Catchlight Painting Blog
What Is the Price of Peace of Mind?
I've always considered the residential painting industry a little like the old Wild West - largely unregulated, filled with independent minded, go-it-alone types. In industry parlance reference is made to painters who operate on the margins as station wagon bandits,...
Winter Horror Show: Ice Dams
I won't indulge my desire to moan about how much I've had to shovel this past month, nor the shoveling expected this weekend with the arrival of our next blizzard. Instead, in the spirit of camaraderie and New England stoicism, I offer you this image from a neighbor's...
How Do Benefits Improve Employee Morale?
At Catchlight Painting, we've always put families first. We believe in recognizing and honoring the significant events in our employee's lives. From work anniversaries to birthdays, from paternity leave to bereavement, we understand that to ask our employees to...
Stories in Mahogany Deck Staining and Stripping in Boston’s Back Bay
When it comes to painting mahogany, there is no ‘normal’ color. We stripped a virtually opaque mahogany exterior stain on a clear coated roof deck in Boston’s Back Bay earlier this summer; since the deck was built over an EPDM membrane we couldn’t use any acid washes...
Confined Space and Painting Kitchen Cabinets in Boston’s Back Bay
Recently we were asked to paint kitchen cabinets in a Back Bay home on Marlborough street; the original finish had been sprayed on the doors but the boxes were brushed and showed minute contamination - rubbing the finish revealed a slight texture consistent with dust...
How a Lead Paint Contractor Handles Lead in a Brookline Colonial Interior
The EPA rolled out new regulations in 2010 designed to protect the occupants of homes where lead paint is being disturbed. Referred to as the RRP rule, or Renovate, Repair and Painting rule, these regulations affect any work performed in a house built before 1978 -...
One of Catchlight’s Greatest Assets …
There are many small pleasures that make my job a delight - the wonder of email, texting and voicemail that makes communication so easy and immediate, the character and kindness of our typical customers, the aesthetic of New England's homes, both inside and out - eye...
Can You Trust a “Lifetime” Exterior Paint for Your Old New England Home?
Old New England homes, peeling paint and a permanent, lifetime paint coating? I don’t think so. This summer we embarked upon the restoration of a 200 year old farmhouse in Stow. Initially we had assumed our city pricing would be a deterrent but further conversation...
When Is It Too Cold to Paint in Greater Boston?
There are a multitude of variables that affect paint drying – humidity, temperature, wind, direct sunshine, surface temperature, even paint color. These variables allow some relaxing of the hard and fast rule of not painting when air temperatures fall below 35 degrees...
Introduction to Exterior Painting 101
A prospective customer called, referred by a business acquaintance, and asked us to estimate the repainting of his trim. "The house is new" he said, "it should be a simple job". Alas, a quick review shows a panoply of problems, a multitude of mistakes, a slew of...
