Paint issue resolved

Here's the paint scoop...and surprisingly I didn't get all mad...or upset...or get my blood pressure up.  I have, however, lost a lot of faith in people actually doing their job. I don't even expect people to do a 'good' job, I just want them to do their job! Customer service is a thing of the past.

I went to the paint store first, with the peeling bases and caps.

I thought maybe it was a paint issue. 

While talking to the paint store manager, he actually peeled a cap almost clean.  He listened and he was the one that helped me in the first place, with the manufacturer's instructions in hand.  So, he called Menard's, where we bought the bases and caps, and got the name of someone to call at the manufacturing plant. 

After a week I went back to the paint store. 
The paint store manager (PSM) was told to call "Kent", at the manufacturing plant.  He did.  Three times in one week, and never received a return phone call. Ever.   Left three messages.  THEN, he called Menard's back to get another number.  He got a number for Kim, who transferred his call to Kent's voice mail, who never returns phone calls.

So the PSM advised me to go to Menards with the caps and bases and tell them that we cannot get a response from the manufacturer and ask them to exchange them.  I did.  They exchanged them. But they only had two pair in stock, so I had to drive to Carmel (about an hour) to get the other two pair.  I didn't want to put it off lest they change their minds.

In the meantime, the PSM gave me a gallon of paint, because now I have to re-prime and paint them.

I told Menard's to get in touch with the manufacturer and let them know about this problem...which I doubt they do. 

I'm ok with the way it turned out.  It's more work for me.  But I didn't have to re-buy the product at $50.00 a pair. 

Cindy

Painting issue

 After painting these porch columns and bases and caps in place, we decided the best thing to do was to paint all of the columns on the unfinished porch we have left.  And put all of the bases and caps on a table and paint them, then touch up any scratches.  It's just too hard painting them in place, and covering everything, to make sure we don't get paint on cement or wood. 

 So Dave braces them to the porch so they won't fall over,

 and roughs them up with a palm sander.

 Then I clean them with a vinegar and water solution,

 and paint them with Latex paint.

   Deeeeep......cleansing.....breaths....because we are so tired of  these things.

 And remember the oil based paint I returned?  Because I didn't like the way the paint looked on the bases and caps...Well here you go.



What do you think...would you be happy with this?  They all turned out this way, and that's not the worst of it.  Dave had a couple of the posts set, and he called me to the porch.
 
 Yup, it's already peeling off.  SO...AFTER MUCH DISCUSSION...because I didn't want to leave it that way and as you can imagine, he's tired of re-doing everything....
 
 he took the oil painted bases and caps off of the porch. 

 

 

 I've been peeling the paint off of all of these so I can re-clean, prime, and paint them. 

 But I am visiting the paint store this afternoon.  This is ridiculous.  I e-mailed them and their response was to call or come in.  I'll be nice, but I want some sort of compensation.
 
What do you think would be fair?

  My first inclination was to have them replace the bases and caps which would be $350.00.  These things cost $50 a pair and I painted 7 pair with their paint.  I already removed the paint from some of them, so my second thought was to have them remove the paint from the rest of them and re-clean, prime and paint them.  But the truth is, they probably won't do either.  What are your thoughts.

 I used this primer that is recommended in the manufacturer's instructions and is expensive.  $20 bills for that little can.  And all of the latex painted bases turned out perfect.

 So he is working on the upper balcony as much as he can, and trying to work around the painting issue

 and I'm trying to get stuff painted so he can get these porches finished. 

 
Someone asked me what our time deadline was to get moved in.  We are moved in!
Our time deadline....to get these porches finished before snow hits!

Cindy

Still working on porches....still

 So here's where we are on the porches. 

 He got all of the ends reinforced....

 And most of the wood decking has been laid.

 Now read carefully.....

first of all.....go to THIS POST about 7-8 pictures down and read the part where it starts out...."The other thing we have actually lost sleep over....."  

Then you will understand this part.

 So, if you look directly down at the corner of the deck in the above pic

 or on the end here, or look in the below pic, you see these three cement beam thingys (pylons?) that go into the ground.  I was here the day they were pouring these.  They are HUGE and long.

 And they are holding this up. 

 That, and these beams which are about to bust...

 If you look closely you can see the cracks and bends in them.  Yes, it is past time to get these porches done. 

 

If the porches go down, this entire end of the house goes down.  

And back to the big beam thingys, well one end settled 3/4 of an inch, as we suspected.  

Did you read the other post mentioned above? It explains it.

 That 3/4 of an inch probably explains this.....

And I've been priming and painting these bases and caps for columns.  One coat of prime, two coats of paint.  I had to move them all inside, because you are supposed to use oil based paint on them.  Well, the paint doesn't dry before the bugs and such get all over them and stick to the paint.  So after the second coat of paint, I had to sand all the bugs off.  Then apply the third coat.  I don't like the way they've turned out, and since I have this many more to go, I took the paint back (the unopened paint) and bought latex.  It's very complicated with the whole column thing. You have to prime the caps with XIM ($20.00 a quart) and then paint them, because they are plastic.  The columns are fiberglass, which require a different primer (cheaper) or you can sand them down.  If you sand the columns down, you can use latex.  If you don't sand them, you have to use oil.  Oil paint sucks.  (that is the blog authors opinion, and not necessarily the opinion of others!)  

Cindy

Prepping for porches

We are preparing to work on the front porches now.

 We've spent a long time....days...weeks actually....trying to find some composite decking that is the color we want for our balconies/porches/decks..whatever you want to call them.  We wanted the old-fashioned gray southern porch color. ( Or is it grEy?  A or E?) And I thought we found it.

 But we also found this wood color composite decking and we liked it too.  But the grey is traditional.  But wood is richer looking....but we want the southern porch look....I've been Pinteresting a lot of Southern Porches....

 Gray/Grey it is....then Saturday morning Dave woke up and said, "I slept on it, and we're going with wood decking.  I read about that decking last night and it's composed of plastic and sawdust, and they discourage you from cutting it.  I have to cut it to make it fit up around the doors.  the warranty is only for ten years, not a lifetime.  Our decking is under roof so the wood won't fade like most......waaah waaaah waaaaah."

 I couldn't believe that he was changing his mind after all of this time we spent looking!  Apparently this decking is 5 times more expensive than wood. 

 And we are wondering now why we didn't think to have the decks poured concrete, like the back one.  We weren't thinking about them at the time, that's why.  First step was to smooth out all of this dirt under the deck.  And to raise the porch level just a tad, on the east side, as it has 'settled' a bit.  Really?  Should we worry about that, since this porch is holding the entire East end of the house up. 

Back to porch prep.....Gather (purchase) supplies....

And to stand a column up, and second, third and fourth guess yourselves on whether it's the right size...too big...too small...how many do we need....

 Let me see.....one, two, three, four....5, 6, 7, 8...

 9, 10, 11, 12...two in the back....

 Do we need any on the sides of the balcony...

 And paint the framing gray (I'm going with A) color.

 And to add some braces to the other end of the deck because it never was done when the deck was framed.  Who knows why...

 And to make a trip out of town to buy more of these because the local supplier is out and won't get any more in until August 1.

 And have the big one when he rings one box of them up as $48.00 and you need.....how many.....let's see....14?...maybe more!  Good grief!

And now....maybe now....we can get started on one of the front porches.

Oh and I might add, that when my Shug unhooked the trailer from the truck, the trailer flew up and this hitch missed his nose a hair....peeps...I'm a little worried about him doing that upper balcony.

I am.

Cindy