How Your Walls Might Affect Your House Painting Project

Ottawa Painters Share Tips For Painting Common Wall Materials

Painting is often an affordable way to refresh your home. If you’ve fallen out of love with the colours on your walls it’s time for a change! Once you’ve found the perfect paint colour, you may think that you’re ready to paint, but it’s important to know what your walls are made of. This often overlooked factor can have a profound effect on the success of your project. Here, Ottawa painters provide some useful tips for painting any wall:

Wallpaper

Wallpaper is one of the most difficult materials to paint over. You essentially have two options: paint over it, or remove it. If you attempt to paint over the wallpaper, keep in mind that the texture, design, and seams of the paper may show through the paint. This makes it difficult to cover properly, and even harder to remove if you ever plan to do so. We recommend you take the time to remove the paper, after which you can prime and paint the walls of your Ottawa home.

New Drywall

Many major home renovations involve putting up new drywall. Painting this material is not the same as covering up old paint. Once the wall is mudded and tapped you’ll need to sand down any imperfections and clean the walls. Then you’re ready for primer on the walls. Primer offers a neutral backdrop for the paint, covers up the mud spots, and gives the paint something to stick to. It often takes two or three coats of primer depending on the drywall. After the primer is dry your drywall is ready to paint!

Gloss and Satin Paint

Gloss and satin paint have a distinct shine to them, so covering them up takes a couple of extra steps. First you’ll need to rough up the gloss so the new pain can stick to the walls. This can be done by sanding the wall or applying de-glosser with a paint brush. If you decide to sand the walls, there’s no need to sand down to the bare wall, you’re just adding texture for the paint to stick to. It’s also important to know if the paint contains lead or other toxins; you can consult an Ottawa painter if you’re not sure. Once the gloss is removed, you can clean the walls and paint!

Flat Paint

Flat paint is fairly simple to cover. You can repair, sand, and clear any areas that need to be fixed including holes, cracks, and paint drips, and wash the walls. Then you can paint right over it! That’s why many new home builders choose flat paint for homes in Ottawa.

As you can see, walls covered in wallpaper, new drywall, and high gloss paints will require additional preparation before you paint. If you need assistance, no matter what you’re painting over, contact Ottawa painters today.

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Bedroom Decor

Your bedroom should be a place where you can 'get away from it all. Doing a bedroom-decorating project adds to your individual taste and a key thought. Above all things, you want it to be at ease. Think of your bedroom as a retreat, and let your imagination go!

Quality linens not only look great, they feel wonderful too. The higher the thread count, the more durable the fabric.

Painting is one of the easiest bedroom decorating ideas and most affordable ways to transform your haven. Once your walls are painted, wallpaper borders are a simple way to add attractive detail and integrate individual appearance.

Draperies and blinds provide some privacy, shy away from anything that's too heavy or overwhelming. Your floor and floor coverings aren't just something you walk on. They play a key role in your bedroom-decorating look, and feel of the room.

Most likely than in any other room as you're more likely to look at it in here, your bedroom ceiling is important.

Whether you like natural woods, painted furnishings, lacquer, or steel, try to choose bedroom decorating pieces that enhance the look you're trying to create.

This is an affordable way to light up your sense of style. Lighting can help create a relaxing mood, when it's soft and indirect.

Here's an area where your bedroom decorating ideas and personal tastes and creativity can really come through. Select a few pieces that you really love.

If you can walk into your bedroom and think, 'I love this!' you've done a great job. Keep comfort and your personal tastes in mind, and you should end up with your bedroom decorating project that's wonderfully and restful.

About The Author:

Roger King is a successful author and publisher of http://www. 1st-home-decor. com. Bedroom decorating tips and ideas to showcase your homes.

Bedroom Decor was first seen on Wimbledon Painters

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Preparing Your House for Painting

A Residential Painting Company Provides Valuable Advice

It doesn’t feel like it yet, but spring isn’t that far off now—and likely, your house’s exterior has taken a beating in the winter weather. In fact, now that you think about it, your interior is looking a little dull too. You can inject some life and rejuvenate your home this spring with a fresh spell of house painting, but before you begin, you should know how to prepare. Whether you’re taking on the project yourself or calling a residential painting company, the right preparations can make the whole project go so much more smoothly.

Preparing for Interior Painting

Whether it’s your whole house or just a single room, a new colour or a fresh coat can breathe new life into your living spaces. Once you’ve picked out a colour, the first thing you should do is remove the furniture. Simply covering it won’t do you any good, since it can still become an obstacle. Basically, if it’s not nailed to the floor, take it elsewhere. Wall hangings, light fixtures, outlet covers, switch plates, plants, and more should all also be removed. Once the room is as empty as you can get it and the walls are bare, the next step is to wash them—after all, dirt, grease, and other impurities can prevent you from getting a smooth, even result from your house painting project. After cleaning the walls with warm water and a mild detergent, tape up the lines that need to be taped, and put down sheets to cover the floors. If you’re using professional painters, they’ll take care of these last two steps themselves, but you can help them out big time by clearing out the room and cleaning it.

Preparing for Exterior Painting

As important as cleaning your interior before painting is, cleaning your exterior is even more so! That’s because it’s constantly exposed to the elements, so even if it looks clean, clean it anyway. Your exterior will have more nooks and crannies where dirt can get in and hide, so be sure to pay attention to the little details. Before you call a residential painting company for assistance, check to see that all the putty and caulking is in good shape, and that all your gutters, eaves, and downspouts are clean. If you discover any damage to the exterior of your home, have it repaired before you begin painting.

Whether revitalising your home’s exterior or adding a splash of colour to the interior, house painting can make your home feel as good as new. If you’re ready to begin, call your local residential painting company today!

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Concrete Paint

Lifting and peeling paint from epoxy coverings, coatings and seals are too often the end product of efforts to dress up a garage, shop or basement. A lifting and peeling problem is worse than having no finish at all. The eyesore of blisters, peeling, and chipping of a floor gone wrong is testimonial to a failure in preparation. Fortunately, after 40 years of development technology in flooring, one should no longer rely on raw materials like muriatic acid (Hydrochloric) to clean and prep your floor. Applicators now realize that an "acid etch" using a simple raw muriatic acid is no cure all. Integrated systems for preparing concrete properly can now avoid disasters that leave garages looking worse than before they were coated.

Preparation is everything when applying finishes. You can only expect a surface to stay in place if its substrate is permanent. Obviously, if the substrate crumbles or moves, your surface will move with it. Today, after 40 years of application experience, flooring experts have developed application preparation procedures that help minimize the risk of substrates moving. New floors are especially vulnerable and require extensive preparation. New concrete is dusty for the first few years while the latents of concrete on the surface are kicked, walked, or driven off. Those latents must be removed before quality epoxy topcoats are applied or the topcoats will move with the latents as they break free from the substrate.

Blasting away part of your floor often leaves corn rows cut into the floor due to over lap, and will need to be filed. Blasting often just brings you down to a new level of contamination. It is often better to clean 100% of the surface using chemicals that are designed to work together in an integrated system to assure a clean, solid surface. When you wash your clothing your detergent uses a change in pH to help release soils. Water softeners and rinse agents are blended into laundry detergents, dish shops and even shampoos to assist the pH change in releasing soils and contaminants.

Cleaning first with a high pH or alkaline degreaser attacks oil and grease contaminants while moving the floor pH higher. Next slamming your dirty surface with a low pH acidic cleaner attacks minerals, rust and other particles, makes your pH jump 10 points or better to shock contaminants loose from substrates. The acidic cleaner should have detergents, rinse agents and water softeners blended into it so you know that it is formulated to do the best job possible. It is vitally important to bring your pH back to normal 6. 5 or 7 pH after cleaning, with a scrub rinse. Have you ever run your finger across your car after pressure washing only to find it still has a thin layer of road film on it? Surface tension holds even high pressure from penetrating many films. You need to break the surface tension with contact during all three steps of cleaning. The more aggressive the contact the better for removing concrete latents, small particles of concrete that are ready to break of to become that endless dust coming off unquoted concrete floors.

Rotary scrubbers, similar to what a school custodian utilizes, can be fitted with stiff bristle brushes using carbide chips imbedded in flexible nylon bristles to scrub your floor. The bristles dive into mall pours, cracks, and holes to help strip away fragile cement particles that are softer than the exposed carbide chips. These scrubbers should be used for your alkaline cleaning, your acidic cleaning, and for your final rinse cleaning. Scrub rinsing stops the chemical action of your cleaners and provides a liquid medium to bring your floor pH back to neutral and flush contaminants and residual detergents away. Once dry (1 to 4 hours) you are ready for your coating, paint, epoxy or seal.

Epoxy flooring is weather-resistant, and unharmed by rain, snow, oil, and flooding. This resistance is due to the fact that epoxy coatings, unlike paints, come in two parts. When mixed, a catalyzing process changes these two parts from a liquid to a permanent solid. In contrast, paints are carried in water or solvent bases that evaporate to leave the finish. If you reintroduce one of those carriers to the surface, the paint often is able to re-dissolve back into a liquid state.

Even though painted garage finishes are formulated to resist dissolving into their carriers, under stress they can be susceptible to blistering, peeling, and chipping. But water and most solvents have no effect on sealed epoxy surfaces. Epoxy flooring goes on at the job site and requires no seams, creating a continuous membrane that seals what is above from what is below. These epoxy surfaces have been used in food processing plants for over 50 years now. Mold, mildew and other contaminants cannot penetrate the epoxy membrane, and wash off easily.

One should not rely on retail store clerks to help with a floor that will be used for 10 to 20 years. Factory-direct kits of materials including step-by-step instructions and a 24/7 help line are now available online. With these resources, anyone can put a quality floor down in their garage that will last for decades. Like a car finish, you may get some scratches and marks, but also like a car finish, a little touching up can keep those finishes looking great for decades.
Durall Industrial Flooring offers no-cost, no-obligation quotes for its fully customized kits of materials, including all preparation materials and procedures, for installing industrial quality epoxy or urethane coatings at www. concrete-floor-coatings. com. These beautifully sealed and easy-to-maintain floors come in over 20 colors. The floor finish can be gloss, flat, or satin and may be easily accented with decorative chips. Additionally, the floors may be skid-resistant like emery paper, yet still be easy to sweep or squeegee.

For photo examples and more detail, visit www. concrete-floor-coatings. com
For more information, contact Harvey Chichester at harvey@durallfmg. com
Phone: 800-466-8910 or 952-888-1488 (24/7)

Concrete Paint Read more on: Wimbledon Painters and Decorator Services

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4 Ways to Generate Leads for Painters Using Social Media

 After a long, hard day’s painting and decorating, hitting your marketing hard is not always the first thing painters are keen to do. But if you’re striving to keep the work flowing or to expand your business, taking some time out of your working week to promote what you do is essential. You may already have the traditional resources at your fingertips. If you’ve been proactive, chances are you already have business cards, a website and plenty of listings on trades directories.

So what more can you do?

Free to set up and operate (at least until you start using paid advertising options), social media is a low-maintenance way to undertake some potentially beneficial marketing – especially if you’re focussed on a particular local area. By connecting with people who are interested in your profession, plus people and businesses in your area, you can constantly generate exposure for your business with just a little input – opening the doors to all sorts of opportunities and making your business more searchable online.

To help you get started, we’ve put together a few easy ideas that painters and decorators can apply to their chosen social media platforms to generate leads…

 Get social, locally

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The name of the game in social media isn’t to bombard your friends and followers with constant promotional messages. If you have a Facebook or Twitter presence, it’s much more important to engage in conversations about common interests.

For painters with a local hub, connecting with local news and groups is a great way to get your name out there. Social media isn’t about instant leads, it’s about the slow burn. You want to be the company somebody thinks of when they see someone else asking for painter and decorator recommendations.

From supporting local causes, to linking to other local businesses – start connecting locally to help make this happen. Don’t forget to use geographical hashtags (e.g. #Cardiff #SouthWales) to help people connect with you in turn.

 Be interesting – or be useful

Social media is about entertainment. You want to build the biggest, most relevant possible following, which means your output needs to include the kind of things people want to see in their feeds. From retweeting funny local news, to sharing images of your best work (more on this later!) make sure you’re capturing your audience’s interest, not annoying your followers with boring posts about undercoat.

 Incentivize Followers

Once you’ve grabbed the attention of followers and started building a sizable local following, it’s time to cash in all of your tweeting and messaging. While your feed should not be 100% promotional, the occasional promotional message (perhaps once a week depending on how frequently you post other content – a 1:10 ratio is about right) is a good way to encourage readers to “act now” and enquire about your services. Offer followers a discount code that they can redeem “this week only” to help push enquiries – or offer discounts/rewards if they refer a friend.

 Be Visual

Ryan Amato Painting

As a painter and decorator you have a great opportunity to generate fresh visual content regularly which you can use to build your social media presence. Instagram and Pinterest are both perfect for publishing visual content, particularly if you’re savvy about the tags you use to help interested people find your photos. Twitter and Facebook are also getting good at sharing imagery which grabs attention – so always use eye-catching images if you can.

Everyone loves to see transformations – why not invest in a decent camera and take some time to put together great “before and after” images? Working on something unusual or especially visually impactful? Don’t forget to take a photograph to help you promote your business online.

Don’t forget, social media doesn’t have to eat heavily into your time. Tools like Hootsuite are perfect for scheduling posts, so you can have an active social presence all month, while barely lifting a finger. Don’t forget to take five minutes every now and again to directly connect with others in your area and your industry, however. Organic connections are a great way to grow your reputation and get your name out there.

 

By Sam Butterworth, blog editor at Regal Floor Paints

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Looking for Leads? Venture into Video!

Video marketing can bring in new leads to help you build your business.

 

Like most contractors, you probably have tools that you can count on for just about every job, but there’s always room to add new tools to your marketing toolbox. Email, print advertising and social media marketing are all reliable tactics, but there’s a marketing tools that is inexpensive, easy-to-use, and creates a huge impact – video marketing! When used effectively, video marketing could generate a wealth of new leads for your business.

Chances are, you’ve watched at least one marketing video – According to a recent study by Three Motion, 78 percent of people online have viewed at least one video per week, and 55 percent have viewed at least one video per day! Whether they’re watching for information or for entertainment, you have the potential to reach a huge audience with a relatively small budget. I emphasize the word “potential” because your video probably isn’t going to go viral. But it will be viewed by potential leads who are interested in your product or service. This is an audience that is already tuned in to your message, so turning them into marketing leads could be easier than you think.

But where do you start? Start with the Internet. You’ll find several excellent resources with detailed information on creating marketing videos; but it will require some research on your part. Then incorporate what you’ve learned with these guidelines, and you’ll soon be creating videos that connect with customers and generate leads.

First, define your audience.

Who are you trying to reach with this video? New customers? Current customers? A particular type of customer? You need to zero in on who you want to reach, then tailor your message for that target audience. For example, say you want to target new residential customers. You’re going to have a much less technical type of video than if you want to connect with contractors. Don’t skip this critical step – it will make choosing your topic and writing your script much easier and your final product will be much more impactful.

Then determine your goal.

What do you want this video to do? Of course, you ultimately want it to bring in new business. But first, you have to find and address your audience’s needs.

Marketing strategists like to talk about “pain points.” Simply put, pain points are problems – problems for which people or businesses need solutions. Often, they look to the Internet for answers. Say, for example, someone doesn’t know how to prepare varnished wood for painting, they’ll most likely do a Google search. There, they might run across your how-to video on that subject, but after watching it, they decide that it’s a bigger job than they want to tackle. So they contact you. Pain point solved and new customer gained!

Your audience can help you determine your goals. Their needs – their pain points – can be a gold mine for video topics. Ask friends, colleagues, and even current customers for ideas on what they’d like to see.

Develop the script.

Don’t just “wing it.” Your marketing video doesn’t need to be perfect, but it does need to be professional, and that starts with a script. The optimum length for a marketing video is about 2 minutes, and the average number of words per minute is 150. So you only have 300 words (plus or minus a few) to get your message across, along with a strong call-to-action.

Here are a few handy tips:

• Repurpose a topic (maybe a blog or a presentation) that you’ve already created and turn it into a video.
• Keep your content balanced – think 90% educational and informative and 10% promotional.
• Look for topics that generate great visual content
• Add a testimonial or two, if you can.
• Practice, practice, practice – but keep it natural.
• ALWAYS add a strong call-to-action instructing the audience on how they can contact you.

Film & edit it.

If your budget allows, you can have an outside professional film and edit your video. However, current technology has made creating your marketing video a fairly easy, do-it-yourself job. If you decide to go the DIY route, you probably already have most, if not all, of the tools you’ll need – a webcam, smartphone, or digital camera with video capabilities, etc. You’ll also be relying on your computer for additional tips and strategies. We’ve compiled a few of our favorites to help you get started:

• If you’re using your smartphone, film it in landscape mode, which makes for the best viewing on widescreen devices.
• Use a tripod with an inexpensive adapter.
• Avoid the zoom – getting a close-up digitally means a lower quality pic.
• Use natural light if possible. The light from smartphones tends to be harsh. If you need additional lighting, look no further than your van or truck – you can put together a great lighting system using nothing more than the portable job lights you already have.
• Use a computer for editing. Yes, many smartphones have video editing capabilities, but you won’t get the same professional-looking results you would get from video editing software like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere.

Now get your message out there.

Once your marketing video is ready to go, you have a number of ways to maximize the number of views it receives. If you have a website – and if you don’t, you should – add a page for your videos. Create a YouTube account and upload all your videos to it, so viewers can tap into your archives at any time. Post videos on your social media networks with an occasional reminder to watch it. Add it to your blog site, then add a link to it in an email. Don’t think of video marketing as a one-and-done effort. Promote it through multiple marketing channels for best results.

Videos are can be an inexpensive, but effective tool for reaching customers and generating leads. Make sure there’s a place for them in your marketing toolbox.

About the Author

Todd Goldmeyer is the Marketing Manager at Adrian Steel Company. Adrian Steel is a leading manufacturer of cargo management solutions, including ladder racks, steel partitions, heavy-duty shelving, and more. Established in 1953, Adrian Steel produces high-quality, long-lasting equipment for vans, pickup trucks, and trailers. Browse Adrian Steel’s vocational upfit packages for job-specific requirements.

 

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8 Questions To Ask When Getting A New Website & Price Ranges

In the article, I am going to cover several important questions when it comes to getting a new website such as basic questions you should ask and explaining the different price ranges.

First, we’ll cover the basic questions of your new website. Here’s a list of questions you should always ask:

1. Will I ever own my website?
2. How do changes work? Do I have to make them or pay you to make them?
3. Will it be responsive across all devices? (Desktop, Laptop, Tablet & Cell Phones)
4. Will it be in a CMS system such as WordPress?
5. Will you be creating my website from scratch or buying a template?
6. Will SEO be included?
7. Can you briefly explain what SEO work will be done on and off my website?
8. When will my site be completed?

Now that I have a basic list of questions laid out, I’ll touch on each of the points briefly.

Will I ever own my website?

If you’re purchasing a website, you should always own it after it’s paid for. Normally, after your contract is up, any changes you may have will not be covered and you will be paying an hourly rate or flat fee to make the changes you want. Some companies give you a website for a few hundred a month, but at the end of the contract, they take the site down because you were just “renting” it. Make sure you own your website after it’s paid for.

How do changes work?

With most companies, you pay a monthly fee and that will cover changes until the monthly payments stop. After that, you’ll pay a hourly fee or flat fee for changes. If your website is made with a CMS, such as WordPress, it makes it easier for you to maintain it after it’s yours. If you’re paying for it all at once and will have to maintain it after, WordPress is normally the way to go. Keep in mind, however, that most WordPress sites are just a purchased template and images/text thrown together. While this can look okay sometimes, keep in mind that you get what you pay for.

Will it be responsive across all devices?

Whenever you get a new website these days, it absolutely needs to be responsive. With Google taking into effect if your website is responsive, there is no reason it shouldn’t be. In this day and age, everyone has their phone within a hands reach most of the day. They use their phones to search online for things they need, and if they happen to find your website, it can be the difference between getting a call from them or not.

Will it be in a CMS system such as WordPress?

Like the point above, if your website is built using WordPress or another CMS system, most companies will be purchasing a theme which takes out 95% of the coding. All they do is purchase the theme, upload it and then install it. Once it’s installed, they will add pages, pictures and written content. You’ll have to find out who is providing the pictures and content because some companies rely on you. The plugins vary, but they’ll normally install Yoast SEO and a few other plugins depending on what you need.

Will you be creating my website from scratch or buying a template?

If they are buying a template, that takes 80% of the work away. If they’re building you a WordPress website with a purchased theme, you could do most of it if you had enough time. If they are going to purchase a WordPress theme, I wouldn’t bother. You should be getting a custom built website that reflects your business. Any good developer can see if a website was built from a template or not. You shouldn’t pay thousands of dollars on a website that has the design of thousands of other websites.

Will SEO be included?

If Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn’t included, why are you buying a website? There’s no reason to spend $100 or $10,000 on a billboard in the middle of the desert, so why would you spend money on a website that people won’t be found? Without SEO, your website will never organically be in front of potential customers who are in front of their internet capable device searching for a service that you offer! This should always be a yes. If it costs extra, ask why? A website should always be built optimized for user experience and search engines.

Can you briefly explain what SEO work will be done on and off my website?

You don’t need specific answers when you ask, you just want to make sure they don’t say “umm” or “I’m not sure”. They should mention meta tags, proper headings (h1’s), tagging images for things on your site. For off your site, if they mention link building, make sure you ask how. If they say anything about a program, building profile links, outsourcing, run. Google is smart and sooner or later you’ll be hit with a penalty and you’ll be better off changing your domain completely.

When will my site be completed?

For me, a website takes about 2-3 weeks to complete from start to finish, from scratch. Add an extra week if it’s in WordPress. If it takes them more than a month, ask them why? If they are using a purchased theme, it should take a two weeks tops unless they’re golfing every other day with your money.

 

Website Pricing Levels

Basic – Up to $2500

For a basic website with minimal SEO, expect to spend up to $2500 for a decent looking website. Normally, these don’t have many pages or any custom functionality. This is a price range for when a company purchases a theme and swaps out information. With a basic website, you’ll end up buying a new one year after year wondering why it’s not bringing in new customers.

 

Standard – Up to $5000

A standard website comes with decent SEO focused around your primary area, looks nice and has a decent conversion rate. This will almost always come with responsiveness and will last you for 2-5 years, depending on how current the code it was built on. It was built on outdated code, it will be out of date faster. Most companies pay between $3500 and $5000, which if it lasts you 5 years, you can break the cost down to each year to about $1000 a year as an investment. 2-3 decent jobs a year generated from this site over the course of 5 years will easily cover the cost of the website.

 

Advanced – Up to $10,000

For a typical residential painter that doesn’t need any sort of custom functionality, this will be a top of the line website that was custom created for your business that is responsive across all devices. It’ll be pixel perfect, using the latest up-to-date code and should provide an excellent conversion rate, depending on your area and industry. Like the standard, this level of website will last 5 years or more.

 

Your website is an investment

Your website is an investment, so try not to think of it as a cost. A professionally built website that is driving new customers to your business will pay you, not cost you. If you receive 3, 5 or 10 new customers each month from your website (that you wouldn’t have generated otherwise), it’ll generate more money for your business and cover its costs.

 

However, I know there are a lot of residential painters out there that don’t have $2,500 to spend on a website, let alone $5,000 or $10,000. There is another option however; pay per lead. You can learn more about pay per lead from a different blog post I created here.

 

Conclusion

While the price, quality and amount of time a website can take to build can vary significantly from company to company, the end goal of your website should remain the same: make your business look professional while generating new customers.

What additional questions do you ask when starting a new website?

Author information

DE Web Designs

Founder & CEO at DE Web Designs

Devyn builds professional websites for businesses and guarantees first page search engine rankings. When he is not building websites and generating his clients new customers, he enjoys golfing, fishing, playing pool and spending time on the beach.

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