Paint Touch-Ups: A Demonstration

Today I want to demonstrate some helpful tips for touching up your wall paint. Stay tuned!

If the paint on your home’s walls needs some TLC to look its very best, then stick around: Today we’re going to demonstrate how to touch up paint so that your home will shine.

In this particular property, the painters applied two coats of paint on everything and after the final touch-up coat, they left the remaining paint behind in a bucket. It’s very important to save this bucket, even if it’s empty. If you ever need to get additional paint to touch up your walls, then knowing exactly what batch number of paint to mix will allow you to get the color you need. Without that, the batch you do purchase could be slightly off, meaning your walls will not match.

Beyond that, anyone who plans to touch up their walls should have these essential tools on hand:

• 5-in-1 tool. This tool can help you scrape, spread compound, clean your rollers, remove putty, and open cracks.  

• Paint rollers. These come in all sizes to suit any of your projects. You can use a 12-inch roller to paint a whole wall, or a smaller one to touch up just a few spots. Regardless of the roller’s size, if you’re only touching up a small part of the wall, be sure to use less paint—you won’t have to blend as much.

• TIMELESS paint. True flat paints can smudge when you touch them, but the TIMELESS paint has intrinsic cleaning properties and doesn’t smudge as easily.

• Foam/felt rollers. These are good for touching up paint on trims and allow you to match bumpy textured surfaces.

• Worcester brushes. There are a variety of these, but a good, quality brush will carry you a long way. With the less expensive brushes, the bristles tend to fall out. Worcester brushes last for quite a long time.

• Paddle mixer/drill. This combination will help you to mix your paint from the bottom to the top of the pail, especially if it’s full. For smaller amounts of paint, you can use a traditional stir stick, or you can slosh it around in the bucket to mix it up.

• Paint rolling tray. This will allow you to control how much paint is on your roller/brush so you don’t apply too much to your walls.

If you have any questions about touching up your paint, feel free to reach out to us. We’d be glad to advise you on tools and techniques that will make your home look as good as new. In the meantime, check out the model homes on our website!

How to Deal With Basement Moisture in Your Charleston Home

Moisture is common in any new home, but too much moisture can lead to mold and a host of other problems. Here’s how to prevent that.

Today our Warranty Manager Shaun Sterba is here to talk about your new home and the moisture levels in your basement.

Depending on when your home was built, there are certain times of the year that your home will have a slightly higher moisture content. Generally, the first year living in any new home will see elevated moisture levels whether your basement is finished or unfinished. This has a lot to do with all the building products that go into the home which elevate the moisture content.

During the rainy season or high-humidity days of summer, there will be higher levels of moisture in your basement.

The air conditioner will take some of it away, but you also might have to supplement it using a dehumidifier to remove that warm, moist air that will collect and give off a damp feel or musty odor.

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It’s really important to control the moisture in your basement.

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In my own house, I use a hydrometer to check my moisture levels in the basement. Basically, you need something that is going to give you a moisture content reading. It allows me to check the moisture levels outside and in my basement at the same time. Any time your moisture is about 50% or 55%, you'll probably want to run a dehumidifier. There are a variety of devices that can do this for you and can be relatively inexpensive. 
 
It’s really important to control your moisture, especially if you’re storing things down there. Rubber totes will protect your items much better than cardboard, which is more susceptible to mold.

If you have any further questions for Shaun or anyone else on our team, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.