Exterior Paint: Slow But Sure

With all third floor windows but the turret repaired, we turned our attention to the eaves and trim.  Once April showers subsided, it was time to get serious about the exterior!  We hired a painter who does quite a bit of work in our neighborhood, Robert Mills.

Robert began on the south side of the house and worked his way around, stripping off all of the old paint using a torch.

Painting over all that cracked and peeling paint would have been completely futile, and one of the reasons we like Robert's work is because of his patience and his desire to see a perfect finished product.

The north side of the house had some serious issues, including a large portion of missing soffit that had been allowing pigeons access to our attic on occasion.  What a relief to replace missing trim and get the attic realtively "sealed" again!  Rob also reinforced some inadequate roof supports and made lovely mahogany sills to replace the old, rotted sills under the north windows.

In addition to damaged soffits and sills, many of the dentils were rotted or missing.

No problem!

Metal flashings were all a mess

- but not anymore!

Stripping all that old paint was slow, tedious work and unfortunately, when Robert reached the final side, the large west gable, he found the shingles too dry and friable to be stripped with heat.  The shingles had been exposed to so much weather with so little maintenance that they were shot.

We began the search for 6 inch round and arrow shingles but were disappointed to discover that in the 1950s, shingles dropped to a standard 5 inch size.  Websites that promised they would do "custom" work did not really mean totally custom.  What to do?  What I relate to you next is exactly why Rob is the perfect person to care for this house....

Most people would have just used 5 inch shingles. Who would notice the difference?  Actually, many people might not have realized how poor the condition of the original shingles was, would have done a bit of scraping, and painted over the rot and old checked paint.  So what does a perfectionist of modest means do?

We bought bundles of cedar shingles that come in a variety of widths. Rob cut each shingle to 6 inches in width, then created jigs for the round and arrow shapes.  He cut more than 1000 brand new shingles and sanded each to smooth the normally rough surfaces.

Want a sneak peek at how they will look when installed?

Almost too pretty to paint!