House Painting

Country Walk has approved color schemes for painting your home. You can find these schemes here. Note this is simply the list of the Sherwin-Williams approved color schemes for Country Walk. The ACC highly recommends you use the paint book as a starting point. There are five paint books with random schemes to help you. All-in-One has two of these paint books. 

A $50 (returnable) deposit is required to check out a book. It’s always a good idea to get paint swatches and samples before making your final selection.

Homeowners can check out a paint book at All-In-One Community Management, you do not need an appointment and can just ask at the front desk.

The office hours are open Monday through Thursday 9:30 am – 5pm and Friday 9:30 am – 4 pm

Office Address: 110 Evans Mill Drive Ste 702 Dallas, GA 30157

Customer Service: 678-363-6479

When getting ready to paint your house, you must submit a modification request form with paint color choices to the ACC before beginning the project – even if you plan to paint your home the current colors. Before painting or making any change to the exterior of your home you must receive approval from the Architectural Control Committee.

Painting Information

Painting the exterior of your home beautifies, revives and protects your home better than any other home improvement project. At a minimum, the things that should be done are:

    • Power wash the house to remove mildew, dirt and chalking ensuring proper paint adhesion.
    • Repair or replace rotted or damaged wood including brick mold around doors and windows; consider PVC in lieu of wood where possible.
    • Caulk body, eves, windows and door frames to seal off moisture, drafts and siding where seams were separated.
    • Re-glaze windows where missing or loose to seal out moisture and prevent deterioration of the mullions.
    • Scrape and sand all loose or peeling paint to provide an appropriate bonding surface for application of the primer and finish coats.
    • Prime bare wood for proper finish coat adherence.
    • Spot prime where paint is peeling.
    • Repaint the House.

Sherwin-Williams put this book together for the Country Walk ACC. Ten of the 31 approved house body colors are represented along with four choices of trim and accents. Following these pages is a complete list of all approved colors.

If you’re a new home owner or someone who has never had their house painted before, you may not be familiar with the ACC rules regarding what is included in the body, trim and accent. The following explanations should help and if not you can always contact your ACC to get clarification.

The body of your home includes the walls covered with siding, stucco, rock, or brick. It also includes garage doors and bay walls. It does not include corner boards, porch ceilings. Note, rock and brick should not be painted.

The trim of your home includes corner boards, shutters, boards surrounding windows (sashes, mullions, and casing), board and batten, porch beams, porch columns, porch ceilings and gutters and downspouts.

Accent items include shutters, metal roofs over bay windows, front doors, staggered shakes, and architectural round shingles or other architectural details. Note: staggered shakes, architectural round shingles or other architectural details can be treated as accents or trim and stated on your request and you may paint them with either another trim color or another accent color.

The roof vent pipes and the chimney caps must be painted a flat black. There are no exceptions.

Regardless of whether you are determining if you want to hire a professional or do the job yourself, you should know the following:

    • Painting the exterior of your home is a big job so determine if you have the knowledge and time to properly prepare the house for painting. You must be able to:
    • Be patient, it’s going to take you weeks or even months to do this work yourself.
    • Replace rotted wood.
    • Pressure wash the house to remove mildew, dirt and chalking for proper adhesion and be careful not to get water between pieces of siding and other structural coverings.
    • Caulk the body, eaves, windows and door frames to seal off moisture, drafts.
    • Re-glaze windows where missing or lease to seal out moisture and prevent deterioration of the mullions.
    • Scraping and sanding of all loose and peeling paint to provide an adequate bonding surface for application of the primer and finish coat.
    • Apply primers to bear wood, again for proper finish coat adherence.
    • Repair bricks molds, window nosing, fascia, soffit and other trim.
    • If you hire a professional painter, expect to pay from $1,000 to $5,500 or more, depending on the size and condition of your house. Regardless of whether you hire a pro or do it yourself, painting your house is something you won’t want to repeat in a few years. With this in mind, here are 10 critical rules that will ease the work and help ensure a beautiful, lasting result.

 

  1. Don’t skimp on materials. Pay for top-quality paint, primer and caulking compound. Top-quality paint lasts longer, and flows and covers better than poor-quality paint. Buy paint that has a lifetime warranty against defects in the finish. Remember, you get what you pay for and you want to use 100 percent acrylic paint.Flat finishes, preferred for siding, do a good job of hiding defects and irregularities. Satin and semi-gloss enamels, used for trim, are more durable and easier to wash. Although that is mostly true but with lighter colors, you should talk to your painter and take their advice.
  2. Do the necessary preparation. For paint to adhere well, it must be applied to a surface that is clean, dry and not flaking or peeling. Depending on the condition of existing siding and trim, this often means considerable scraping and sanding may be required before you can paint.Begin by washing the surfaces. You can use a hose and a scrub brush with water and detergent, or a pressure washer. If you use a pressure washer, you must be careful not to drive water deeply into the joints between siding or erode the surface of the wood with the high-pressure water spray.
  3. To remove loose, flaking paint, you’ll need a scraper. Then, for removing tougher paint and smoothing the surface, a 5-inch disc power sander or a random-orbit sander will work well. Start with 60-grit sandpaper and follow-up with 100-grit sandpaper.  Remove loose paint and smooth the surface. Use a putty knife and wood filler to fill cracks and holes. Let the filler dry, and then sand these areas again. Brush off all of the dust, caulk the joints, and allow the caulk to dry before applying primer.
  4. Don’t skimp on coats of paint. Begin with a high-quality oil-alkyd primer if you’re painting over bare wood or metal for your base coat. Some painters like to tint the primer toward the final paint color to minimize the need for two finish coats of paint. Others prefer to tint the primer to a contrasting color, which will highlight any spots where the final coats haven’t completely covered.  Apply the first finish coat and, after it becomes tacky, apply a second top coat.
  5. Use the right tools. A high-quality brush, roller and, for some houses, an airless sprayer can be rented at most home improvement centers or tool rental outlets. The easiest way to apply primer and paint to textured surfaces is to spray it on with an airless sprayer, and then back-roll it by hand with a roller to ensure adhesion.  If you have never used an airless sprayer, pay close attention to the equipment’s directions and gain a little experience by painting a less-conspicuous side of the house first. Work from a 5-gallon paint bucket and use a paint strainer so paint doesn’t clog the sprayer.
  6. Don’t paint your house yourself unless you have the time, tools, skills and stamina to do the work. Depending on the size and height of your house and the condition of the existing siding, preparing and painting a house on your own can be a tedious, difficult job.
  7. Wait for temperate weather. Don’t paint on hot days, in the rain, or during windy or dusty weather. Ideal temperatures for painting are between 50 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Hot weather causes the paint to dry too quickly, such as the direct sun. When possible, follow the shade. Temperatures below 50 degrees may prevent the paint from adhering to the surface properly. Dampness or dew can bubble surfaces.
  8. Cover everything else. Protect decks, shrubs, gardens, patios and walkways from paint spills and splatters with drop cloths or plastic sheeting. This will save you from big cleanup problems later. If you use an airless paint sprayer, masking and covering will be absolutely imperative – overspray can even coat your neighbors’ cars.
  9. Paint using proven techniques. If you’re a painting novice, do your homework. You can find lots of free information on the web, including videos by pros and experts that show specific techniques.  Work from the top down, starting with overhangs so fresh paint won’t drip on newly painted surfaces. Paint the siding, and when that’s dry, tape around windows and doors, and paint the trim. As soon as you’re finished painting the trim, remove painter’s tape or masking tape so it won’t leave a residue. After all of the paint has dried, touch up where paint hasn’t covered fully.
  10. Get at least three detailed bids from various painting contractors and ask the professional painters for a copy of his / her business license and perhaps more important, an Accord Certificate of Liability Insurance and Workers Compensation. You should also ask references of past customers and if possible, contact several of them and determine if the customer was satisfied with their work and if not, why not.  Why do I need them to have these insurances you ask? The average homeowner will never know the answer to that question until a contractor has a problem resulting in damage to their home or property. This applies to any contractor. One assumption that homeowners have is that their homeowners insurance will cover them if something happens while someone is working on their house. The fact is that in most cases if you hire a contractor licensed or not to work on your home and he is not properly insured the insurance company is under no obligation to help you with the cost to repair damages caused by that person or company. If you doubt this, take the time to read your policy or ask your insurance agent. You will be glad you did.