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Some tips related to siding installation, restoration, maintenance and painting:

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Why are all the cool kids talking about cedar?

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If you live in Saratoga Springs or areas nearby and your house has wood siding, then chances are that you have cedar siding. The two common styles of cedar siding in our area are cedar shakes and cedar clapboard. Cedar is a wood species just like pine and douglas fir. But why is cedar so commonly used as siding material instead of the other wood types? Well, unlike the others, cedar has some unique properties that make it well suited for exterior use. Unlike pine, which is a much more affordable alternative, cedar does not rot nearly as fast. Cedar has natural oils that form within the wood grain which act as a sealer. That means that even if you don’t paint or stain the cedar siding, it already has very good weather resisting properties. That is not the case with pine. Pine must be primed and stained/painted for it to last any reasonable period of time. For this reason, David’s Building & Design almost exclusively uses cedar for siding and exterior trim installation and repairs. PVC is also a good option for exterior trim use but that is a subject for another article. That is a summary for why cedar is so commonly used. If you would like to know more feel free to contact us at any time!

Cedar green facts

Picking the right colors

Are you having trouble picking the perfect colors? Sherwin Williams has two great apps that could make the process a whole lot easier!

Color Visualizer for iPad

Color Visualizer for phones

Which paint brand should you use?

There are three important factors that make up a successful exterior painting project:

  1. Preparation

  2. Paint quality

  3. Experience

Even though we know that preparation is the single most critical aspect of getting the job done right, it will be discussed in a separate article. The second most important thing to having your paint last is the paint quality. Unfortunately, most people wrongly assume that all paints are practically the same in terms of how well they are made. That is just not true. Every gallon of paint that you purchase has varying amounts of pigments, binders, liquids and additives that effect the characteristics and performance of the paint mixture. Just like for any other products, companies can use better or worse ingredients or components to make something that you will eventually buy. Therefore, the best paint on the market is the one that has the best collection of ingredients that cater to a specific use, like to paint siding.   

 

So what is the best paint on the market? Surprisingly, many painting contractors don’t have a strong opinion on this matter. The ones that do have a preference usually base it on how much it costs, lasts and covers the surface. The important thing to realize is that each application and situation is different and so there cannot be a single type of paint that is best for every case.  Instead of talking about our personal experience with what we think is the best type of paint, how about we jump directly into the results of a 2016 J.D. Power study that has been done.

So based on this report its clear that the top three exterior paint companies are:

  1. Sherwin Williams

  2. Benjamin Moore

  3. BEHR

J.D. Power study about best exterior grade paint brand

We can’t stop at these results however, since they only determine which paint companies have better overall customer satisfaction. A very important thing to keep in mind for most people is price. For those that are concerned about pricing, here is a general breakdown of what the average cost of paint is for each of the companies from most expensive to least expensive:

  1. Sherwin Williams

  2. Benjamin Moore

  3. BEHR

Some people also highly value customer satisfaction so here is another J.D. Power survey that show which companies are the best in that respect:

J.D. Power study about best customer satisfaction among major paint brands

Summary: The surprising thing is that even though a gallon of Sherwin Williams paint is on average more expensive than Benjamin Moore’s or BEHR’s customers were still more satisfied by it than by the other two companies. It actually makes complete sense though since a higher quality product would cost more money to produce. I guess that the winner of this discussion is Sherwin Williams since it takes the first place in the customer satisfaction for both their exterior paints and their customer satisfaction. At Davids Building & Design we almost exclusively use Sherwin Williams for this exact reason. We have used this brand for many years and from our experience it is the best product to use in order to achieve a long-lasting finish. Our philosophy is that spending a little extra money up front for higher quality paint pays off in the future because our clients will be satisfied and we will be sure that the paint will last for a very long time.  

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