Alexander’s  restaurant at the Catoctin inn was built in 1890. On this project we had to remoc the loose flaking paint from the brick structure, wood trim and original wood shutters.  Because the historic brick and sand based mortar was so soft due to age, we could not pressure was the home, so we hand scraped the brick and misted the suurface with water to prevent airborne dust. We scraped the loose flaking paint back to what we call a “tight edge” meaning until the loose paint is no longer loose and the remaining paint has proper adhesion to the substrate.

Once the loose paint was removed and the loose flaking pain was removed and the paint chips were cleaned up, we have the brick a rinse with the garden hose, some jomax a house wash and mildew killer. We then used a soft bristle brush and scrubbed the hose and rinse to get her clean and ready for McCormick paint Permalok masonry primer, flowed by a coat of  McCormick paintGeneration, exterior satin house and trim paint.

While on part of the paint production team worked on the body of the house, other team member, worked on the shutters, wood trim, soffit, columns, railings, windows and all other wood trim. We started by removing the shutter, hand scraping with a water mist to control airborne dust, washed with soap and water to remove dirt and dust, then primed with Zinnser, Cover stain, oil based primer. We used a specialty oil base primer on all bare wood surfaces, because acrylic and water base do not hold back or “block” tannin blending. We simply sprayed the primer on both sides, edges, tops and bottoms.  On the wood trim, columns and handrails, the cover stain primer was applied using Purdy, white china bristle 2.5 inch brushes. White china bristle brushes are the softest bristle on the market and prevent brush marks.

Once  the primer dried, we sprayed the shutter with McCormick state house exterior semi gloss enamel. The shutter  Olof is from the historic color collection with a color called Georgetown green. The trim was painted with the same product using super white.  The porch ceiling was painted in a custom soft sky blue, we used soft sky blue, buecuase birds do not make nest on top of the columns under the ceiling becuase the blue looks like the sky and they are tricked and move on.

After the coating dried the shutters were reinstalled, protective covers were removed, windows were cleaned. We only had a time frame of 7 days for the whole processs while the  restaurants close for us annual freshening up.