Saturday, July 7, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
Tolbert Painting: DIY, the importance of personal protective equipment
Personal protective equipment or PPE is the barrier between you and injury. PPE can range from clothing to eye protection to gloves or kneepads. As a professional painter, I use PPE on a daily basis, so in this article I’m going to talk about some practical applications for the use of personal protective equipment in the home.
From head to toe:
Hat – A great piece of PPE is a Hat, one that preferably keeps the sun off of you. I regularly wear a sun hat or wide brim hat while working outdoors and believe it or not, extreme sunburn is a job related injury. How does this apply at the house? Unfortunately, no one is immune to the sun’s harmful, radioactive, cancer causing, UV rays. So this summer when you’re working outside, protect yourself from the sun by wearing a hat and applying sun block.
Eye Protection – Eye Protection seems like a no brainer. You would be surprised how rarely I see it being used. When using power tools or anything that’s going to send flying debris into your Cornea, be sure to wear eye protection. This also includes working with caustic materials like household cleaners and bleach. Eye protection in the form of tinted lenses, are important to wear when working out in the sun as they help to prevent Cataracts.
Ear Protection – Long-term exposure to continuous loud noises can cause lasting hearing loss. I highly recommend using ear protection when running any type of noisy equipment for even a short period of time. This could include electric or gas powered equipment.
Dust masks and Respirators – These are great in the field as they protect us from harmful dust being created in the prep process. Respirators are used to protect us from harmful fumes when working with volatile compounds. I recommend using a dust mask to protect you from dust while cleaning or while doing yard work. I can tell you from experience that it only took me a couple of sinus infections for me to now wear one anytime I’m exposed to air born debris of any kind. A disposable Organic filter cartridge respirator can be purchased at any hardware or paint store. A dust mask will not protect you from caustic fumes. If planning a project that includes exposure to a caustic breathing hazard, consult your local paint store on what precautions you can take. Closed quarters without proper ventilation or proper protection can produce a deadly environment with lethal consequences. If you have difficulty breathing while wearing any kind of mask, remove it immediately.
Gloves – These not only protect you from hand injuries like cuts and scrapes, they also prevent toxins from entering your blood stream through your skin. True, hand injuries are the number two most common of the reportable work injuries, however; exposing your circulatory system to foreign materials in my book is a close second. While working with caustic household materials; wear rubber gloves, not only will this keep your hands looking young but your kidneys as well. Leather Gloves should be worn while lifting heavy objects with sharp edges or working with any cut or scrape hazard like cutting tools or grinding tools. A bad scrape can be just as bad as a bad cut.
Knee Protection- My Aunt Dee is always raving about her new Titanium knee. I’m sure it’s awesome, but I’m just not in a real big hurry to go out and get one, and so I use kneepads. Kneepads are great for doing work that’s near to the ground and it helps to prevent cartilage loss and wear and tear on your knees. If you find knee pads uncomfortable or just as much of a pain to put on than what they prevent, I recommend a Foam Kneeling board (also great for quick little jobs like getting that one pesky weed, or putting that door stop back on).
Proper footwear -lets just say that flip-flops may not be the best choice of foot wear to mow the lawn or clean the gutters. That being said, a good work shoe is a sturdy leather shoe with ankle support. Feet are usually injured when something falls on them and a sprained ankle isn’t any fun either so, when working outside be sure to have the proper footwear.
Stretching- Remember all those stretches from Gym class? It’s time for some review. The number one “on- the -job injury” is; Sprains and Strains. You may or may not be an athlete but if you’re going to do some work, you will be engaged in a physical activity, possibly using muscles you may not normally use. So to prevent any unwanted strains; stretch prior to work, use proper lifting techniques (avoid stress on your back) and if something is to heavy or awkward to carry, get help.
So now you’re ready to get out there and tackle all those summer projects. Be safe and have fun
Joel Tolbert is a professional house painting contractor and owner of Tolbert Painting. You can reach him by email at tolbertpainting@gmail.com.
Tolbert Painting: How to paint straight lines and avoid paint bleed
Every once in awhile I get a call from a homeowner who has attempted to do a paint job themselves, and the caller is apologetic and almost embarrassed by the damage they have done. Then they ask me to fix it.
By the time I get there it’s to late, but it’s never as bad as they make it sound. Most people do a good job of protecting their belongings, flooring, and other areas from unwanted splatter or drips. Most folks are good at rolling out a wall and often take the extra time to apply two coats. Overall, from what I can tell, the paint jobs aren’t half bad. So where do they go wrong?
The “cut in” is the line that separates the painted area from the non-painted area. If we are just changing the color on an interior wall for example than that area would be the door casing, base board the ceiling and so on.
Hand brushing a straight line can be difficult and it takes years of practice to be fast and efficient, but that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. Folks can give up right away on the idea of cutting their walls in with a brush, and reach first for the tape. Give it a shot! You might surprise yourself. I hand cut with a brush 90% of all my interiors so I know it can be done. I recommend spending a little extra on a nicer 2 ½ “angle sash brush.” It might take you some time to get the hang of, but you might find it effective – especially for the ceiling.
Let’s say the brush thing is just not working out: here are a couple of tape tricks you might want to try. The biggest problem with tape is what we call “bleed”. “Bleeding” occurs when unwanted paint seeps through your tape line and onto what you didn’t want painted. It is caused when the edge of the tape does not fully adhere to the area that you are protecting and then makes its way through the tiny divots and spaces that already exist in that area. The more textured an area is the more likely the tape is to bleed; for example, if you were taping out glass, “bleeding” would be less of a danger.
There are some newer tapes on the market that have adapted to this problem and are designed specifically to cut down on bleeding. Frog Tape and Scotch 3M Orange Core are a couple of examples. Frog Tape has a product in the adhesive that reacts to water, causing it to inflate so when your paint comes in contact with the tape line the product puffs up and fills the tiny void keeping your line intact.
My favorite method to keep a good tape line is called the Old Timer. This method involves a caulking gun and some low tack tape – preferably 3M Blue. First you will make your line on the surface you are protecting (lets say the base board), then make sure the edge that is being protected is tacked down good by going over it lightly with a putty knife. The caulking tube tip should be cut small, preferably at the ¼ “ line. Run a fine bead of caulking over your tape line between the wall and the base board. With a damp cloth remove the caulking from the tape line. Now apply the paint to the wall at that line lightly not to heavy. Give it about a minute to set and pull the tape before the caulking has a chance to dry. You should have a perfect line free of tape bleed. This is also a great trick for color transitions in the middle of walls or at a Bull Nose.
How (and why) to deal with peeling paint
House paint functions first as a protective application and second for aesthetic value. For example, I recently looked at a potential exterior project involving some failing wood on my client’s porch. The area was a 2 x 10 board that went along the top of a stucco wall that closed in her front porch like a shelf. The wood was completely dry rot all the way through.
The house had been painted about 10 years ago, but this is not long enough to justify this kind of damage. I began to investigate, and apparently the wood was not primed before it was painted and none of the seams were caulked. Skipping these two steps in normal prep led to a total removal and replacement of all the wood on her front porch. The bottom line is this: I’m sure the previous project looked great – the paint may have been a color she liked and solidly done, but the end result was failure. The first painter didn’t do the most important part of the job, which is to protect the materials he was painting from the sun and the weather.
It’s important to identify when paint is failing around the exterior of your home not simply because “it’s looking bad” but because the protective coating that secures the materials that were used to build your home could be failing. Paint is your first line of defense against the natural erosion from elements such as sun, wind, and rain, and also termites, insects, algae and mold growth – all of which contribute to the structural damage of your home.
The most common place to look for damage would either be the part of the house that receives the most sun, or the south-west facing side of the home. UV rays are by far the most destructive force to paint and wood on your home. First you will notice the paint becoming discolored or “bleached out.” There will be some cracking in the outer surface and then actual peeling at the point where it is exposed to moister and rain. This is where the building materials begin to fail.
Also be wary of termites. In all my poking around in eaves and fascia boards it has seemed like the “sunny side” was constantly where I found termite damage. I ran this theory past a termite inspector buddy of mine and he confirmed my findings. Peeling paint makes it easier for our little wood -chomping friends to get their favorite snack – your house!
The trouble on the north-east facing side of your house may be a little different. Here, the trouble areas on this side are traditionally down low, where you are more likely to have growth of mold and lichen. I have seen lichen on second story walls and on rain gutters, but for the most part It’s usually along a grass line behind plants or under a tree mold. Lichen can grow through paint causing it fail. Remember that mold can be prevented, as we discussed in my last article.
Think of the exterior maintenance of you home like the maintenance of your vehicle: as long as you keep up on the normal maintenance, you usually avoid break downs and expensive part replacements. Your home is the same way, and the longer you let it go the more costly things can be due to extra prep in paint removal and priming exposed areas… or worst case scenario you need a part on your home replaced.
Feel free to give me a call with any questions.
Joel Tolbert
Tolbert Painting (805.544.4100)
tolbertpainting@gmail.com
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