How to Properly Pressure Wash a Deck

An expert with Mi-T-M shares seven tips for stunning results

With rising temperatures, many homeowners will be looking to get their decks ready for summer. In addition to general wear, tear, and traffic, decks are also exposed to harsh outdoor elements. Rain, sun, snow, and ice can wreak havoc on horizontal outdoor wood surfaces—and such exposure requires consistent and proper care. That’s where you and your crew can come to the rescue for homeowners.

Of course, there are a few special considerations to make when dealing with decks. In this article, Don Holdridge—National Paint Division Manager for Mi-T-M—shares seven of his best practices for pressure washing decks.

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What Online Reviews Can Do for You

Turn positive word-of-mouth into booming business with these best practices.

To have a healthy business today, you need to have a healthy online presence. And one of the most important parts of your business’ online presence are your online reviews. A good review can help you reach new customers you would have never run into in real life—and a bad review can turn someone away from your business before you’ve ever said a word to them.

Megan Hinz, marketing community manager at Sherwin-Williams, and her team read and reply to every review for every Sherwin-Williams store across Google, Yelp, Facebook, and sherwin-williams.com. They read hundreds of reviews every day. For this article, she talked to us about her team’s best practices for garnering good reviews, responding professionally, and creating a positive impression for potential online customers. 

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The Pro Painter’s Guide to Painting Brick

Avoid blistering and peeling with these helpful tips

Brick can present unique challenges for professional painting contractors thanks to its unique properties as a substrate. Blistering, peeling, and the premature weathering of alkaline burn can all result from simple mistakes on the job site.

In this article, Dennis Fiorilli, Director of Product Excellence at Sherwin-Williams, shares a few helpful tips so you can paint brick with confidence and set your painting business apart from the competition.

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Dealing With Difficult Customers

Turn micromanaging, indecisive, and demanding clients into glowing recommendations

Difficult customers can come in all shapes and sizes; spend any time as a painting contractor and you’ll run into one eventually. Every contractor can probably recall a customer who made their work so difficult that they started to regret taking the job.

Unfortunately, these situations aren’t only frustrating, but can potentially hurt your business’ reputation if not handled correctly. As such, you need to be prepared for these customers in order to stay successful. And in a competitive marketplace where word-of-mouth is king, retaining customers and generating repeat business can grow your bottom line. In this article, we offer suggestions for how to professionally respond to three of the most common types of difficult customers. 

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Four Simple Strategies for Choosing Extraordinary Exterior Colors

Help homeowners beat color decision paralysis and start jobs faster

First impressions are important, and for homeowners, their guests’ first impression of their home will be its exterior. It’s no wonder so many homeowners want to freshen up their exterior with a fresh coat of paint—and why many of your potential customers want your opinion on their color selection.

Though you may not feel like the right person to ask about this, successfully helping a homeowner decide on a color can help you to close more leads, get jobs scheduled and started on-time, and position yourself as a color hero to your clients. Sue Wadden, Director of Color Marketing at Sherwin-Williams, offers strategies you can use to help your clients select the perfect exterior look. Continue reading Four Simple Strategies for Choosing Extraordinary Exterior Colors

My 5 Biggest Mistakes, and the Lessons I Learned from Them to Improve My Business

In this article, PPC contributing writer Terry Begue talks about the biggest mistakes he made when he started his Ohio-based residential painting company, and what he did to correct them and turn his business around.
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Are You Ready for Exterior Season?

11 products that can maximize your productivity on the job site

Depending on where you live, exterior season is either just around the corner or already here. While that’s great news for your business, exterior painting comes with its own distinct needs and challenges.

Thankfully, we’ve done the prep work for you. Check out our checklist of 11 products you and your crews should keep stocked this season to maximize your quality and productivity.

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Jobsite Journal: Keeping Crews Safe and Productive on the Hollywood Sign Repaint

Painting the towering letters of the world-famous Hollywood Sign is no easy task. In this article, we take an in-depth look at the measures a California painting company took to deliver a beautiful, long-lasting finish while ensuring that the job site was as safe as possible for its workers.
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Painting It Forward: Paint Pros from Across the Nation Team Up to Give Back in Albuquerque

The Painting Contractors Association’s PCA Expo started a day early this year for one group of painters, who united to give back to a local community in need. On February 21 – the day before the 2023 PCA Expo kicked off in Albuquerque, New Mexico – more than 100 volunteers from across the United States gathered at the historic Gibson Health Hub for the PCA’s first annual Paint It Forward event.
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Versatile and Inviting, Redend Point is the 2023 Sherwin-Williams Color of the Year

Described as “a soulful blush-beige,” Redend Point SW 9081 (195-C4) is the Sherwin-Williams 2023 Color of the Year.
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Uncovering Opportunities: The Value of Adding Carpentry to Your Menu of Services

Uncovering Opportunities is an ongoing series of PPC magazine articles dedicated to finding smart ways to help professional painting contractors build and expand their businesses. For this story, we spoke with Paige NeJame, who has been the owner of CertaPro Painters of the South Shore since 2004, about the reasons pros should consider adding carpentry services to a residential painting business. Here’s what she told us:
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Contractor Q&A: Wilber Vargas on Building a Large Residential Painting Firm and the Value of Using Quality Products

For more than 30 years, PPC magazine has been on job sites throughout the U.S. and Canada asking residential and commercial paint pros to share their stories. This issue: Wilber Vargas, owner of Wilber’s Painting in Maplewood, New Jersey.
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Project Management Tips from the PCA: The 4 Building Blocks of a Scalable PM Infrastructure

This article by Benji Carlson is the fifth in a series from PPC and the Painting Contractors Association (PCA) designed to help you understand and prepare for the challenges of business growth.
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New Products: Keep Wood Finishes Looking Fresh All Season Long with WoodScapes® Rain Refresh™ Solid Color Stain

For years, professional painting contractors have relied on the top-quality performance of WoodScapes® Exterior Stains to give their customers’ properties a rich, beautiful appearance that stands the test of time.

Now, with the introduction of WoodScapes® Rain Refresh™ Solid Color Stain, you have yet another option in the WoodScapes product line to offer your customers.

Designed to keep vertical exterior wood surfaces looking beautiful with minimal maintenance, this new exterior wood finish features an advanced self-cleaning formula that blocks tannin bleed and offers excellent adhesion, all while keeping wood surfaces cleaner.
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New Products: Put Ceilings in a New Light with Premium Ceiling Paint

Ceilings may not be at the top of your customer’s mind when they hire you to paint their home or commercial property. But as a professional painting contractor, you know that they’re an important component of any paint job.

Pros also know that due to the different needs of painting these “fifth walls,” they’ll get the best results by using a coating specifically formulated for ceiling application.

You can be assured that you’ll meet the highest expectations and maximize your productivity thanks to the ultra-bright, high-performance finish and one-coat coverage of Premium Ceiling Paint from Sherwin-Williams.
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New Products: Choose Gallery Series™ Waterborne Topcoat for a Fast, Factory-like Finish on Cabinets and Trim

New product coming to Sherwin-Williams stores in June: Gallery Series™ Waterborne Topcoat is a new hard-wearing, professional-grade coating that will help you achieve a flawless-looking, factory-like finish on cabinets, trim and millwork.
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Spring 2023 Editor’s Picks: Tools to Help Increase Your Productivity and Efficiency

As part of our ongoing mission to help painting professionals maximize their jobsite productivity, each issue of PPC magazine features a roundup of some of our favorite application tools and essential job site equipment and supplies. Here are our Spring 2023 issue picks:
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PROFESSIONAL PAINTING CONTRACTOR