Getting a Riverside House Ready Before the Paint Crew Arrives
Most of the trouble on a painting job starts before the crew pulls the first lid. A house that is half cleared, a gate that is locked, a sprinkler that comes on at six in the morning: each one costs the crew an hour, and in Riverside, CA an hour in the cool part of the day is worth more than any other. What follows covers what a paint crew expects to find when it arrives, and what a homeowner can do the day before to let the work start on time.
What should be moved away from the walls before painters arrive?
Anything within about four feet of an exterior wall. That means patio furniture, planters, bikes, hoses on reels, trash bins, grills and decorative items hung on stucco. A crew can move a few pieces, but a yard full of furniture turns the first morning into a moving job, and the paint hour that gets lost is the cool one. Items that cannot be moved, such as a built-in barbecue or a heavy stone planter, get covered with plastic and taped down.
Inside, the rule is similar. Furniture should be pulled to the middle of each room or into another room entirely. Pictures, mirrors, curtain rods and shelves come off the walls. Small holes from hangers are fine, since the crew fills them with spackle, but a framed mirror left on a hook is one wobble from a crack. Closets that are being painted get emptied, and bedroom dressers can stay if they are cleared of loose items and the crew can slide them.
Why does access matter so much on a hot-weather job?
Because the schedule is built around shade. On a typical Riverside house the east side is painted first, the north side next, then the south and west once the sun has moved past them. If a side gate is locked, a dog is loose in the back or a pool fence latches from the inside, the crew loses the window for that wall. By the time the gate opens, the wall is in direct sun and the work has to wait for the next morning.
A homeowner can help by unlocking gates, putting pets inside or in a room with the door closed, and leaving a clear path to the water spigot and the electrical outlet. Painters need water for cleanup and power for a sprayer or a pressure washer. A garage left open for the day is useful for storing ladders, cans and drop cloths, and it keeps tools off the lawn.
What about sprinklers and landscaping?
Sprinklers deserve a call before the job starts. A timer that runs at dawn will soak a wall that was washed the day before, and moisture in stucco is the quickest way to ruin a primer coat. The usual practice is to turn the irrigation off for the days the crew is on site, and for a day or two after, so the walls stay dry while the paint cures. The timer can go back on once the last coat is hard.
Plants near the house get trimmed back if they touch the wall. A branch that rubs against fresh paint leaves marks, and a vine that grips stucco pulls paint off when it is removed later. Trimming a week ahead is better than the morning of, since cut stems and leaves have to be swept up and the wall has to dry from any washing. Climbing roses and jasmine can be tied back with soft twine, then released once the work is done.
Do painters need the house empty?
No, but a few rooms behave differently when the family is home. Interior painting is easier in an empty house because the crew can open windows, run fans and move around without watching for children and pets. A family that stays can still be comfortable if the crew works room by room and finishes each one before moving on. Bedrooms are usually painted first so they can air out for the night.
Low-odor latex and acrylic products have made living in a house during painting far more bearable than it used to be, but smell still travels. Anyone with breathing problems should plan to be elsewhere for the day, with the crew leaving windows open when the afternoon wind is calm. Oil based primers and enamels for trim and cabinets have a stronger smell, and a crew will say ahead of time if they are in the plan.
How does a crew treat older houses?
With extra care. Houses near Mount Rubidoux, around the Mission Inn and in the older neighborhoods north of downtown have often been painted many times over the decades. Layers of paint add up, and the oldest layers may include lead. General practice on these houses is to test suspect paint, set up plastic sheeting under the work area, scrape wet instead of sanding dry and clean up with a HEPA vacuum. A homeowner can help by keeping children and pets away from the work zone and by staying out of the yard while scraping is under way.
Windows on older houses sometimes stick, and the crew needs to open them to paint the sash and frame. Painting them shut is a common complaint on old homes. If a window has been painted closed for years, the crew will score the paint line with a utility knife and free it before painting, and then move the sash while the paint is wet so it does not seal itself again.
What happens on the first morning?
The crew arrives early, usually before the sun is over the Box Springs Mountains, and walks the house with the homeowner or the supervisor. Everyone looks at the areas that need repair, such as cracks in the stucco, rotted fascia and loose trim. Colors are confirmed against sample boards on the wall, since a color on a card looks different in direct Riverside sun than it does in a kitchen. Sheen is confirmed too, because the same color looks different in flat than in satin.
Then the setup begins. Drop cloths go down along every wall, plants get covered, windows are masked if the crew will spray, and the ladders come off the truck. The first washing or scraping starts on the shaded side. By midmorning the crew is usually into surface repair, patching and caulk, and the first coat of primer on bare spots goes on before the heat builds.
How long should a typical exterior take?
That depends on the size, the condition of the surface and the weather. A small single-story stucco house may take a few working days, and a larger two-story with a lot of trim can take over a week. Rain in winter and heat in summer both stretch the schedule, because paint cannot go on a wet wall or a scorching one. A good crew explains the order of work at the start, so the homeowner knows which side will be done on which day and when the last coat is expected.
Prep takes more of the schedule than painting does. Washing, scraping, sanding, caulking and priming can fill the first half of the job, and rushing it is the usual reason a paint job fails early. The paint itself goes on quickly with a sprayer and a back-roller, and trim goes on by brush at its own pace. Two coats are standard, with enough dry time between them for the first coat to harden.
What should be done at the end of each day?
The crew cleans up before leaving. Masking tape comes off while the paint is still soft, brushes and rollers are rinsed, cans are closed and stacked out of the sun, and chips and drips are picked up. Drop cloths are shaken out and folded or moved. A walk around the yard at the end of the day catches overspray before it dries. The homeowner should find the yard usable at night, with the gate closed, the pets safe and the paths clear.
It helps to take a look at the day's work in the evening light. Lap marks, missed spots and thin coverage show up when the sun is low, and a note to the supervisor the next morning is easier to deal with than a complaint after the job is finished. A good crew expects it and fixes small problems on the spot before packing up the ladders.
What does a finished job leave behind?
A clean, dry house with sharp lines at the trim, no paint on the glass, no drips on the patio and no chips in the flower beds. The preparation at the start decides most of it, and a house that is cleared, unlocked and dry gives the crew its best chance.