great insight regarding the prep-work to any paint job.

Often forgotten, primers are made to help your finish coat be smooth and uniform. They can save several hours of time and several dollars. Some are formulated specifically to cover stains and discoloration, block out odors, hide surface marks and there are even primers that are made especially for use with dark vivid colors. All primers help to anchor the finish coat so it “sticks” better, ensure a rich shine for enamels, fill uneven surfaces and seal porous surfaces.

Prime for the Pickin’

When deciding which primer best suits your paint project, there are a couple of important elements you should take into consideration. One is the surface to be painted. Whether the surface you are painting is drywall in your brand new home, older wood in your basement or concrete in your stylish loft, there are ideal primers for each surface to ensure that the finish coat offers optimal beauty and protection.

Another important element to consider when choosing a primer is the paint color. Testing by the experts has found that often deep paint colors are best primed with gray-tint shades, and for this reason special primers have been designed to maximize deep hues. For example, the Sherwin-Williams Color Prime System has gray-tint shades for primers to achieve a true color in fewer coats. Another way to make those bold accent colors pop is to refer to the back of the color chip for primer recommendations. For example, deep, saturated colors are extremely popular for the home right now. To get the best possible results for these bold colors, a gray-tint primer is an ideal choice.

An interior latex primer is the perfect selection for most home painting projects. It goes on easy, dries fast and provides the best coverage on a variety of new or previously painted surfaces, such as wood, plaster and drywall. And clean-up can be a snap, with just soap and water.

Remember that primer can often make or break your paint project. In the long run, using primer will save you time and money by reducing the number of times you need to paint or repaint a surface. Choosing the perfect primer for the job can be simplified by seeking expert advice at an area paint store. For more information on primers, please check out our website or visit your neighborhood Sherwin-Williams.