The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
House Painting
The door- and window-casings, corner boards, and the like, are collectively called the "trim"; the majority of painters do not paint these until they have laid on the body color, but some good painters advise painting the trim first. Of course the cornice is always painted first of all, as paint may drip from the brush on the wall below. The trim, which is usually painted a different color or shade, amounts, on an ordinary house, to one-fourth or one- third the whole; it should be carefully estimated beforehand. A good man will cover 800 square feet in ten hours, if painting from a ladder; 1100 to 1500 square feet if painting from a platform; but on intricate surfaces, like piazzas, very much less. Some painters regard these figures as rather high; there are great differences in houses.
Wall-shingles are sometimes, but not usually, painted; they are often colored with a shingle-stain, which is a coloring matter dissolved or suspended in a volatile liquid called creosote, in which the shingles are dipped. Roof-shingles are sometimes dipped in linseed oil and allowed to dry before using. Tin or other metal roofs are difficult to paint, because the tin has an imperceptible coating of grease, or of some chemical substance used in its manufacture, which prevents the adhesion of paint; if this is removed by thoroughly scrubbing the surface with soap and water, or with coarse cloths wet with benzine, the paint will then adhere. Galvanized iron rain-spouts and gutters are to be treated the same way, otherwise paint will not stick to galvanized iron until it has been some time in use. Roof-paint should contain no turpentine and little or no drier, and should be rich in oil. "Fire- proof paint," sometimes used on shingle roofs, is made by adding to a gallon of any good paint about a pound of powdered boracic acid. This is not really fire-proof, but retards the spread of fire; the heat fuses the boracic acid to a sort of glass, which keeps out the air. It is of no value until it gets thoroughly dry, and in the course of a year or two the acid is washed out by the rain; for a time it has considerable effect.
Canvas roofs and floors are made thus: the canvas is nailed down, avoiding any large wrinkles, but paying no attention to small ones. Then wet it thoroughly with water; the cloth will shrink and be perfectly smooth. It is customary to apply white lead paint while still wet; but it may be allowed to dry before painting, as the wrinkles do not come back.
As to paints not based on lead or zinc, they are dark in color, made with inert pigments, and are usually very durable, more so than the lead and zinc paints.
