Painting Guides for Charleston Homes and Buildings
Notes from our painters on preparing, painting and maintaining homes and buildings around Charleston, SC: what to ask before you hire, how paint holds up in the Lowcountry climate, and what each kind of job involves.
Ready for an estimate? See our residential painting and commercial painting services, or contact us.
Exterior Painting Guides
Prep, paint and timing for house exteriors in the Lowcountry. When you are ready for the work itself, see our exterior house painting in Charleston.
How Often to Paint a House Exterior in Charleston: Decide Wall by Wall
Asking how often to paint a house exterior is a little like asking how often to replace tires. The calendar matters less than where the...
How Long Does Exterior Paint Last? The Four Things That Decide It
Exterior paint lasts as long as its film keeps protecting the surface underneath, which is not the same as how long it looks fresh. A wall...
Front Door Paint Colors for Charleston Homes: Choosing by House, Sun and Door
Front door paint colors that work relate to your trim and siding, survive the sun your door actually gets, and pass any review your street...
Charleston Board of Architectural Review Paint Colors: How Approval Works
Charleston created the first preservation ordinance in the United States in 1931, and its Board of Architectural Review has been reviewing...
Rainbow Row Colors: Charleston’s Pastel Palette, Part by Part
Rainbow Row is the run of 13 historic houses at 79 to 107 East Bay Street in Charleston, on the west side of the street between Tradd and...
Painting Hardie Board Siding: The Mistakes the Manufacturer Warns About
Yes. Painting Hardie board siding works well, as long as you follow the rules James Hardie prints in its own installation instructions....
Haint Blue Porch Ceiling: The Myths, the Facts and How to Pick the Shade
Where the Lowcountry’s blue porch ceilings come from, which claims about bugs hold up, and how to pick a haint blue by its light reflectance value.
Stucco Painting, Step by Step: Cure, Prep, Coating and Timing
Stucco is a cement plaster: cement, sand and water troweled onto a wall, which the industry standard for applying it, ASTM C926, calls...
Exterior Paint Peeling: Read the Chip, Then Fix the Cause
A flake of paint that drops off your siding works a little like a core sample. Before you sweep it up, turn it over: the back usually says...
Best Exterior Paint for a Humid Climate: What to Check on the Label
The best exterior paint for a humid climate is a top-quality 100% acrylic latex with a mildew-resistant film, in a sheen chosen for how...
Mildew on Exterior Paint: Wash It, Leave It or Repaint?
"How do I remove mildew from my exterior paint?" is one of the questions Google shows next to this topic. Before you answer it, answer a...
Can You Paint Vinyl Siding? Myths, Facts and the Color Rule
The mistake paint makers warn about with vinyl siding is picking a color darker than the siding came in, in a paint that was not made for...
Exterior Paint Colors for Coastal Homes: Palettes From Real Lowcountry Houses
On Mary Ellen Drive in Charleston, a three-story house stands on a raised base among palms. The siding is a soft yellow-green, the...
How to Choose Exterior Paint Colors: A Checklist for Charleston Homes
An exterior color scheme is a short list: one color for every part of the house that gets paint, picked to work with the parts that don't....
How Much Does It Cost to Paint a House Exterior? What Sets Your Price
"How much does it cost to paint a house exterior?" is a lot like asking what a roof repair costs. The size of the house matters less than...
Pressure Washing Before Painting: When, How Hard, and How Long to Wait
"How long to wait after pressure washing before painting?" sits right in Google's "People also ask" box for this topic, and it is the...
The Best Time of Year to Paint a House Exterior in Charleston
In a review published on the VMS Home Painting homepage, a homeowner wrote that the crew put two coats on the exterior of their new home...
Wood Rot Repair Before Painting: Fix the Water, Then the Wood, Then Paint
Paint does not stop rot. It hides it for a season, and the new coat usually fails first at that exact spot. Wood rot repair before...
Interior Painting Guides
Coats, finishes, colors and cure time for walls, ceilings and trim. For the service, see interior painting in Charleston.
How to Prepare for Interior Painters: What You Do and What the Crew Does
To prepare for interior painters, make the walls reachable and the decisions final. Clear everything off the walls, take breakables and...
How Long Does Interior Paint Take to Cure? Answers for the Weeks After Painting
A classic mistake after an interior repaint is treating "dry" as "done." A latex wall is dry to the touch in an hour or two, but it keeps...
How to Choose Interior Paint Colors: A Checklist That Starts With Your Light
A classic mistake is choosing from a two-inch chip under the store's lights. To choose interior paint colors that work, start from what in...
Painting Over Wallpaper: When It Works and When to Strip It First
Is it better to remove wallpaper before painting? For most walls, yes. Painting over wallpaper works only when the paper is smooth, firmly...
Interior Paint Colors for Coastal Homes: What Real Lowcountry Rooms Use
Among the questions people also ask for this search, Google lists a direct one: "What are the best interior paint colors for coastal...
Painting Trim and Baseboards: The Mistakes That Show Up Later
A baseboard has more in common with a floor than with the wall above it. Shoes scuff it, the vacuum bumps it, the mop wets it and chair...
The Best Paint Finish for Walls, Room by Room
On paint makers' own data sheets, the step from matte to eggshell is several times bigger than the step from flat to matte. Benjamin Moore...
How Many Coats of Paint Do Interior Walls Need?
One of the homes in our portfolio, a 2,100 sq ft townhouse in Downtown Charleston, has walls in deep charcoal gray throughout its levels....
Cabinet Painting Guides
Timing, wood type and how long a painted finish lasts. For the service, see cabinet painting in Charleston.
How Long Does a Painted Cabinet Finish Last? Myths and Facts
In a contemporary home in Dunes West, Mount Pleasant, the mudroom is lined floor to ceiling with built-in cabinetry painted a rich...
Painting a Bathroom Vanity: Steps, Decisions and Cure Time
"Can you paint over bathroom vanities?" Yes. A wood or painted MDF vanity in sound condition takes paint well, as long as you remove the...
How Long Does It Take to Paint Kitchen Cabinets? The Honest Timeline
The most common mistake with painted cabinets has nothing to do with color or brushes. It is putting the doors back on too soon, then...
Painting Oak Cabinets: The Decisions That Decide the Finish
"Is it worth painting oak kitchen cabinets?" is one of the questions Google shows right next to this search. It is worth it when the boxes...
Epoxy Flooring Guides
Garage floor coatings, slab moisture and what to check before a floor goes down. For the service, see epoxy flooring in Charleston.
Epoxy vs Polyaspartic Garage Floor: What the Data Sheets Show
Epoxy is the older of the two garage floor coatings: a resin and a hardener that react into a rigid film. Polyaspartic is a two-part...
How Long Does an Epoxy Garage Floor Last? What Decides the Number
An epoxy floor coating is a two-part resin that cures on concrete into a hard film measured in thousandths of an inch. So how long does an...
Moisture in Concrete: The Mistakes That Make Epoxy Floors Fail
The most common mistake with an epoxy floor is judging the concrete by how it looks. A garage slab can look and feel dry on top while...
Homes and HOA Communities
Selling, color approvals and planning a community repaint. See also residential painting and HOA and condo painting.
HOA Painting in South Carolina: What Owners Ask Before Repainting
If your home is in a community whose recorded covenants give the association a say over exterior changes, you need written approval before...
Painting a House Before Selling: A Decision Guide for Charleston Sellers
Painting a house before selling is worth it when the paint is failing or the colors will put buyers off. When the paint is sound and the...
Hiring a Painter
Licensing, warranties and the questions worth asking before you sign. For businesses and property managers, see commercial painting.
Painting Warranty: What Does It Cover, and What Should You Get in Writing?
The most common mix-up with painting warranties is reading the "lifetime" on the paint can as a promise about the paint job. That warranty...
Do Painters Need a License in South Carolina?
South Carolina changed its rules for painters in 2022 and 2023, and the answer today is: yes, for most paid work. A painter who contracts...
12 Questions to Ask a Painter Before Hiring in South Carolina
Before you hire a painter, ask questions whose answers you can check: is the company registered with the state, who will work on your...