Painter's Handbook

Book excerpt: This complete guide explains what painters and paint contractors need to know to thrive in the paint contracting business. It's loaded with how-to information you'll use every day when preparing surfaces for coating, applying paints, bidding jobs and running your paint contracting company: Doing Professional Quality Work: Selecting the right tools, preparing all types of surfaces. Tips for repainting kitchens, bathrooms, cabinets, eaves and porches, handling new construction, getting good results from your airless spray rig, and much more Paint Problems and Their Cure: Why coatings fail, testing for blisters, chalking, poor adhesion and condensation, removing all types of stains, what to do about voids, skips, holidays, pulls, wrinkles, color changes, gloss spots, streaks, yellowing, peeling, alligatoring, powdering, chipping, checking, cracking, fish eyes, graining, roller stipple, water stains and fire damage.Using the Right Paint and Color: Avoiding paint oxidation, chalking, and fading, creating special effects, using stains, varnishes, lacquer, shellac, plastics, preservatives and primers, avoiding customer complaints about color match, tried and true color schemes for every job, cutting costs by mixing your own colors, making touch-ups blend in perfectly.Setting Up Your Business: Selecting your area and specialty, where to get start-up cash and how much you need, protecting yourself with insurance, controlling expenses, staying legal, getting top value for your advertising dollar, typical budgets for paint contractors, keeping your paperwork straight, tracking job expenses.Finding Your Gravy Train: Over 30 profitable specialty painting businesses you shouldconsider, how to sell the job, estimating areas, material quantities and labor costs for walls, overhangs, gables, molding, trim doors and windows.