Talk about your tough coating challenges.

Here was a 200-year-old church with a 15-year-old paint job and in dire need of restoration. To the rescue: an experienced contractor armed with a technologically advanced new coating specifically formulated to restore worn and damaged siding.

First things first

“The paint was peeling and the surfaces were very poor with loose paint everywhere,” says Mark Irwin, owner of Tricks of the Trade, the Camden, Delaware-based firm hired for the job.

“After preparing the surfaces for paint, we were left with a very rough surface with peeled paint on every board piece of siding,” he says. “There were areas where all the paint had come off the siding and some of the wood grain was wearing away.”

In addition, his crew had to replace a large amount of rotted and damaged wood trim and repair every wooden shutter.

“Two shutters had to be custom built since they were 11 feet tall,” he says.

Picking the best paint for less-than-perfect surfaces

Once the surface was ready, it was time to prime and paint. At his sales rep’s recommendation, Irwin would be trying new Rejuvenate™ Siding Restoration Coating, which is formulated to help restore the look of severely weathered siding with an easy-to-apply, paint and primer in one.

Its dependable bonding makes it the ideal application to sound, marginally prepared, alligatored and peeling siding and trim. And its SmoothFill™ Technology provides a smoother finish compared to applying a traditional paint and primer over less-than-perfect surfaces.

Coating application helps reduce labor costs

Since it was his first time working with the coating, Irwin says he learned the best application process on this job through trial-and-error.

“I applied with a sprayer, sprayed and back-rolled, rolled, and brushed areas to try the Rejuvenate product,” he says. “I found the first coat was best if sprayed only and back-rolled. For the second coat, I sprayed only. I used a 619 tip and 2800-3000 psi.”

The results, he says, were stunning.

“Normally after the loose paint is removed from a wood-sided building there is a chipped paint appearance that gets primed and painted,” Irwin says. “That chipped paint appearance generally can never be hidden unless you spend the time chemically stripping or burning off paint and scraping. Both processes are very labor intensive.”

Better look in less time

Using Rejuvenate helped his crew achieve a better finish while reducing labor costs.

“This product absolutely saves time,” Irwin says. “After we applied the first coat of Rejuvenate to the entire structure, trim and the windows, we started to see a surface improvement. After the second coat was applied the wood siding, windows and trim looked great.

“I was impressed with how Rejuvenate enabled us to hide the appearance of chipped paint,” he adds. “The rough surfaces were nearly gone.”

Bottom line: Smooth finish, happy customer

“The customer was so happy that she wrote a letter of recommendation and sent it to the Historic Society to let them know how good a job we had done in the restoration of this church,” he says. “In the end, the church really just plain looks great! We at Tricks of the Trade are proud to have used Sherwin-Williams Rejuvenate to accomplish this.”

This article was originally published in the Spring 2017 issue of PPC magazine. Story by Mike Starling, PPC Editor. Read about other successful painting projects in the PPC digital archive.