Height No Problem

Many homeowners on the Costa Blanca who have properties that include extremely high walls round swim pools or general under build areas can be put off commissioning a house paint contract for the fear of the costs of scaffold or cherry pickers needed to access these areas.
Working now with a team of absailers (see photos above) The Villa Painters can now offer extremely competitive prices for this type of work and therefore no one should be nervous about asking for a quotation as we are sure that you will be pleasantly surprised at how affordable a top quality and fully guaranteed house paint can be.

Scrubbing the Decks

Everyone loves the luxurious look and texture of a wooden decking swim pool or patio surround it adds a touch of class to an area which can otherwise have an appearance which leaves a lot to be desired.

However many people are discouraged from installing these as they fear there will be a lot of maintenance involved and whereas it is undoubtedly true that wooden decking will require more care than for example ceramic tiles, if the maintenance is carried out on a regular schedule and not left for years until it presents a costly and time consuming problem there is no reason why the upkeep of decking should be any disincentive to its installation.

The trick to maintaining the appearance of wooden decking (as with other items such as wooden window frames and venetian windows and doors) is to establish a regular upkeep programe on a bi or tri yearly intervals and to employ a professional and experienced paint company such as The Villa Painters  to carry out a thorough renovation of firstly removing all old and flaking wood treatment and then applying two coats of a quality wood treatment such as Jotun Trebit.

The fortunate home owners can then enjoy their beautiful wooden decking and of course the admiring comments of friends and neighbours.

Before and After

It´s not always easy to take good photographs that illustrate the "Before and After" effect of our administrations of render and paint and the improvement in appearance to the property thereof, until that is we worked at the "Coelho" place on Monte Pego. Picture right...

Bought by mum Coelho as investment in the very early eighties when it was one of the very first houses in the area (clever mum!) her sons William and Kurt recently contracted me (clever sons!) to undertake the renewal of all of the paint work of the property to coincide with the other improvements and renovations they were undertaking.

They told me that together with a friend, they had painted the house themselves "about ten years ago" which news led me to the conclusion that they must have spent a fortune on all the Tipp-Ex they used to coat the house with because that´s what it appeared they had used when we started to wash the walls down with the high pressure machine that we use. The coating flew off in enough bits and pieces to fill four large bin bags with and the water was running white with the chalk that had been in paint to thicken it up. Also of course we removed significant amounts of the render which was in as bad condition on account of being poor quality in the first instance and then having suffered through twenty odd years of not being properly protected by a good quality paint.

The next task, after pausing briefly to take the required "Before" photos, was to fill in all the bare areas of render with the special mortar/filler that the paint companies manufacture specifically to undertake these sorts of repairs in that the composition has a much higher waterproofing and adhesive properties than normal fillers. Once completed we then applied a coating of stabiliser/sealer to prime the surfaces ready to receive two (in some areas three) coats of the world class Jotun Jotashield paint that we apply by airless spray equipment. Hey Presto! as good as (if not better than!) new.

This of course left only one task outstanding, to take the "After" photos of course!!

Painters Trany!

I am frequently asked which piece of our painting equipment I value the most and on reflection I generally reply that for exterior house paint contracts the Honda Motor Driven High Pressure Wash Machine because of its inestimable efficiency and time saving properties when we are cleaning down the walls of a property that has significant issues with peeling and flaking paint and render.

However when it comes to working indoors I, as legions of other painters and DIYers have discovered, that a radio playing in the background aids concentration and speeds up the production rate considerably.

Nowadays of course this music can be supplied by new technology gadgets such as MP3 Players and Smart Phones etc. however back in the day the industrious painter had to rely on the good old fashioned Transistor Radio which was know as "The Trany" for short.

Of course we now live in a world of cross dressers and gender benders and so the word "Trany" has acquired a completely different meaning to a generation not weaned on the music of the ubiquitous trany.

For this reason I am always very careful when asking a young employee if they could "Bring a trany in to work tomorrow?"

Tipp-Ex?

In a previous "post" (Before and After) I refered to a product called Tipp-Ex. It later occured to me that younger readers of my blog possibly wouldn´t know what this was. So to explain....Tipp-Ex was a product that was used to correct mistakes made when a person was typing (word processing) a letter or document using an old fashioned typewriter. It was supplied as a liquid form in little bottles that came with small brush to applicate included and also in small strips of paper that had been impregnated with the product in powder form.
It was an absolutely essential aid to the production of typewritten material, especialy to non professional typists which of course was nearly everyone!

In the photo on the right we can see a dear old lady of the typewriter generation using Tipp-Ex to correct a mistake on her Word Documet.  Aw bless!

You might be interested to know that the original Tipp-Ex  (Liquid Paper) was invented by the mother of Mike Naismith (true!) who was a member of the very popular sixties pop group "The Monkees" in this photo he is first on the left.


The Monkees of course were the very first "Boy Band" in that they were manufactured by the music biz with the express purpose of being an American rival to the Beatles.

To younger readers who are unfamiliar with the words "Typewriters" "The Monkees" or "The Beatles" I refer you to www.wikipedea.com

Feeling Blue?

Alan and Haulwen Black certainly were feeling blue when they realised how difficult it was going to be to recreate the colour of the walls of the house and gardens of French Artist Jacques Majorelle  that they had seen and admired when they had visited Marrakech.

So when constructing the sunken gardens adjacent to their villa in Javea a few years previously they had employed a regular painter using regular blue paint on top of less than regular wall render the result being that within a short time the render was parting from the walls and the paint had lost most of it´s original colour and was looking very sad indeed.

Our first task was to remove all the bad render and replace with a good quality waterproof product which would have the correct adhesive properties to remain in place and then we contacted the Jotun Paint Company who recommended that we used one of colours from their extensive colour palate applied to Majestic Plasticised paint which they assured us would both retain the strength of colour required and be extremely water repellent to provide the desired long life.

The results can be seen in the photo on the left.Two years on and still no sign of failing render and the colour just as strong as the day it came out of the tin.

So now the Blacks don´t have the blues.
Just the walls of the sunken garden!

It´s not an apple or a pear nor is it a lemon.

It is however the name of the telephone supplier that contrived to lose 

The Villa Painters their home/office telephone number of some nine years standing, because of not supplying the correct procedural information regarding Telefonica and a house move.

In the first instance of course this caused confusion and inconvenience and necessitated that all existing clients and family and friends were contacted and informed of the new number and the reason for the change explained.

Secondly it was then realised that it was too late to change the number in the advert in the current edition of the Focus on Professional Services Magazine (sister publication of Female Focus)

So if you saw the ad in the FOPS Magazine and dialed the old home/office number and were put off by the phone being answered by the Spanish woman who now has the number (doesn´t paint houses apparently) please try again with the new number.

965 047 973

Or the existing mobile number 627 806 661 and email address info@thevillapainters.com

Lastly and as if to confirm the veracity of the old adage that bad things come in threes it came to mind that the recently purchased box of business cards was also now surplus to requirements.

Oh dear!

Anyone have a use for a box of house painters business cards with the wrong phone number?

Suggestion please to customer services manager of the telephone supply company that is not an apple or a pear…………..