Good Bye

One of those big jobs around the house that you always put off for too long. Exterior house repairs and repainting on a house the is about 7000 square feet. I decided to take the summer and so my job started in May of 2009 and finished at the end of July. May and June were wonderful times to be working on the house but, July came down hard with the heat. I did all the research I could handle through books and on line and I felt that I was ready to tackle the big job. The house hadn't been painted since I first moved in back in June 2000 so, there was a lot of caulking to be redone along with some wood repairs. The wood work was pretty much a breeze as this was my forte. I had also done all f the wood prep before paint was to start. Sanding, scraping and hand cleaning with TSP. Wood fill was needed in a few spots but it was nothing serious. The caulking on the other hand was a huge job. Almost every window had to be redone and where ever I had replaced wood the edges and butts had to be caulked. My research pointed me to Acrylic/ Latex caulk as it was flexible and paintable. Off I went to my local H.D. for additional advice and product purchases. One big difference this time though. All of my paint purchases were done through CIL. A company they is a specialist in this area. The caulking on the other couldn't be that big of a deal and so taking the advice from the H.D. specialist I made my purchase but in a small amount just to be on the safe side. My first weekend of caulking went well. The product applied quite well and was easy to work with. Used up all of the caulk supplies over the weekend and on Monday I was back to finish my purchase of caulking materials. The week went by very fast and the caulking was working great. Once all of the caulking was applied I decided to take a few days off from the job just to make sure the caulking was properly cured before I painted. To make this long story a short one. Major product failure. All of the caulking I used shrunk, cracked and curled up. H.D's response was they couldn't understand why the product failed but they will reimburse me for the caulking I bought and said that they would remove the product right away. They did point out to me that they were doing me a favour as this was an isolated incident. Fast forward to October 2009 and the caulking product is still n H.D's shelves and I have heard from a lot of people who have had the same issue with the same caulking I purchased. Yes, I did get my money back and the work... my job became much bigger.

Yes. That's what they called them selves. College Pro Painters. The company name pretty much says it all. The crew was professional and on time and considering that they were 2 college students, their time on the job for my house wasn't too bad. 9:00 to 4:ish. I was not able to be around for the first day but arriving home that afternoon something wasn't right. How could they have painted so much in the first day? Day two I hung around and discussed the work with the boys. They were unaware that they were responsible for hand cleaning the wood with TSP and filling any wood gaps and cracks. Then there was to be the oil primer and then the actual colour final coat paint. They thought that they were just to paint over everything. Including dirt. After all the supervisor/agent quoted 120 hours for this 7000 sqft house to be painted. At 60 hours per person it shouldn't be a problem. Seems the boys were unaware of the terms of the contract. That was cleared up on day three between myself, the agent/supervisor and the painters. Oh. By the way, the supervisor was never around. The boys were now doing a fine job though I did have to suggest to them that painting directly over TSP with out rinsing it off and letting the wood dry might be a problem. They appreciated my instructions and they adjusted their work methods while I was around. Being around is the important part of this job. I've done this work many times and a lot of my houses are going on 12 to 15 years and still do not need a paint job. All in all in the end the boys did an ok job considering that they had never done this kind of work before. Summer job you know. I did have to send them up a few times to paint the parts of the house you couldn't see from the ground. by the end it took the lads three weeks to complete the job. And their reward from the company for doing such a fine job was a reduction in their hourly rate once they went past the 120 hours. Not exactly a fair shake to the working guys and a huge miss quote from the agent. Watch closely when you have strangers work on your pride and joy. A little extra effort on your part will yield the results you want.

They came, they saw, they conquered. Very professional and a fantastic product. Full lifetime warranty that is transferable when the house is sold. My last gutters were torn down during our last winter due to extremely heavy snow loads coming off the roof. I will not have to worry about that issue any more. I researched five companies for new troughs and though Tristar was not the cheapest nor the most expensive, they bay far have the best product out there. I recommend a visit to their web site.

What can you say when you ask for help and the people you turn to are professional enough that they can take on your job and save you money. Not only do they have absolute confidence in the products they offer but a keen interest in getting you up and running with the least amount of effort. MacStation's staff are no nonsense and very capable. If they don't have the answer they will get someone who does know. I will and do always return to them for advice and I know this is a place that has the answers and great product and product support.