My name is Tom Lopatosky. I’m the President of LOPCO Contracting (www.LopcoContracting.com) and I’m honored to have the opportunity to talk to you about home improvement on a monthly basis. I love answering your questions! Please send them to tom@LopcoContracting.com or call 401-270-2664. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this column!
There are a number of reasons why we match paint colors on the exterior of our homes.
Sometimes, when painting the entire exterior of our home, we want to paint it the way that it was previously painted. Or, maybe the whole home does not necessarily need to be painted, but a part of it needs to be addressed. (i.e., a small section has peeled, one side has not stood up as well as the other sides, etc.).
When attempting to match the “existing” color, the most important question to ask is whether you are trying to match what the color looked like the day the home was previously painted, or, are you trying to match it to the way that the color appears at the moment?
These are typically two entirely different topics.
For example, if you are trying to “touch up” an area of peeling paint that happened a few years after the paint job was done, and you use the color tinted straight from the paint store, there is probably going to be a noticeable difference when the paint has dried.
Even if you were to use a leftover, unopened gallon of paint from when the home was painted, the chances are that it is still going to be noticeable.
The reason for this is that any exterior paint job starts to “weather” the moment it dries, and although the technology in today’s paint products allows the products to be more color-retentive than they ever have been, the longer a paint coating is exposed to the elements – even on the more weather-protected sides of the home – the greater the chance that touching something up with the original paint is going to stand out.
Obviously, if you are repainting the entire outside of the home with the same color that it was previously painted, this is not an issue, as you will essentially be resetting the life of the paint job.
However, in instances when you are merely touching-up or painting a side of the home instead of the entire home, this could certainly be a challenge.
While this may seem like a bit of a head scratcher, the solution to get things as good as possible is actually fairly simple.
What we do when called upon to touch something up for a client, or just to paint a part of the home the same color it was previously painted, is we, literally, match the “weathered/faded” color directly, either by grabbing a sample ‘chip’ of paint, or borrowing a piece of siding or trim that has the color on it that we are working to match.
We then bring the sample to the paint store, where we work directly with an expert color matcher, to match the sample that we brought in.
This is not always the easiest thing to do, and we work hard to look at the color in different lighting and approaches, to truly get the best match that we can possibly get.
I, myself, have cumulatively spent hours of my life working with folks at our different paint suppliers to get a match “just right” for a client.
Even though this exhaustive process is undertaken, there is still a chance the color may look slightly different from certain angles, after it is applied.
This would be a matter of a newer product being observed next to an older product, though the color, itself, at this point, should be dead on perfect.
Matching paint colors can absolutely be a pain in the rear.
When working to blend a paint in with the same color used from two different points in time, knowing why the color is being matched should help to alleviate some degree of frustration, and will lessen the overall incongruence between paint colors.
About Tom Lopatosky
Tom Lopatosky has run his own RI-based painting and repair business since 1995; LOPCO Contracting – the “Personable, Particular Professionals” – specializes in exterior & interior painting and carpentry. Recently LOPCO Contracting was named ‘RI’s Finest Painting Contracting Company’ by ShopInRI Magazine. In 2013, Tom was named “Humanitarian of the Year” by the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America (PDCA) and a “40 Under 40” award winner by Providence Business News. He is a member of both the PCA (Painting Contractors Association) and RIBA (Rhode Island Builders Association). Tom has often had weekly ‘Home Improvement Tips’ that have aired on the radio on 630 WPRO AM and on television on WPRI 12. You can catch Tom LIVE on the radio EVERY Saturday, 2pm-3pm, on 630 WPRO AM (99.7 FM) during his weekly PROTalk Home Improvement Radio Show! Tom has also written a book ‘The Care And Maintenance Of A New England Home’ (available on Amazon or through Barnes & Noble), detailing what he believes every New England Homeowner should be acutely aware of while owning a home in the region.
