Exterior Painting in Longview, WA

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On a morning in early October in Longview, the siding is wet before anyone has touched it. The fog that

settles in the Cowlitz valley in the fall, which the Longview hub page describes, leaves a film of water on every wall that faces away from the sun, and paint brushed over a damp board goes on looking fine and let’s go the following spring. So, a fall painting day here starts with a moisture meter on the shady side of the house, and it ends with the coat on the last wall the meter cleared. That is the rhythm of a repaint at the edges of the season, and on the small cottages the Long-Bell company built in the 1920s, many of them four-room bungalows, the painting itself takes about two of those days once the prep is behind it.

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VResh Construction paints houses in Longview on that rhythm. What follows is how the day, the week, and the season are planned around it, and why the prep, under Washington's lead rule, takes most of the hours.

The day

Wood takes paint when the meter reads below about 15 percent moisture, and a board can feel dry on the surface an hour or more before it gets there. On a fog morning, the shaded walls of a cottage read high well past 10. In fog season the crew does not wait for them; it primes the walls the sun reached first and tops them on the next dry day, then turns the corner as the readings come down, and a wall that has not come down by the afternoon waits for the next day, because a coat brushed over a high reading is the coat that peels, and a coat that is still wet when the evening damp arrives can haze and streak. In high summer the same crew follows the shade instead, to keep the paint from drying too fast to smooth out. Cold matters as much as damp at the far end of the season: every exterior paint sets a minimum temperature for the hours after it goes on, and October nights in the valley start falling below it. In fog season the meter, not the clock, decides which wall is next.

The week

A Long-Bell cottage is small, and where the wood siding is original the walls carry a century of coats. The prep is the long part, and once it is done the painting takes a day or two. VResh books the painting days as a block at the end of the prep, watching the forecast for two dry days together, and moves the block when the forecast moves.

The season

The painting window in the valley runs from when the spring rains stop to when the fall fog settles in, roughly late June into early October, and the mornings at each end are the ones the meter decides. The middle of the window fills first. A house with a south or west wall in full afternoon sun, or a sheltered side, can be painted at the edges of it; a house shaded by big trees on a north slope usually cannot, and VResh says at the estimate which kind yours is.

Why the prep is most of the job

Every Long-Bell cottage predates 1978, so prep on one comes under the lead-safe rules. In Washington, those rules are the state's, run by the Department of Commerce; the firm doing the work holds a Commerce certification, with a certified renovator on the job. The Longview hub page explains what the rules require. On the wall, they mean the old paint cannot be burned off and cannot be power-sanded without a shrouded machine on a HEPA vacuum, so a century of coats comes off with shrouded sanders on the flat runs, hand scrapers at the trim, and a low-temperature heat gun where the old paint is thick, with the ground sheeted well out from the wall. That is slow, and on a 100-year-old cottage it is most of the hours on the estimate.

Priming and coats are on the main exterior painting page.

Serving Portland Metro Area

VResh Construction provides window replacement, siding installation, roofing, dry rot repair and full exterior renovation services throughout the Portland metro area and Southwest Washington.

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Portland, OR

Southwest Washington

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OUR FAQS
Painting questions from Longview, WA

Will the crew be standing around waiting for the fog to lift?
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No. It starts on the wall the sun has already dried and works around the house as the meter clears each one. In a fog that does not lift by afternoon, the shaded wall waits for the next day, and the day goes to touch up and caulk the walls already done.

How do I know if my house can be painted at the edges of the season?
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A south or west wall that gets afternoon sun, with nothing shading it, dries hours ahead of the rest. VResh looks at which way each wall faces, what shades it, and the estimate, and tells you which months your house can be painted.

My cottage was re-sided in the 1990s. Does the lead rule still apply?
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The rule focuses on the year the house was built, not the year a wall was re-sided, so 1990s siding on a 1920s cottage falls under it, along with the trim, windows, and porch. A component comes out from under the work practices only where it has been tested and cleared by someone the rule allows to test it, and VResh treats an untested wall as painted with lead.

Do the neighbors have to put up with the plastic?
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The sheeting stays on the ground while a wall is being stripped and comes up once that wall has been inspected and primed. Where it has to lie on a neighbor's side, VResh asks the neighbor first.

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