Painters in North York
Absolut Painting paints homes in North York: interiors, exteriors, trim, doors and kitchen cabinets. Two very different houses sit side by side on the same street. One is a postwar bungalow with plaster ceilings, dark stained trim and drywall that has been patched for sixty years. The other is a new rebuild with nine or ten foot ceilings, smooth level-five drywall and a single coat of builder flat paint over everything. The prep is not the same, so we walk the house before writing anything, and the quote lists each step so you know what the number covers.
North York, on the ground.
In the rebuilds around Willowdale and Bayview the walls are flat and new, which sounds easy and is not. Builder flat paint is porous and thin, so a new colour needs a proper primer coat or the finish dries uneven and shows roller marks in the long afternoon light that comes through those windows. Tall walls take extension poles and a plank for the upper cut line. In the bungalows that stay, the work is older: cracks in plaster ceilings, stained oak or mahogany trim that the owner wants white, and bulkheads with a seam that keeps opening. Each gets its own fix, written down.
The crew moves and covers furniture, protects floors and stairs, fills holes, caulks cracks, sands and spot-primes before the first coat. Two full coats, rolled and cut by hand. Doors, trim and cabinets are sprayed where the room allows a dust-free setup, brushed where it does not. Clean-up happens every day, which matters in a house you are living in while the work runs. You walk the rooms with us before the crew leaves, and a touch-up visit follows. Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams paint, a [2-year] written workmanship warranty, and John Kotlar on site leading the work.
A new build in North York looks finished and is not, because builder flat paint needs a primer coat before any real colour will sit evenly on it.
North York holds postwar bungalows with plaster ceilings and stained trim on the same streets as new rebuilds with nine and ten foot ceilings and builder flat paint.
Lots are wide and driveways are deep, so the crew parks on site and sets up sprayers and scaffold in the garage without blocking the street.
Full interior repaints of new rebuilds, trim and door enamelling in older bungalows, tall foyers and stairwells, and cabinet refinishing.
Inside, outside and the cabinets.
Also in North York: Ceiling painting · Wallpaper removal and painting
Questions from North York
Our new North York house still has builder paint. Why does it need a primer before the new colour?
Builder flat paint is applied thin and is usually a low-grade product, so it absorbs the next coat unevenly and the finish dries blotchy, especially in a deep or saturated colour. A tinted primer coat seals it and gives the two finish coats a uniform base. On a new house that is the difference between a wall that looks sprayed and one that looks patched.
Can you paint the stained oak trim and doors in our bungalow white?
Yes, and it is one of the most common requests we get here. Stained and varnished trim is cleaned, scuff-sanded, and sealed with a bonding primer so the tannins in the wood do not bleed through the white. Then two coats of enamel, sprayed where we can set up a dust-free area and brushed where we cannot. Skipping the bonding primer is why that job fails when it is done quickly.
How do you paint walls that are ten feet tall without damaging the floors and furniture?
Furniture is moved to the centre and wrapped, floors are covered end to end, and the crew works from extension poles, ladders and a plank for the cut line at the ceiling. On a stairwell or a two-storey foyer a small scaffold goes up instead of a ladder. The height adds time and equipment, which is why tall rooms are listed separately on the quote.
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