All Forum Posts by: Dan Ward

The only reason I considered selling is because I need to purchase a home near Little Rock AR area....I've looked at a few already and I just figured that with my income (65k-ish base+ nice quarterly bonuses) wont allow me to have this home in Jonesboro and a main residence a few hours away. Good thing...the town I'm wanting to move to, I would qualify for the USDA Rural development home loan...therefor I could get into it at zero down. I have considered doing a owner finance option, I guess originally I thought "Heck, sell it and get my 10k that I put down back and just sell it" ....now I've realized that when I sell it the realtor will make a nice pay check off of me. 

So here is the situation, my wife and I purchased our home exactly one year ago and I recently accepted a job offer about 2 hours away. When we purchased the home we put 10k down and now we have realized that if we sell with a realtor.....we will be lucky to break even. Currently the houses in my neighborhood rent for $1200+ per month (booming area and college town).....so it seems like I would be better offer selling my home for a few thousand less than I paid for it to an investor by offering them a great property that would have a 10%+ cap rate, would be a better deal for both of us rather than pay 7% commission and closing costs on the property. What do you guys think? Could I spin this situation into an opportunity for someone wanting to get into rental property or no? 

5K for a skimcoat job is a pretty penny! A paint job for a 1500sf town home would be roughly $1.25-2.00 per square foot and that's a lot more work than doing a simple skimcoat job....but I don't know the market in Indiana. I've done both skimcoats and applied knockdown textured walls, I think both are great and both can look great. A seasoned veteran with skimcoat tools and some hi-build primer can work wonders....or a Graco texture sprayer can make walls look brand new in no time!

@Steven Myers  I have a broad knowledge of the overall world of paint but much of my depth of knowledge is with PPG (Pittsburgh Paints). I can speak to the technicalities of PPG paints while I could only give a solid field review of Sherwin Williams or other major brands. On another note, Promar 200 is a good paint, some painters would say its the best...some would say it gets the job done. Painters are picky and will nit pick every thing there is to about paint quality. Aside from Promar 200 splattering some while applying with a roller...its a great product and is a great value!

@Fred Ramos

Its crazy how much damage smoking in a home can do! I have seen contractors have to rip out sheetrock just because the tannin yellow stains from nicotine continued to bleed through. You have done one of the few options you can, apply a oil based primer....I would always go with Kiltz because I'm pretty sure two coats on Kiltz oil base could kill cancer! As far as the grout in the shower, you don't have many options. One option you can try but it may not work the best, I'd have to see the project to give a better call....would be to scrape the grout as much as you can...then apply a grout/concrete stain which can be found at a local hardware or paint store...then apply a concrete sealer on top of the dried stain. A second option that I recommend you do NOT do, but it would get the stains out....would be a VERY diluted mix of water and muratic acid. The acid brings all of the minerals to the surface in the grout and would remove the stain, its just so risky dealing with the proper ratio of water to acid and could do more harm than good if you didn't clean up the area properly. Last but not least would be to use the good ol' "Cessna White" aircraft epoxy. It has been a long time secret in the world of bathroom remodelers. Its generally a two part epoxy, usually self leveling, and will make the shower look brand new. But, just like all epoxy's....they are a pain to deal with if you have never messed with them before. Its hit or miss Fred, it might be cheaper to just have the bathtub area recovered with tile unless you have a affordable painter that could apply the epoxy.I hope this helped @Fred Ramos feel free to PM me if you have any other questions about this project. 

Also, I apologize @Joel Owens it did not tag you in the above reply!

@Joel Owens Honestly I'm not the biggest fan of low VOC paints and they are rarely used in Arkansas. Low VOC paints use the exact same colorant that regular paints use so you will never actually have a zero VOC paint, if they tell you that...they are lying. They are generally more expensive, I would say at least $5.00 more per gallon, and that's because of two reason. One, its more of a hassle to stock the different bases needed for such an small product line, Second is because a lot of commercial jobs will use low VOC paints to obtain LEED credits on their project and you can simply charge quite a bit more for the exclusivity of the paint. The benefits of the low VOC paint would be less smell and it is great if you have kids with bad allergies, the low VOC paints seem to be better for them. I would say one of the best interior home paints you can get would be "Pure Performance" by PPG....its low odor....low VOC...great coverage...and generally you can get it for around $20 per gallon. Its a great buy if you are repainting your home and have kiddos around. 

@Matthew Paul  The simplest answer would be that exterior paints have products such as mildewcides and UV protective elements to help prevent the suns damaging UV rays over time. Have I seen someone put semi-gloss interior paint on an exterior door? Yes. Will it work for a year or two....yes, maybe even longer. Interior and exterior paints use the exact same colorants, are handled the same way, its just that some exterior paints harden and cure faster than interior paints to prevent any water damage. Exterior paints generally also have more Ti02 in the base to allow for better coverage and a more scrub-able/durable surface. Can you use an exterior paint inside? Heck yes! People do it quite often.

@Chris Martin  Oddly enough you should be able to still use the thawed out latex paint and it will work just fine. What you will want to do is get a paint stir paddle that attaches to a drill....because you are going to need to mix the heck out of the paint! The colorants usually separate from the latex mixing base so you will want to stir it on high speed for roughly 5 to 10 minutes. After mixing I would strain the paint into a new bucket, you can use a paint strainer or even a pair of panty hose. This will get any clumps of dried latex out of the finished product and you will be ready to roll!

@Tim Lindstrom I know of a product that you will love and it will work perfectly for you. Its call BreakThrough (link will be listed below)...this product is considered a water borne acrylic, simply meaning that it will go on similar to how a latex would yet it dries like an oil. It seems odd but water borne acrylics can adhere to just about anything! I have seen them used on concrete floors, cabinets, doors, trim, metal, and the list goes on! It will run you about $45 for a gallon but it is well worth it! You can simply clean the surface and apply the BreakThrough. No need to prime BUT priming never hurts. Another great option would be to use a 100% acrylic exterior latex paint....something like Sherwin Williams "Duration" or PPG "Manor Hall". They will adhere great to the PVC but you will need to scuff, clean, prime and then paint the surface. I'm a huge fan of BreakThrough and other WB acrylic options just because they are extremely durable, so that would be your best bet in my option. 

 (http://www.ppgporterpaints.com/products/specialty-exterior/break-through-interior-exterior-paint)

@Dawn Anastasi

I'm not really sure of an exact website to reference but I'm sure there is one out there. The problem is, PPG owns a huge majority of the paints you will find in the USA. The make the paint for Menards, Walmart, Olympic (Lowes and Home Depot) while Sherwin Williams also owns quite a few of the private labels that are available. I've seen some really cheap paints that worked great for their cause such at "Multi Pro" from PPG which is like $5.00 a gallon but is great for ceilings and garages. Dutch Boy, Farrell Calhoon, Benjamin Moore and some other smaller companies offer a great product and can generally be a fair market price....it just seems that they tend to be a little more inconsistent than the major brands. Ben Moore Aura is an awesome interior paint but it will set you back a few extra pennies. 

Also....thanks @Bill S.! I was wondering why I couldn't get my mentions to work on previous posts. (@Account Closed & @Steve B. .....just so you will both get the notifications that I replied to their question earlier)