Homeowner guides
What we would tell you on the estimate visit, written down: how to check your own trim for rot, when the painting season really is, what each paint finish is for, and what actually sets the price.
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Written, itemized, fixed price — usually within two business days of the visit.
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They answer the questions Massachusetts homeowners ask before hiring a painter: whether the trim is rotted, when exterior work can be done, which finish goes where, and why estimates differ. They describe how houses and paint behave, so they are useful whoever you hire for the job.
Wood rot & carpentry6 min read
Paint hides rot for about a season. Five minutes with a screwdriver tells you whether the wood under it is sound, and whether your painter needs to be a carpenter too.
Typical time (average): About 5 minutes per side of the house
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Exterior painting5 min read
The exterior season here runs from late spring to mid-fall, but the calendar is only half of it. Surface temperature, dew and the hours paint needs to dry decide which days actually work.
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Exterior painting5 min read
Two houses the same size on the same street can be priced very differently, and both prices can be fair. Here is what actually moves the number, and how to tell a real estimate from a guess.
Adds most time (average): Scraping, priming and rot repair
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Exterior painting7 min read
A good exterior paint job lasts years, not decades, and not every part of the house wears at the same rate. Here is what to expect surface by surface, and what quietly shortens the clock.
Lasts (average): About 7–10 years on painted clapboard
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Exterior painting7 min read
Cedar shingles can be left to weather, stained to show the grain, solid-stained or painted. Each looks different, wears differently and commits you to a different kind of upkeep.
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Exterior painting7 min read
Peeling paint is a symptom. Repaint without finding the cause and the new coat fails in the same place, usually within a year or two. Where and how it peels tells you most of what you need to know.
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Exterior painting7 min read
Old paint is usually harmless while it stays put. Scraping, sanding or power-washing it is what turns lead into dust, and that is why painting a pre-1978 house is a different job.
Typical time (average): Longer than the same job without lead
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Exterior painting7 min read
The colors that look right on a house usually start with its architecture, not a paint chip. Here is how to pick a palette by style, assign each color a job, and test it in real New England light.
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Exterior painting7 min read
Vinyl siding can take paint and look good for years, but only with the right paint, a careful cleaning, and a color that will not overheat the panels. Here is how to tell whether painting or replacing makes more sense.
Lasts (average): Many years with vinyl-rated paint
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Interior painting7 min read
Paint is sold by the gallon but used by the square foot. Measure the walls, subtract the doors and windows, double it for two coats, and the label does the rest.
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Interior painting7 min read
Sheen decides how a wall looks in raking light, how well it survives a sponge and how obvious every dent becomes. Here is how to choose, surface by surface.
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Interior painting7 min read
There is no expiry date on wall paint. A guest room can look fine for a decade while a hallway with kids and a dog wears through in a few years. Here is how to judge each room.
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Interior painting7 min read
Painting over wallpaper looks like the shortcut, and sometimes it is. More often the seams show, the paper bubbles, and the next person to take it off has a much harder job.
Typical time (average): An afternoon to days per wall
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Interior painting7 min read
Scraping off a popcorn ceiling is messy but simple — once you know what it is made of. The first step is a lab test, not a scraper.
Typical time (average): Room out of use for several days
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Interior painting7 min read
Most interior wall paint sold today is low in VOCs, and some is labelled zero. Here is what those words promise, what they do not, and how to paint a bedroom in January without living in the smell.
Dry to touch (average): About an hour; recoat in a few hours
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Interior painting7 min read
Trim and doors are the surfaces people touch, bump and look at most closely, so they show every shortcut. A smooth finish comes from the prep and the order of work more than from the brush.
Dry time (average): Dry in 1–2 hours; recoat same day
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Interior painting6 min read
Two rooms the same size can take very different amounts of time to paint. Here is what actually moves an interior price, and how to read an estimate so you are comparing like with like.
Typical time (average): About a day for a simple room
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Cabinets7 min read
Paint changes how cabinets look. It does not change how they are built, where they sit or how much they hold. The decision comes down to the boxes, the doors and the layout.
Typical time (average): Painting: about 1–2 weeks
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Cabinets7 min read
Most of a cabinet paint job happens before any color goes on. Here is what a careful process looks like, how long a typical kitchen takes, and what living around it is like.
Typical time (average): About 1–2 weeks for a typical kitchen
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Cabinets7 min read
Cabinet color lives with your countertop, your floor and your light for years. The safest choices are not the trendiest, and the right white depends more on your windows than on a photo.
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Wood rot & carpentry6 min read
Paint hides rot for about a season. Five minutes with a screwdriver tells you whether the wood under it is sound, and whether your painter needs to be a carpenter too.
Typical time (average): About 5 minutes per side of the house
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Wood rot & carpentry7 min read
PVC does not rot, which makes it the obvious answer for some parts of a house and the wrong one for others. The trick is putting each material where it does best.
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Wood rot & carpentry7 min read
Fascia rot is almost always a water problem that starts somewhere else: the gutter, the drip edge or the roof. Fix the board without fixing the water and it rots again.
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Wood rot & carpentry7 min read
Exterior door frames rot from the bottom up, where water runs down and sits on the sill. Caught early, the fix is a few inches of new wood. Left alone, it can be the whole door.
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Wood rot & carpentry7 min read
Stain goes on last. Soft boards, wobbly railings and popped fasteners get fixed first, or they end up sealed under new stain and replaced a year later — along with the stain on them.
Typical time (average): About 20 minutes to inspect the deck
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Decks & washing7 min read
The right time to stain a deck depends on three things: whether the wood is dry enough to take stain, whether the weather will let it soak in and dry, and how worn the last coat is.
Recoat (average): Semi-transparent: often every 2–3 years
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Decks & washing7 min read
Choosing a deck stain is a trade-off between how much wood grain you see and how much protection you get — and the most opaque option is not always the one that lasts longest on a deck floor.
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Decks & washing7 min read
High pressure is the wrong tool for most siding. Here is what each method does, where pressure causes damage, and how washing fits into a paint job.
Dry before paint (average): At least a day or two of dry weather
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Hiring a painter6 min read
A few hours of preparation before the crew arrives keeps the job moving, protects your plants and belongings, and avoids surprises. Here is what to do, what the crew does, and what the days usually look like.
Typical time (average): Often 1–2 weeks, plus weather days
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Hiring a painter7 min read
A good crew moves and covers furniture and takes off hardware. What they cannot do is pack your china, find the cat or decide on a color at 8 a.m. Here is your half of the job.
Typical time (average): About a day a room; a house 1–2 weeks
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Hiring a painter6 min read
Most painting problems start before the first ladder goes up, with a vague estimate or a contractor nobody checked. A few lookups and the right questions take an evening and save a season.
Typical time (average): An evening of checks and calls
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Edio Aguiar comes out, looks at the actual surfaces, and puts a fixed itemized price in writing. No obligation, no sales pitch, no phone quote guessed from a photo.
