Interview with Mike Faast of Faast Painting

Speaker 1: [0:09] Hello, hello, and welcome to the Awesome in Seattle podcast. This is your host, Christian Nossum, with the Awesome Nossum Group at Wilson Realty, and I'm here with my co-host, the one, the only, Mr. Jason Saldarriaga.

Speaker 2: [0:22] As always.

Speaker 1: [0:24] That is always how you are here. Uh, we are a team of Seattle area real estate agents. We have others on the team, but today it's just Jason and I, and we are interviewing Mike Fost of Fost Painting. And the reason that we're doing this is because we get a lot of questions from clients about painting, a lot of interior and exterior questions, and we figured, you know, let's, let's just do an episode where we can kinda answer a lot of those questions. We're gonna talk about costs, uh, when you know you need to paint, like the exterior for instance, how to choose colors, and things like that. So it's gonna be a fun, fun episode today. Um, so let's jump right into it. Welcome, Mike.

Speaker 3: [1:08] Good to be here. Thank you, Christian, for having me.

Speaker 1: [1:11] Yeah. All right, Jason, take it away.

Speaker 2: [1:14] Well, Mike, really quick, I want to start with the obvious question. Um, how did you get into the painting business?

Speaker 3: [1:21] Well, uh, I ca- I'm a Vietnam vet, and I came back in '71, and immediately got hired to drive a beer truck for about 12 years. And after about 12 years of driving a beer truck, and doing delivery and all that, I decided, you know, I want to do something else with my life. I, it was a, it was a g- great gig, but, uh, I wanted to move on. So I've always wa- I always wanted to try my hand at entrap- entrepreneurial-ism, and, uh, or entrepreneurialship. And so, uh, I, I had a good friend who had a window washing company, and he was going into the ministry. So he said, "I'll give you my window washing company, you can try it out." So I got into it, into the painting business, through another, uh, service industry, and that would be the window washing industry, through a friend. And I built that company for a few years, and then I realized there's a lot of other things I could do, that maybe were more fun or more lucrative or… Um, so I decided to try my hand at, uh, the roofing industry, and then, uh, that led to carpet cleaning, and then eventually I worked my way over to painting, and running a painting crew. So, for the last 25 years or so, I've been painting. And, uh, I run a three or four man crew, and it allows me time to do my music, and, and of course, support my family. So that's a long answer to a short question.

Speaker 2: [2:42] Awesome. I like how you have, uh, a lot of experience with various aspects, kind of, that relate to the painting bit of houses. I think that, that's pretty helpful. So in terms of your company, what areas do you serve and stuff? Do you do all of Seattle,

Speaker 3: [2:59] or? We typic- I typically say that, um, we're the greater East Side. So Redmond, Woodenville, Issaquah is my n- main farm, you might say. However, we often venture into Seattle. Uh, I've also opened up a division up here in, uh, Mount Vernon, because I'm living, uh, part-time in Mount Vernon now. That's our eventual, you know, vacation destination spot, and, and retirement destination spot. We have a little place up here that overlooks, uh, Samish Bay and the Chuckanut Drive. So I'm starting to open up business up here. If you know anybody who wants a good painter up in the Mount Vernon area, give me a shout-out.

Speaker 2: [3:33] Awesome. So in terms of painting and services, what kind of, uh, services do you provide? Y-

Speaker 3: [3:38] you know, I've done everything in, in the past regarding to maintaining a house, but I've narrowed it down to just pressure washing and painting. Uh, even the pressure washing is, is just aggregate and washing the house down. Don't do the roofs much anymore. For years and years we did roofs, but, uh, we've really narrowed it down to painting interior and exterior. There's plenty of work to keep you busy just doing that, and, uh, I like being specialized. I also like having the tools on hand to do the job. So, so we just come out, we paint inside, outside, and that's our gig right now. Yeah.

Speaker 1: [4:12] Awesome. Yeah. I know that, uh, you actually have painted the interior and exterior of my personal house. So, uh,

Speaker 3: [4:19] And the roof. And replaced

Speaker 1: [4:21] the

Speaker 3: [4:21] roof.

Speaker 1: [4:21] Yes. Yes. You helped with the roof.

Speaker 3: [4:23] Yeah.

Speaker 1: [4:23] Um, you've done a lot. So, uh, it, it's like night and day from the day we bought it until what it looks like now from- The salmon pink walls on every single room on the interior of the house, and the beige and brown exterior- Yep which was disgusting, to what it is today, which is way, way, way nicer and updated. So how do you know if the exterior of your house needs to be painted? Like, what's a good sign to figure that out?

Speaker 3: [4:53] Yeah, I'd like to answer that. Before I do, though, I'd like to just address what you just said, and I really think painting and pressure washing is, is, uh, probably the biggest bang you can get for the buck regarding the, uh, curb appeal or aesthetic appeal of a house. You get a lot of mileage out of a few bucks spent in painting. Regarding the price of painting, uh, and how you determine that, you know, you can go with a general rule of thumb, and the rule of thumb is between $2 and $4 a square foot, depending on how elaborate the house, uh, finish is. A couple years ago, I did a project out in, uh, in Duval. They were all dream homes, and the price to paint the inside was somewhere around $10 to $12 a square foot. You can imagine they had a lot of woodwork, a lot of stain finishes, et cetera. So it can really vary, but in general, the average house, $2 to $4 a square foot for the exterior. That translates over to the interior walls and ceiling as well, and then about the same for the mill pack. So you can pretty much gauge $2 to $4 a square foot for each one of those items. So let's say you got a 3,000 square foot house, six grand is not a bad number. Probably 1,000 of that's gonna be material. So that's a lot of information, but you can kind of get that, uh, rule of thumb going. You can also Google most of these questions, uh, how much does it cost to paint, you know, a three-bedroom house, and be specific in Woodinville, and they will give you a pretty, a pretty good, uh, rule of thumb. Now, it all boils down to the detail. So, like, if you're getting a car painted, you know, same color, you go to the, the car, cars painting store, they're gonna give you a real deal on a same color, no-frills package. But if you want a different color and you want to paint the inside of the jambs, it's usually three times as much, and the same is true with painting. If you're coming out to paint, you know, a 1,500 square foot rambler, same color, that really is in pretty good condition, you're gonna get a super deal. But if that same rambler, uh, is peeling and is a color change, it's gonna be a lot more, so.

Speaker 1: [6:50] Yep, that makes sense. I remember one funny quote that you gave me while you were painting my house, and, and I'm not talking like a bid type quote, I mean a funny quote that you said, and that was, uh- Oh, okay correct me if I'm wrong, 'cause I'm sure I'm butchering it, but it was basically like- If you wanna be a painter, you basically have to be a good prepper because the majority of painting is prepping the house.

Speaker 3: [7:14] The 90% prep, yeah. You spend 80% of the time prepping it and 20% of the time actually applying the paint.

Speaker 1: [7:20] Yep.

Speaker 3: [7:20] I thought you were gonna say, uh, another quote that I've used on you, and that is, uh, "We're not the cheapest painting company in town, but we're the least expensive."

Speaker 1: [7:28] Yeah.

Speaker 3: [7:29] And that means we're gonna spend time doing those things that the other guys might not do, uh, that you should do to make sure the paint job lasts.

Speaker 1: [7:37] Yep. Well, let's actually talk about that. What are, what are some of the things that you need to do to prep the exterior of a house?

Speaker 3: [7:43] Yeah. Well, prep- preparation is really important, uh, the, um, especially if a house is dirty, and that's, that's usually the reason paint- people are painting. It's not necessarily that the paint is stale, but it looks kind of drab and dingy and, and dirty. And it's hard to clean it up when it's, it's reached a certain, uh, age. So typically, on a house that, uh, is caught in time, so to speak, is painted at the proper time, you're just trying to get the dust and dirt off the house, loose paint off the house if there is any, uh, and then let it sit for a week and dry out, and come back and, you know, apply your caulking and your tarps, et cetera, tape off the windows, and paint it. So, uh, the answer to the question is, uh, you really need to… Uh, we're talking about the… What your question was?

Speaker 1: [8:28] Prepping the exterior.

Speaker 3: [8:30] The prep, yeah. Yeah, so, so let's say a house is in great shape. All you really need to do is power wash it, let it dry out, and paint it, right? But, uh, I always… And usually on the south side of a house that is, is 15 years into a paint job, it's usually gonna be peeling. So at that point, we break out the sanders, 80 grit, get down to the wood, feather it in, and we apply a very varying, uh, kinds of, uh, bonding primers. One being, my favorite probably is a product called Peel Bond, which is a filler and a primer and a bonding agent all in one. Um, if it's gonna be a stained house, I might wanna go with an oil-based primer that's gonna penetrate that wood along with the stain and work with, with the stain. Because a stain is a penetrating paint as opposed to a c- top coating paint. So if you're gonna be painting with a stain, that's all about a stain, you wanna use an oil primer as well. Mm. Oftentimes, though, when you're using the ul- penetrating oil stain or, um, penetrating stain, I use mostly acrylic stain, you don't even need to prime it. Mm. 'Cause they're so good now, they'll, they'll actually prime themselves. So but back to the, uh, the prep, yeah, you just gotta make sure you get all the loose paint off, and then you have to make the paint stick, so you need to prime it. And oftentimes, again, I use the, uh, product called Peel Bond because no matter how much you sand and scrape a south, a south-end, uh, wall, there's always some paint that wants to come off. Mm-hmm. You know, you can get so far and you apply your paint. All of a sudden you're applying a liquid, and the, the paint that was thinking about coming off is starting to peel up. So that's why I use the Peel Bond, which is a glue-like product. You can get it, most of the companies have a, a version of it now, and it actually acts as a glue to hold that paint in place, bond the paint. Uh, and it's really a super, super product. We used some of it on your place, um- Yeah

Speaker 1: [10:15] Yeah, and the reason for those that don't know why he keeps bringing up the south side of the house is the south, especially in the northwest, the south-facing exterior side of the house is the side that gets all the weather. So the sun's gonna beat down on it. Mm-hmm. The rain's gonna beat down on it. The wind's gonna beat down on it. It's, it's the side that is always going to be the worst shape on the exterior of a house. So when you're out looking at houses- Very true … we always pay attention to the south side of the house, and we'll always, like, if it's in the back or the side, we'll always walk around to that side, look at it and go, "Oh, yep. Okay. Well, you're gonna need some work to this house, but probably only this side. The other three, they're pretty good shape, but this one, it needs some help." Yeah. So, um,

Speaker 3: [11:02] yeah- Sun is your enemy. Sun is your enemy. That's-

Speaker 1: [11:05] Yes, exactly. What, uh, in your anecdotal experience, what are the, what are the most popular colors, exterior colors that you're seeing this past summer?

Speaker 3: [11:15] Well, you know, beige is always, always the number one color. I mean, uh, people love beiges. Uh, they love… A- and in various forms, you know, with the green tones- Mm-hmm … with the more brown tones. But yeah, I'd say that it's still beige. I mean, yeah.

Speaker 1: [11:30] Interesting. I would've

Speaker 3: [11:31] thought it was gray or white. Beige and

Speaker 1: [11:32] white paint.

Speaker 3: [11:34] Gray, gray's a popular choice. Hmm. Gray is popular, too. Gr- gray and beiges, I don't think there's been that much of a shift. On the inside, of course, uh, there's a lot of varying colors now. You know, it used to be that red doors were all the rage, but now black is probably more popular than red, and even orange doors and, and blues. I, I painted a door that was a, a kind of a robin's egg blue last year. Wow. Uh, and, and so they, people get a little, uh, crazy and experimental with their front door. Not so much red anymore. Red's out.

Speaker 1: [12:05] Hmm, interesting. Yeah, so I've heard this, and I don't know if it's true, but it kinda makes sense because of our weather. But is, is the summer the best time to paint your house, the exterior house? Is that kind of the only time to paint, or can you do it other times of year?

Speaker 3: [12:21] Well, yeah, the Northwest, you have a window of about seven months because acrylic paint won't dry when it gets too cold. So 32 degrees, most of the modern paints are rated for 32 degrees and above. However, it's really hard to get them to dry under 50 degrees. Hmm. So we resort to these jets, you know, these propane powered jets that, that heat up the wall. Uh, I've used those before. Ideally, you wanna catch it between, you wanna paint your house between April and, you know, September, mid-September. Uh, I painted all the way up to, um, Halloween before, but anything beyond that is gonna be really tough because of the moisture content. The gutters aren't gonna dry if your painting gutters. Uh, it's just harder all the way around, harder to make money and get it done fast, harder to do a good job. So yeah, I, seven months a year is about, about it. So if you wanna be an exterior painter and you don't wanna work about five months a year, that's- a great job for you. Yeah. Just don't go in fall.

Speaker 2: [13:19] Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3: [13:19] Yeah, so yeah, it's ideal, ideal. Now, you know, having said that and, you know, in, in Arizona, you know, you can't paint- A lot of the, a l- a big part of the day you can't paint. That's why they start at about 3:30 in the morning in Arizona, and- That's crazy you know, they quit about noon, because if such a thing is too hot, you can ch- y- Yeah The reason it's too, reason being too hot is a problem is because the paint dries so fast it doesn't get a chance to grip. It just dries, and it'll flake right off. So ideally you want 70 degrees, you know, and warm, summer day, that's

Speaker 1: [13:52] perfect. Perfect. So if the exterior of the house has different surfaces, let's say, I know like HardiePlank is a big one, and then let's say part of it is like a cedar wood, and then part of it is maybe, I don't know, stucco we don't see a lot of, but then definitely brick. Let's say you have different surfaces at your house, how does that change the cost, and what do you have to do different prep-wise?

Speaker 3: [14:14] Yeah, it's definitely gonna affect the cost, because you can't just roll right around the house with the same product, right? You gotta be changing it out all the time. So, um, your house had a little bit of all that, you know. Um, yeah, when we're, when we're staining, uh… We just did a house up in Kirkland where they had almost everything you mentioned. Uh, we used, uh, a quick-dry, uh, acrylic paint on the front door, and we used, uh, DTM on the garage door, direct to metal. Um, we used, uh, solid body- wood scapes on the shingle that they had. And on the Hardie plank, uh, we used Resilience. Because Resilience from Sherwin-Williams, uh, dries fast. It's a, it's a, they call it a, uh, a cold temp paint. So you can paint in the, in the, uh, 40, 50 degrees and it dries pretty fast and relatively speaking, and it's made for that. So we used about four or five different products on that house alone. Right. But you know, that house was 10 grand, so. Yeah. Um, and it was, uh, challenging. You had, you always change out your pumps and, you know, as opposed to a house with, like I say, that, that 1,500 square foot rambler that's all the same color- Yeah using super paint, 30-year super paint all the way around, you know, you're five, $6,000, you got it done.

Speaker 1: [15:23] Yep. Yep, that makes sense. Um, one thing that-

Speaker 3: [15:26] Yeah … Speaker: I can say worked really well, and I think was well worth doing for my personal house, is we had just a, you know, run-of-the-mill standard garage door that was the same kind of beige as the rest of the house. And we were thinking about replacing it with a new garage door, and I believe you're the one that said, "Well, why, why don't you just paint it?" And we're like, "Really? You can paint a garage door?" And I, I mean, it's not a wood garage door. I, I think it's exterior is metal. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: [15:58] And I just, uh, it, for whatever reason, it didn't, didn't dawn on me that that was an option. You painted that thing the, the rest of our trim color, and good God, it made it look like a brand-new garage door. It was a huge, huge upgrade. Yeah.

Speaker 3: [16:10] So- It was black, wasn't it? The- Yeah … did we paint it black?

Speaker 1: [16:13] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: [16:13] Yeah, so, you know, speaking of black, um, that is an interesting color because red has its challenges. Red, uh, a red door for example, you have to prime with gray to make it- Hmm … to make it solid, otherwise it has a translucent, translucent, uh, appearance to it, and you can get, never get it to pop red until you prime it. Now, black has some interesting, uh, characteristics too. One, it looks great, of course. It really makes a beige house pop. But you have to be aware that you don't wanna use it on the south side on a door, especially a wooden door. And the reason being is it draws in the heat. I mean, I bet you the temperature on a, a front garage door will be, you know, somewhere around 120 degrees or so, really hot. Yeah. And almost hot to the touch. Uh, as opposed to a white door, which will just be cool to the touch even in the hot sun. So those are some things to think about. The good news is for you, is your garage door was on the north side, so- Yep … it's gonna be all good.

Speaker 1: [17:11] It's the

Speaker 3: [17:12] only reason- Yeah. Why- … we were able to

Speaker 1: [17:12] go that route. Yeah. You

Speaker 2: [17:14] bring up a good point though. What's that? How many different exterior colors kind of- perform, the more- Yeah … the darker. Is there a, a spectrum, like the darker you get, the quicker it dulls? Like, is there any truth to that?

Speaker 3: [17:29] Yeah, that's true. Uh, un- unless you go with the real high-end paints that are heavy in pigment and resins, they're not gonna hold their color like the lighter colors will. Even the dark greens, blues, they will fade 50% faster than a beige house. A beige house may never fade, you know? But, uh, yeah, the dark colors are famous for fading. So that's something to, to consider. If you're gonna go dark color, go with the top three or four grades of paint. In Sherwin-Williams, that would be like a, you know, their Resilient, their, uh, Duration, and their Emerald are their top of the line. You wanna go that route, especially on the south side. Mostly on the south side. And what you can do to cut costs is you can go with their mid, mid-grade paints on the rest of the house, and on the south end, spend the extra 100 bucks and get the best.

Speaker 1: [18:18] Interesting. Yeah. And that's actually a really good point, is that there are… And for someone that has never painted a house before, there are different grades and different costs to a can of paint. Yeah. It's not just, you know, a standard can of paint across all brands. There's different grades, and you need to know and have an experienced painter that can assist you- Yeah … or, you know, do the, go into the paint store. Those paint stores, they're, they're brilliant. They really know their stuff. Um, I know Sherwin-Williams specifically, they have to go- Yeah … to a, like, a school to learn the ins and outs, and be able to recommend- Yeah … the correct grade and color and all that stuff. So, um-

Speaker 3: [18:56] Mm, mm-hmm … Speaker: it's, it's interesting. If you're talking about a grade, let's take Sherwin-Williams, for example. The A100 is their contractor grade. You know, that, that rents out about $27 a gallon, my, my cost. Your cost's probably about 35. Their Emerald, my, my price on Emerald's 52, and yours is probably about 75. So way over twice as much, or just about twice as much, to paint the house with Emerald as opposed to A100. Now-

Speaker 1: [19:22] Hm … Speaker 3: uh, is it worth it? I think it is worth it, um, especially on the south side. And if you're gonna stay there a long time, you wanna have to maintain it, look for appearance for a long time, the upper-grade paints are the way to go. They cover better, they perform better. They're easier to use. Uh, so there's a reason they're more expensive.

Speaker 2: [19:41] Let's talk about prepping. What kind of steps do you recommend when you're wanting to paint an interior of a house?

Speaker 3: [19:51] Well, one of the first things we always do is, uh, after we've, uh, laid down our tarps and our masking and masked the base off, is we use a pole sander. That's something a lot of companies don't do. But it's a little extra, and if you put your hands on an average wall, especially with flat paint, it's gonna be kind of rough. Uh, with a couple minutes with a pole sander, and you can knock off all that roughness, and that's the first step. So we po- pole sand the walls, dust it off, and then you look for, you know, simple repairs, which is usually along the lines of nail holes. Some are more extensive than that. In, in order to find those, I use a, a handheld light to expose all the flaws that, that a wall might have, and then fix those, and sand them, texture them, and, and apply two coats of paint. I've never applied less than two coats of paint to a wall, and the reason be- unless it's the same color. If it's the exact same color, then use good paint, yeah, one coat But if you're changing colors at all, you've gotta apply two coats. I've never seen, uh, even the top grade paint that would cover a cut-in in one, in one pass.

Speaker 2: [20:56] Gotcha.

Speaker 3: [20:56] So that's kind of the, uh, an overview of, of a prep for a wall. Now woodwork's a whole different, different thing, but that's the way we approach a wall. We sand it lightly first with a pole sander, look it over for, for small repairs, uh, fix and sand those, sometimes texture, and then apply two coats of, of good top quality, uh, wall paint.

Speaker 2: [21:18] Gotcha. So you've probably, in your time doing this, probably seen a ton of horror stories. I mean, interior painting, it's something that a lot of people do themselves. Um, and so I'm sure you've seen some crazy stuff. What are the, some of the biggest mistakes that you see people doing when they're painting the interior of their hou- their homes themselves?

Speaker 3: [21:39] Uh, probably, probably just the, uh, the sloppiness of, of their job. You know, usually it takes a while to get the hang of keeping it off woodwork, keeping it off the wall where you're, where another color might meet. Clean lines. Another error that not only homeowners make, but, but painters in a hurry make, is not keeping a wet edge. So if you're doing a large wall in a bonus room, and it has a lot of side sheen, we call it, with a reflection, where you can see every anomaly in the wall, well, what you wanna do is start on one end and keep a wet edge, apply a good amount of paint. I always say if you can hear your roller kind of talking to you, smacking away, you don't have enough paint on it. It should really glide over the wall. Uh, so you wanna start at one end and work all the way to the other without stopping, and keep that wet edge, and you'll have a beautiful finish on that wall.

Speaker 2: [22:30] So in terms of interior paint, they come in different types like glossy and flat and semi-gloss and stuff. Can you talk about that a bit? Yeah. Maybe what works best-

Speaker 3: [22:38] Well, the- … in

Speaker 2: [22:39] which areas?

Speaker 3: [22:40] Yeah. Yeah. The mo- the modern, uh, well, the last five to six years, a, a matte finish has been the most popular. Um, used to be flat was the most popular, uh, for upper end houses, uh, in their great rooms and in their, uh, formal living was just flat. Flat was the color. Uh, was the sheen, rather. Now the sheen has a, a little bit of shine to it. It's called a matte, just above a flat. That is a very popular, uh, sheen for everything except kitchens and bathrooms. Kitchens and bathrooms are still, eggshell is still the most popular sheen, and, and because it has a lot better cleanability, um, and that's where you get a lot more grease and dirt and grime, right?

Speaker 2: [23:22] Yeah, I notice a lot with, especially like the flatter colors, th- they can, especially in bathrooms, you'll see like water stains on them, I feel. As opposed to the glossy, it's a lot easier to kind of keep-

Speaker 3: [23:34] Oh, yeah … Speaker 2: clean, like you were saying. Yeah, you're not gonna wash off a flat sheen. You're just gonna scuff it. So if you're gonna, if you're gonna go flat, there are some advantages in the flat, and that is it hides flaws a lot better.

Speaker 2: [23:46] Hmm.

Speaker 3: [23:46] Uh, but it doesn't hide dirt any better, and it doesn't… You can't clean it. So what I do, when I was raising kids, I kept a five-gallon pail of our main color for the bonus room in the garage ready to go, a- and the stairwell. So if I saw it looking, did that look bad, just get out the paint. A few minutes later, I had fresh walls, you know? So that is one way to go. But yeah, uh, the matte, matte is a nice compromise, uh, and it still washes, has a good look to it. It's not too shiny, and so that's been a, been a really popular sheen that has been adopted over the last five, six years.

Speaker 2: [24:19] Certain places have mold. C- certain places have, like, musty smells, a lot of times from smoking and stuff. When it comes to painting, how do you deal with that? Are there ways to remediate that?

Speaker 3: [24:30] Yeah, they have, they have primers. Uh, shellac is one of them that the, the, uh, paint stores sell. It… Let's say you're going into a house, you just purchased a house and, and they were heavy smokers or somebody was a heavy smoker. Uh, in order to mask that or block it really, you need a strong primer, an oil-based primer. Um, you can use a product called Shellac. You definitely need your respirators when you're using that primer, but it does the job. It blocks it. Uh, so that is, that is one way. They also have some odorless primers now that, that, uh, they say work. I haven't e- ever used them, but, uh, but that's the first thing you have to do is to smoke- for smoking walls, smokers walls. Gotcha. Um, if there's different anomalies that are showing up, like red, a red dot on the wall that some kid has, uh, marked it with a magic marker or something like that, you do need to prime that. But usually an oil-based product like Kilz will, will take care of that. Oh, I do wanna address what the mildew. Okay. So you do need… They have some, uh, some, uh, some products that come o- off the shelf that you can use, or you can use 20% bleach and water, kill the mildew and wipe it down, and then prime it. Uh, and that'll usually take care of all that-

Speaker 2: [25:41] Okay, perfect

Speaker 3: [25:41] mildew. After you clean it, you kind of have to address the cause. Yeah. So the mildew didn't just appear. There's, there's, there's either a ventilation problem, there's a fan problem, there's a leak in the roof, and you need to follow up on that and see where that's going.

Speaker 2: [25:55] Really quick, I guess my last question, how do you recommend people try out different paint colors? Any tips or tricks with like painting a little swatch on the wall and that sort of thing?

Speaker 3: [26:05] Yeah, for sure. Um, I always recommend that when you try your paint out, and I do recommend that you put it in various places in the house, uh, try to narrow it down to two or three colors, uh, as you're looking at the chips in the paint store. And once you've gotten it down to two or three colors, then take a, uh, a mini roller and roll out a patch. And just ro- the main thing is to roll out the edges so they disappear. You don't wanna put a hard edge on a sample because you'll actually see those edges. So don't paint out a perfect square. Make sure that you feather out the edges so it's not a perfect square anymore. It's just a, a, the color in the middle is solid, but the edges are faint.

Speaker 2: [26:45] Yeah, they fade. Okay.

Speaker 3: [26:46] That… But yeah, the other way you're doing it is a g- uh, so Benjamin Moore sells- One, one foot by one foot samples that you can just li- literally pin up all over your house, and you don't even have to get your brush dirty. So that's a, that's a, a option as well.

Speaker 2: [27:03] Perfect.

Speaker 1: [27:04] So in closing, let's say that there's, you know, I'm sure this depends on the house, and the size, and how many stories. But in general- Yeah … like when people are trying to guesstimate how long it's gonna take to get the exterior of their house painted, like, is it-

Speaker 3: [27:19] Yeah

Speaker 1: [27:19] you know, a couple days? Is it, you know, a couple weeks? Like, what, uh, what should people, like, estimate?

Speaker 3: [27:25] Okay. As a general rule of thumb, uh, count on about a week. If it's one day or two days, that's not enough time to appl- properly apply a double coat of dry, uh, you know, allow for drying time and preparation. It's just I've, I've got competitors that will roll in with, you know, 15 guys, and by lunchtime they're done and they're rolling out. But that's just not gonna give you a good paint job. So, uh, I would say a week to eight days, uh, with a three or four man crew is pretty, generally pretty common. Uh, if it's a small house, so let's say it's a 1,500 square foot rambler, we can go back to that scenario again, metal windows. Um, you're, you know, you can knock a house like that out in three days, no problem. Yeah. But if it's, if it's your average house, your average east side house, Redmond house, it's gonna take you a solid week with three guys. If you got four guys or five guys, maybe four days, but I would say four to seven days is the most common.

Speaker 1: [28:24] Yep. And that's probably about what it took for my house too. And mine, you know, the- Yeah, uh-huh … half of it is single story, and the other half is two story, because it was on a slight hill. So anything else paint wise you wanna bring up, or any other tips that, that people could, could use?

Speaker 3: [28:42] Well, if you have a house that's older than 1971, you wanna do a lead check test on it, and they're really easy to get. You can go down to, you know, any paint store and get a lead test kit. Just simply break it open and rub it on a siding. If it turns pink, it's probably got, uh, uh, some lead in it. So at that point, you wanna be care- careful how you deal with that. Uh, if you don't sand it, uh, and you just wash it off with a power washer, rinse it off, and paint it, you're good to go. If you're gonna scrape it and sand it, and all that, you need to use your, your respirators and, and gloves, and gather up the chips, and be careful. And then, then log, log the fact that you've done a lead test on it, a- and then you'll be good to go. So, uh, but you know, let's face it, we're moving out of that, that realm now with most of our, our homes f- from 1971 on really didn't have any lead in it. So, uh, I guess what I would always say to the homeowner is, you know, get a couple bids and go with the guy that you trust. And but I think the biggest thing is ask questions, uh, to his referrals, and how the, how were they to work with. They do a good job? You know, they take their time? Uh, and can I drop by and look at it? You know, you gotta do a little bit of homework because- It doesn't take that much experience to get into the painting business, but it takes a few years to really be good at it.

Speaker 1: [29:58] That's, that's some wise words of advice right there.

Speaker 2: [30:00] Welcome to real estate.

Speaker 1: [30:03] Yeah, same advice there. Geez. Um, all right- Yeah … so before we leave, Mike, well, first before I say this, I'm gonna say if anyone wants to connect with you, they can always go to faastpainting.com. That's F-A-A-S-T painting.com. What's a good phone number to reach out to you?

Speaker 3: [30:25] Yeah, my cell phone is 206-818-8272, and my website is www.mikefaast, I'm sorry, www.faastpainting.com. My music website is, is www.mikefaastmusic, mikefaastmusic.com.

Speaker 1: [30:42] Yeah, and that's what I was gonna get into next. You do all this so that you can, uh, play music on the weekends, and, you know, after work some days, and go do all that fun stuff. And you've, uh, I'm on your email newsletter whenever you got fun stuff going on, which has been obviously lacking- Yeah … in 2020, 'cause of COVID, but, uh, in the past- But- … it was always fun to see all your, your upcoming shows and stuff like that. What do you got going on? What's, what's happening?

Speaker 3: [31:08] Well, I mentioned that, uh, November 12th, uh, Wintergrass, which is the biggest acoustic music festival on the West Coast, is going to, uh, be debuting, uh, the fall version of their Pocket Grass newsletter. And, uh, they're gonna feature my western swing band, The Jangles, in their, in their newsletter. It's a digital newsletter, so you'll see a couple of videos of some songs we recorded this summer for them. So that's gonna be kind of fun. And, uh- That's pretty cool … apart from that, I'm, yeah, apart, I'm putting, putting together a, a wonderful trio in the vein of Nat King Cole with a pianist by the name of Andy Carr, and a bass player, Mike Ferrell. And we go out and do jazz standards, and so that's really exciting.

Speaker 1: [31:54] Awesome. That sounds awesome. I love Nat King Cole.

Speaker 3: [31:56] Yeah.

Speaker 1: [31:57] My mom always grew up-

Speaker 3: [31:58] Oh, yeah … Speaker: I grew up listening to her playing Nat King Cole all the time, so yeah. Awesome. Well- Part of growing up … thanks, Mike. I appreciate all your time- Great and your expertise. Thank you for sharing all that. Um, and if, you know- Oh, yeah … anyone has, uh, any questions, you can always reach out, reach out to mike@faastpainting.com. Rewind about a minute, you'll see his phone number or hear his phone number. Um, and that's it for today's show. Thank you very much for listening to the Awesome in Seattle podcast. As always, you can listen to us on all your podcast streaming options. Um, and you can always reach out to us at awesomeinossum.com. That's it. For Jason Salderarriaga and Mike Faast, I am Christian Nossum. Thanks for listening.

Speaker 2: [32:43] Bye, all.