Catchlight Painting Blog
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...
Spring Is Springing!
As I sat in my kitchen this morning, I was thinking how wonderful it was looking out the windows and actually seeing things: the tree in my back yard, the birds in search of breakfast and our neighbor's house even though there were no lights shining from the windows....
Help Is on the Way! Careless Painting in Boston’s Back Bay
Often, in recent blogs and on our website we discuss the importance of painting preparation and proper applications to surfaces before any painting begins. The pictures below are of a recent project in Boston’s Back Bay. The repair and preparation work that is shown...
Helping Hands: We Did It for the Monkeys!
A call from Helping Hands Monkey Helpers to a member company of the New England Council PDCA for an interior painting service estimate instead lead to a community service project that provided Helping Hands $20,000 in labor and materials free of charge. Established in...
A Common Question
A common question … We often hear the following question from people who find us on the web or see our vans around Boston ... why is your price higher than the other painter(s)? There are a number of variables that influence pricing, and these are presented in no...
We’re Blushing ….
These words, shared via our project evaluation, come from a delightful professional interior design client who shall go unnamed but will most definitely be recognized and thanked! "I think it's a very lucky man (in this day and age) whose work is known and respected...
Obsessing over the Details in Somerville, MA
We were fortunate enough this year to be introduced to a lovely client in Somerville. Mark Weiner, architectural rep for Sherwin-Williams in New England, referred us to a retired architect/interior designer couple who live in a beautiful home in Somerville. After a...
My Kingdom for a Shanked Nail
We see a lot of carpentry flaws in our line of work and captured in the photograph below is a common one. This house was built in the 1950s but was resided in the 80s with new cedar clapboards. Unfortunately the installers used a smooth nail to fasten the clamps. ...
Go with the Flow
As an environmentally conscious company, we go to great lengths to avoid use of solvent-based finishes in favor of water-based low and zero VOC (volatile organic solvents) paints. Occasionally however a client will insist on a more traditional oil-based finish. Below...
