8000sqft of painting fun......with a brush - 56k NO
 

Some of you may remember me sharing pictures here and there of the building I've been working on since spring, but I wanted to make a dedicated thread to share my struggles with you all.

Last year my buddy and I painted the front building, but after breaking my hand/wrist my "buddy" tried to take advantage of my generosity and in the end his greed tore up our friendship. So this year I'm working on the back building solo. All while trying to juggle my own business and multiple other tasks at the same time.

I'm close to being finished but unfortunately I've saved the hard part for last. The bay doors need a coat of primer and possibly 2 coats of paint. This is after I've already power washed them twice and sanded them as I've been going down the line. Currently I'm working on our 2 shop doors, but then I have 4 more to go after that. The building itself is about 75% done.

Due to the fact that we have a bodyshop in the complex, using a sprayer was out of the question. So every square foot of this place has been brushed, most spots 2 coats, some even 3. I can honestly say that the areas I've deemed "finished" are perfect. Everyone keeps telling me to hurry up and get the shit done and make the money, but I promised the owner I would put my best foot forward on it so I need to keep my word.

Here's a random mix of pictures from around the building. The building is going from that washed out blue color to the new medium gray color, while the trim and pass doors are a few shades darker (outerspace). They let me pick out the colors when I started the first building and so far everyone is happy with how its coming along. I just cant wait until its done and I don't have to dick around with it anymore. lol

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You need:

more friends
more ladders
more brushes.


Big ass job. no jealous.

I had 2 guys give me a hand so far and all they did was fuck it up. They both were sloppy and missed too many spots for me to keep them working. All I did was pay them so I can go back over what they did. Lol

Its just like they say, if you want something done right. Plus this way when I get the final payment I don't have to share it with anyone. :)

What happened to fae's comment? I saw what that queer wrote.

Worthless post is worthless.


Anyways I think you should have just stopped weeks ago and joined the wall street protest people. Seems like less work, and more trendy.

lul jk.

Honestly good to see someone taking pride in their work.

Thanks man!

I grew up hanging out at this place and hope to expand my own business down there within the next year, so it means a lot to me to make sure I do a good job. Who knows, maybe another painting job will come my way after this if someone likes the work I did. Not to say that I'd take another job, but I might.

Thankfully the LL is meeting me today with a payment. Buying materials with my own cash sure hurts when you start adding it up week after week. I guess that was my own fault from writing up the estimate and bill the way I did. Ohh well, live and learn right.

metal building paint job = electrostatic painting ftw

I don't get it. Why can't you spray?

When you are done, they need to order a big big container and clean that place up. MAN there is a lot of junk around that building.

Best of luck!

Well, the body shop has 15-20 cars outside at all times, so over spray would be an issue on the whole front of the building. Not to mention the owners specifically asked me to roll/brush everything. Not really sure why, but I'm guessing its cause of the body shop.

Yeah. Between our foundation forms, oil drums, lumber, etc, and all the welding shop's extra metal laying around the building is a mess.

I've cleaned up our area a bit since some of the pictures were taken, but the welding shop area photos are recent. He told me he cant move his racks with all the steel and to just "paint around them". lol

I spent a little over 3 hours yesterday on just one door. That's just the 1st coat of primer too. Not having scaffolding is fucking killing me. :vash:

it looks like there's plenty of scaffolding scattered around the building :giggle:

use available resources.

That doesn't really look fun. I'd help anyway for some beer if I wasn't 3000 miles away..

How long since the truck under the contractor sign has moved?

Now that you point it out, maybe I can use the body shop shelving as a makeshift scaffold.

At one point to save from using the ladder method I was laying down on the roof, leaned over the side doing the top trim on the side.

It's not so bad, but its quickly becoming the last thing I want to do. lol

The gf might come down with me this weekend to play catch up. With all the rain we've had here lately its slowed me down, so tomorrow and Sunday I'm going to have to suck it up and go get some done.

Usually I smoke a fat bowl pack before I climb up the ladder. I actually found that wearing my ipod and smoking while painting helps me concentrate better. I focus more on what I'm doing and almost get lost in the painting.

If I run down to the "bar shop" where everyone hangs out, I end up having a few and I end up running back up and just putting everything away. The beer just makes me not give a fuck.

That's actually just the box under the sign, 2 of them side by side. In the one picture that has the miata, you can see the red topkicks in the background. We bought those from a tent company in RI and they came as box trucks. We separated the boxes and use them to store our footing lumber and the trucks have been converted to carry our forms. Boxes have been sitting there for at least 6-7 years.

My brother and I have said since then we should have kept one as a box truck. They even came with lift gates! Right now something like that would totally come in handy for me.

These pictures are from today. 1 gal of the primer was almost enough for 2 doors. I still need to do a little touch up primer and then they'll be ready for paint. I'm not looking forward to doing the door in the last picture. :noes:

The clouds rolled in and sent me home early. I plan on going back down in the morning and staying for the majority of the day. I need to make sure I don't run out of warm days! lol

Coincidentally, the miata ended up in the first picture I took and the last picture I took.

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certainly makes the place look hella betta, but painting my brush is ghey on that much surface area.

doors need paint

I'm primed door #4 yesterday. 2 more to go, then hopefully just one coat of paint will do.

Well after our neighbor down there came out and shit talked me on Sunday I've decided to leave his shit idle for awhile. He wants to run his mouth like he's my boss, so I'll show him how much I give a fuck.

So yesterday after I got our door primed I went back behind the welding shop and got it finished. I still have to do a little bit in the crumbled up corner up top, but otherwise its done. If you compare it to the before pictures above you can really see how much it cleaned up the place. They also had the oil tank moved inside so that helps too.

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The weather hasn't been forgiving, so I've been doing what I can. Today it rained all day so I just stayed home and jacked my dick, I mean did jack shit.

This past week I was able to get the welding shop, as well as our pass doors done. They just need some touch up around the trim. Our right bay door is painted and done, the second one is primed ready for paint (hopefully tomorrow).

Yesterday I worked on the top trim on the peak side of the welding shop and got it done, 2 coats. Now all that's left is to paint that side and then really just finish the rest of the bay doors with some touch up on the trim afterwards.

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I cannot wait until this is done and finally off my mind!!

Well since the tree fell on my car and totaled it I've decided that I need to come down here every day until its done.

I figure if I paint from now until next Wednesday I might be able to finish it. Thats depending on the weather and the amount she'll let me tack on for extras. As it stands I already have a list of $1300 worth of extras.

The day I can finally say I'm finished and she pays me the reminder will be a great day. I'll probably head right to the Subaru dealership and buy whatever they have that I like.

On top of all this, the tree falling on the cars and me staying at my rents for the rest of the week, getting a new job working for her father, etc etc, we have 14 jobs lined up for foundation work. Which means starting next week or the week after, I can probably start working 50-60 hours pouring concrete on top of all of this.

Too much stress and not enough hours in the day. Some days I get that shooting pain in my chest like I'm having a heart attack, that's usually when I start drinking. Like I did tonight. :)

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I've been painting non stop and I'm almost done. I had to stop about 30 mins ago cause it was starting to get too cold out. Otherwise this whole week I've been at it from sunrise to sunset.

Hopefully between Saturday and Sunday I can finish all the doors 100%. Then all that's left is to finish the side and some touch up around the door trim. Ohh and paint our office door red. Then I'm done! :)

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I should have the building painted by the weekend!!!

All the bay doors are 100% done and I just need to touch up the trim around the one I painted yesterday. The building itself has less than 2 hours left of painting to go, then its just our office door that needs to be painted red.

Although I said I would throw all my supplies away once I finished, I'm thinking that I may try and line up another one to start in the spring. I'll miss looking forward to the large chunk of cash I've been working toward once this building is finished.

Here's a quick before shot to show just how bad the doors were. 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of paint on each one. I pray the rust doesn't manage to poke through. :noes:

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Great job man. That is a heck of an improvement. Keep up the good work.

Thanks!

The landlord called me today and I told her I'm about 1 day away from having it done and she said just email her the final bill when I'm all set. Then she asked me if I'd be interested in painting the whole inside of the house that's on the property (which her son lives in and is my age). I told her to please consider me her own personal painter and whatever she needs I'm there. ;)

This is how I spent my black Friday.

Using a scraper I removed 95% of the blue paint, then used our compressor to blow off the rest of the little shit. Sanded and cleaned X2. Got 2 coats of primer on and while I was in between coats I was working on the side of the building, finishing that up. Problem came when it was time for the 2 coats of red. The sun was going down fast and the temp was dropping 2deg every time I looked at the thermometer.

I closed up the shop and got our kerosene heater out to help me. It worked great, but I had to keep going outside to have a beer to keep away from the air inside the shop. By 8 I had the 2 coats on and dry. Door is hung and I guess I'll see how it looks when I pull in today. :) These pics are from yesterday.

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Last picture is an older before shot. Ill update the after shot later today.

Hope ya remembered to alternate left/right..

[Miyagi returns from fishing as Daniel is painting the house] Oh, miss spot.
Daniel: What spot? Hey, how come you didn't tell me you were goin' fishing?
Miyagi: You not here when I go.
Daniel: Well, maybe I wanted to go, you ever think of that?
Miyagi: You karate training.
Daniel: I'm *what*? I'm bein' your goddamn *slave* is what I'm bein' here man, now c'mon we made a deal here!
Miyagi: So?
Daniel: So? So, you're supposed to teach and I'm supposed to learn! For 4 days I've been bustin' my ass, and haven't learned a goddamn thing!
Miyagi: You learn plenty.
Daniel: I learn plenty, yeah, I learned how to sand your decks maybe. I washed your car, paint your house, paint your fence. I learn plenty!
Miyagi: Ah, not everything is as seems...
Daniel: Oh, bullshit! I'm goin' home, man

^^^^

After brushing the entire building by hand I certainly feel like it was training me for something. If anything though, my legs got the biggest workout from going up and down the ladder 100 god damn times a day! :vash:

If I ever decide to take this seriously and maybe start looking for more jobs, I'll be investing in some type of scaffolding and a sprayer for sure.

I went over all my receipts from Sherwin and totalled up all the extra labor and came out with $2500 in extras. So the final invoice is sent and now I just await a response.

Tomorrow I'll take pictures from the front of the building to show how the red door actually came out. I think it looks TITS personally. Once I get our new CFC sign up it'll all come together.