Graco’s handy little handheld sprayer is getting a boost until the end of January 2012. The TrueCoat Pro is the hand held cordless sprayer that is gaining recognition as the tool to use for small jobs where spraying is necessary but big equipment and clean up time is undesirable.
The TrueCoatPro is sold along with an extra tip, battery, charger, cup liners, pump armor and carrying case.
In an exclusive offer from Graco, you can get a second, bare TrueCoat Pro (without battery, tip and accessories) sprayer for just $140.00. You must use the redemption form HERE and it is dated back to November 21st so even if you bought on recently you can get in on the offer. The offer is only for the TrueCoat Pro and does not include the corded TrueCoat, TrueCoat Plus, or TrueCoat Fine Finish sprayers
With the economy as bad as it is I wonder if we’ll be seeing a move back toward keeping and restoring. The new furniture made from chipboard is sure cheap but is it worth keeping over the long run? If you are the sort that has some old pieces that need fixing up, stripping and refinishing is going to be one of the first things to consider.
Dad’s Easy Spray is a paint stripper that has been around for a long time and has a great reputation for getting the job. Watch this video and see.
Have you seen this new tip? Titan has put 2 tips in one barrel to create a dual purpose spray pattern that the user can switch back and forth for broad or narrow fan patterns. This video shows the tip in use. We are thinking about getting some but I want user opinions
Questions include…Are painters purpose selective so that most of the time you spray only walls or trim using only one nozzle? Would they be willing to change from a Graco product to Titan? What if the price was only slightly higher than a Graco branded single nozzle? I’d love to hear what others have to say about this innovative tip.
Here’ a picture of a touch up. I took this with my phone so excuse the quality.
When touch ups go bad
I went out to see this place, fortunately they are doing some renovations to make the place look really nice and saw this example of an old touch up. It looks like some roofing material dripped down on to this catwalk wall face and someone came back around to blot it out. I would like to think that it looked good at the time, but it sure looks bad now. It is undetermined if this is the same paint with a badly contaminated brush and roller or a different paint without any mildew resistance. I think the lesson here is to use the same paint or a high quality paint during maintenance.
Graco is hyping their sprayers this month with some great specials – specials we haven’t seen for 2 years! Cash Back or FREE RAC X LTX Tips. With the purchase of a contractor grade sprayer from a 390 stand to a 595 high-boy you can get $75 or 5 free tips directly from the factory. Bigger units from the 695 to the GH300 offers 12 free LTX tips.
Purchase one of Graco’s most popular Electric or Gas Airless Sprayers* and get
Cash Back† OR Free RAC X™ Tips – THE CHOICE IS YOURS! Offer valid from August 22 – September 30, 2011. USA ONLY *Gas sprayers are made in the U.S.A. with Honda® Engines. †Select models only. See back of coupon for details.
I had to visit a modest sized office building recently. It is just three stories with five 0r six suites per floor. Walking into the ground floor lobby I smelled the aroma of fresh latex paint. Isn’t that a great smell? To me it smells of newness, success, renovation and gives me positive energy. I pushed the button for the second floor.
Stepping out of the elevator and into the hallway that same smell became immediately overpowering and offensive. It was really strong and irritating. After walking the length of the hall back and forth I realized I was on the wrong floor, my destination was up on the third level, thank goodness. Retreating into the elevator the odor seemed to come in for the ride. During the meeting I was in I wondered about the painter downstairs.
Afterwards, I stopped on the second floor again this time on purpose. I didn’t recognize the painter as one of our regulars. He looked like a handyman or brother-in-law type in jean shorts and nondescript t-shirt. He was working out of a tray and whatever paint he was rolling out wasn’t obvious. The stairwell doors on either end of the hall were shut. Although he had spent time to mask the baseboards with blue tape there wasn’t a drop-cloth apparent. At any rate, I walked up to him and said “Now I understand why they make low VOC paints”. His response was classic, “That’s why I have the fan on”. Stirring the stink I thought to myself as I left.
This event is fairly typical, I suppose. Here’s a guy in a closed environment with three gallons of chemicals stirring around and he is breathing it for several hours. He doesn’t have the sense to vent the air out the stairwells or, giving the benefit of doubt, maybe the doors trigger alarms when opened. It can’t be good for him or comfortable for the tenants on the floor. Tales of office workers running for the exits came to mind behind my reddening eyes.
Why aren’t painters insisting on low/no VOC paint? Every paint company has at least one low VOC paint line, some more than others. Ben Moore has half a dozen full lines of low/no VOC coatings and they are introducing more every other month. The paints have been around a long time now, folks should know by now they have a choice.
Is it the price? With all the choices available, prices can range middle to high. Moore’s Advance line of interior waterborne alkyd costs less than their solvent based paints.
Maybe it is the working properties. The low/no VOC paints work differently. They typically dry faster and that makes for differences in painting techniques. This can be overcome with experience which is going to happen sooner than later. The future is rolling ahead right now, where will you be when it arrives?
Just because a painters may be inured to the fumes it doesn’t mean they’re immune. And, even if they’re not bothered or discomforted, shouldn’t the customer’s experience factor in to the product choice?
I have to go address a group of young architects tomorrow. The last time a was at one of these things it wasn’t particularly motivational. it occurs to me that talking about paint is likely worse for some folks that watching it dry. Really, few people can get motivated by specifications and tech data sheets. Paint is more exciting than that right? Should visionaries focus on dry film thickness – I think NOT! They need to create impact, comfort, and mood.
First impressions make an impact.
Paint, as far as I’m concerned is a cosmetic; it sits on the surface and enhances the structure. It is not the architecture but it is what the public sees. I’m not talking Roddy McDowall in POTA, more like Malclom McDowell in A Clockwork Orange. A little face paint makes him appear either menacing or innocent. Or, if you’ve ever seen a celebrity before and after makeup you know what a big difference it can make. Google “celebrities without make up” or use this LINK to see Jessica Alba in shots that show some before and after effects. The same goes for interiors and exteriors of homes and businesses.
Likewise a building can transform dramatically using color and texture. See pictures of Jessica Alba’s interior decorating before and after HERE. But better yet Fresh Coat Painting in Portland has pictures of rooms where paint and paint alone has given the the room a vastly different feel. The web is full of these kinds of picture comparisons on all kinds of building styles.
Paint has reached the technological threshold where designers and artists can conceive spectacular beauty and, with the right products, get long-term durability. Which products? Those kinds of questions come later in the process now after “What do you want it to look like?”.
As I write this, there is a huge winter storm raging across the mid-Atlantic and eastern seaboard states. In Miami, this is some of the best weather for painting, cool and dry and no worries for rain. Even the bugs aren’t bad at this time of year.
I remember a while ago, a long time ago seeing the Audubon Home down in Key West and being impressed with the condition of the civil war era wooden house in an inhospitable environment. Hurricanes and years of rain and rot had done their worst and yet the place looked superbly well preserved. Of course, part of that is a regimen of upkeep a museum must do to preserve its focal point but, besides that, there is a structural soundness and philosophy built into it the house that helps it weather the ages. Sloping steps and other water shedding and redirection work to keep moisture from accumulating on it.
When we were on the porch, the guide said that they painted the porch ceiling blue to mimic the blue sky overhead, how nice. This memory was brought back by an issue of Practical Sailor magazine in which someone wrote in response to an article about keeping bugs out that spiders won’t build webs on blue paint. A quick googling resulted in a minimum of returns but it seems this idea has been around since a couple of hundred years ago. Some folks believe it works and some don’t saying that it is a only nice notion. There was a picture on a blog showing a mud-dauber wasp building a nest on a blue ceiling.
What if bugs don’t like a particular shade of blue, did it mimic the sky so well that they wouldn’t go there? What else about the blues used back then could have repelled bugs? I think the insects didn’t mind the color but what if the blue pigments in the paint from that era were mildly toxic and the bugs were affected by it? According to Wikipedia, Prussian Blue is synthesized using ferrocyanide which isn’t particularly toxic to humans because the iron tightly bonds the cyanide component. Still that word cyanide carries some weight, especially with smaller creatures. Other blue pigments composed of toxic metals such as cobalt and manganese have been used to color paints, maybe it was one of these that did the job. It seems reasonable enough to me that it some pigments could be toxic to bugs and mixed into paints or whitewashes could protect ceilings and such from becoming homes to these critters.
Lots of other metallic pigments have been banned or only allowed in very specific instances. Lead is well known for its role as a paint pigment and has been banned in consumer paints for forty years. Chromates and cadmium are no longer being used, many others have been replaced with less toxic or non-toxic substitutes.
What if you want the toxicity? The blue colorants available today are non-toxic. With the bedbug problem in New York and other major cities, I would think that Walla Walla’s Bug Juice would be a big seller there. Unlike Diazanon based insecticide additives, Bug Juice is safe enough to use in interior places like clothes cabinets and even pantries. Its formula kills a variety of pests and is safe for surfaces where kids and pets are likely to frequent. I don’t know that the blue pigments used in the past prevented bugs infestations; it could be the blue color just hid the dirt or it was a nice color that looked like the sky.
We had a local customer call the other day who was looking on our web site for a painter to do some work for her. Since then I have put up a page with a classified ads format so visitors can look for painters and painters can put up a link for free. Click on the tab at the top that says Contractor Listings.
If you are a contractor or painter who wants to put your name and email on our list, please feel free to do so. Be sure to put on your state and city so local folks can find you.
And if there are other categories that should be added, post a comment and let me know.
