Written by Inez Calhoun, Paint & Repair Tips Editor
What we tell homeowners on estimate visits, written down: when to paint, what cracks mean, how to deal with HOA colors, and how to keep a fresh coat looking new in this climate.
12 articles
The can may promise 15 years, but a Wesley Chapel stucco wall in full sun rarely sees that. Here is what a good paint job actually gives you in Pasco County, side by side, and how to tell when yours is done.
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Almost every stucco home in Pasco County has a few cracks, and most of them are nothing to lose sleep over. The trick is telling a harmless shrinkage line from a crack that is letting water into the wall.
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In most master-planned communities around Wesley Chapel, you cannot pick any color you like for the outside of your home. Here is how the approval process generally works, so the paint crew is not standing in your driveway waiting on a letter.
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You can paint outside in Tampa Bay almost any month, but some months make it a lot easier to get a finish that lasts. Here is how a working painter plans around our dry season, afternoon storms, morning dew and the fine print on the paint can.
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Ask three painters about elastomeric coating and you may get three different answers. Both elastomeric and standard acrylic paint work on Florida stucco, but they solve different problems, and picking the wrong one can cost you money or cause moisture trouble.
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If you bought a new build in Wiregrass Ranch, Epperson or anywhere along SR 56, you probably noticed the walls scuff the first time a box brushed them. That is builder-grade paint doing exactly what it was chosen to do, and here is how to replace it without repainting the whole house at once.
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Screened pool cages are everywhere in Pasco County, and sooner or later every one looks tired. Sometimes the frame needs paint, sometimes the screen is the problem, and often it is both, done in the right order.
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Black specks on the north wall, green film behind the shrubs, a gray haze under the eaves. Mildew and algae are part of life on a Pasco County home, but they do not have to own your walls, and they should never be painted over.
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A little prep before the crew arrives makes the job faster, cleaner and often cheaper. Here is what to do yourself, what to leave alone, and what a good interior paint crew handles on its own.
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A yellow or brown ring on the ceiling is one of the most common calls we get in Wesley Chapel, especially in summer. Paint alone will not fix it, and painting too soon just hides a leak that is still going.
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The most important hour of an exterior paint job happens before anyone opens a can. On a Florida stucco home, washing decides whether the new paint grips the wall or the dirt sitting on it.
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Kitchen cabinets are one of the biggest visual changes you can make in a home, and there are three very different ways to get there. Here is how painting, refacing and full replacement compare on cost, durability and how they handle our humidity.
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