<<<<Él no tiene ni idea!>>>>

Hi NPA, I hope you can help us, as we are unsure about what to do next………

…………….but we had our house wallcoated by a company in Stoke on Trent a few years back, but it is peeling underneath the kitchen window out the back. Its only in one place, but the affected paint area must be probably about 6 metres wide.

The coating looks fine on the rest of the house and to be fair to the very hard working  fellas who did the job, they were sub contractors, (and the foreman looked like Mr Bean if thats any help!?)  although i must admit they did a good wallcoating job and were very through. My only worry is that, as i said, the company who did it has gone bust, in fact they were exposed in the daily mirror as con men a few years back, do you know who I mean?

EDITOR: YES I DO KNOW WHO YOU MEAN (!), NOT CONNECTED IN ANY WAY WITH US OF COURSE, BUT I CAN’T ALLOW THEIR NAME TO BE MENTIONED ON THIS WEBSITE, YOU NEVER KNOW WHO IS READING THIS!!! …ANYWAY…………oh and no, Mr Bean, (nor the clueless Spanish prime minister) have ever worked for us………..!!!!!!!!!!

The coating has retained its colour (Andura waterlilly) and it also stopped all the damp we were having, but none the less the wife is mithering my head in to get the back of the house redone. Now, as the company went bust, who do I approach? I guess our guarantee is worthless yes?

I hope you can help us……………….

Mr. “E”, Longton, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire.

RESPONSE BELOW FROM GUY ALEXANDER BELL, Bsc.(hons), SURVEYOR.

Hi thanks for your email.

Despite what some  “Telegraph” Journalists (Who pretend to be builders) would have you believe with their sensationalist headlines , this is NOT a very common problem to happen, especially with the high grade weatherproof wall coating that was applied to your home in the first place and I am sorry to hear that the company went bust, i dont know the details so I cannot comment on that.

Whenever you get work done to your home, a good guarantee is always a good thing to have for this very reason, however I must ask you if you were offered a special wall coating insurance backed guarantee, and if so, you need to contact them first.

If not, well, I’m afraid you’re going to have to pay someone to come around for a day with new materials and the correct equipment, to fix and respray the rear wall area you mention with the equivalent Andura textured coating product, as per the factory specifications which are available from the Andura website. It is difficult to comment on individual cases without seeing them first, but as a general rule of thumb, it could be for the following reasons………..

1. The coating was not applied correctly to the house, or the men skimped on the preparation for the job, however, if you say that the rest of the house is fine, then perhaps another option should be looked at……………
2. If the bubbling area of wallcoating is under your window then this could suggest one of two things: Your windows are defective and have allowed moisture to seep in behind the coating, OR, your DPC damp proof course, has failed and has allowed moisture up into the wall, pushing the coating film off the wall.

Now, most exterior wall coating paint coverings are BREATHABLE, that is, they act like the human skin and allow the wall to “breathe”, ie, allow the typical levels of moisture present in the air in homes, to escape, but without allowing the moisture back into the house. In extreme cases though, too much water is trying to escape due to a defect in the structure of the house and therefore the coating has impeded the egress of water from the wall and has caused bubbles to appear. This can often be verified by pricking the bubbled paint area and water should seep out of it.

If this is the case, you need to get someone to take a look, and also check your windows, and the seals around the windows. make sure also that nothing is or has been leant against the coating area, trapping moisture such as rain etc. If this is NOT the case then its probably the DPC has failed.

THE STEPS “NEVER PAINT AGAIN” WOULD TAKE TO FIX THE PROBLEM WITH YOUR WALL COATING WOULD BE…………..

• To fully inspect and survey the problem area with your house, or at least the problem with the wall coating paint covering on your house.
• To agree a suitable course of action with the customer and a price to do the work.
• To remedy the fault in the building causing the coating to fail, in this case, you would need to give us more info but it sounds like the issues we suggested above…………
• We would then start from scratch and prepare the wall, cover the ground with dustsheets and mask up the windows, and then apply a coat of weatherproof Andura XL70 slush coat primer……….
• Spray a thick coating of Andura Texgard classic exterior textured masonry coating.

……although please consider one valid point: If you did not purchase warranty insurance with your guarantee, then whether its us or another wall coating company arrives to fix the job, there would be a minimum charge to fix it, and if the team are coming from some distance, a premium would also be added, so if you could provide us with a bit more info and some photos we would be happy to look into it for you.

We can be contacted FREE by calling our UK team on 0800 970 4928

Are you as “Confused” about stuff as Dubya was?!

<<<<Ex USA president and warmonger, George W Bush enjoying a "senior moment.">>>>

Don’t worry it’s not rocket science. Let me explain.  Most textured coatings are an advanced paint film that undergoes a far more intensive manufacturing process than normal house paints and as such have certain chemicals, resins, dyes, polymers and all sorts of stuff (!) to ensure longevity after application. Basically advanced exterior paints are designed to be significantly more hard wearing and durable than normal masonry paint.

The things is, much of these exterior advanced paints or wall coatings cannot be applied by members of the public as they often require special tools and equipment. A good example would be 2 houses next to each other, one having a treatment of a good quality textured coating such as “Andura TMC textured coatings”, and the other having a coat of traditional masonry paint.

Its obvious the coating will last MUCH longer than the normal masonry paint, but applying the 2 systems is very different. The normal paint could be applied by the homeowner, if they know what they are doing, with a ladder and a brush etc. (which is another story entirely)……

However, the advanced exterior resin based textured masonry coating (phew!) must be applied in a specific way, with specific specialist spray applying equipment, a GRACO president spray machine being a prime example, although there are other spray machines on the market.

These high quality, precision engineered coating “pumps” or house spraying machines can sometimes be substituted for a cheaper and usually very effective “hopper” style spray gun, which are top fed from a small paint reservoir above the trigger, but the editor knows only too well from his own experiences,  the operator of a top fed wallcoatings spray machine has to be VERY strong in order to hold the exterior coating spray machine at the correct pitch and level in order for the paint spray to be introduced to the exterior wall surface is an even and timely manner, allowing for undulations in the building wall surface and also climatic conditions such as wind. ……however if the operator is lucky enough to have to arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger, there’s nothing to worry about anyway !!!!

These particular spray machines are operated usually from a small petrol powered generator and air compressor, which is pulled around on a trolley. Although not as effective and the heavy duty way of doing things, by spraying a house with a Graco president airless spray gun, wired up, via huge heavy hoses, to a large single tool diesel compressor on a trailer! The former can also be a more environmentally way of applying exterior wall coating to a house.

So basically the sort of exterior coatings that we use have any names, here are some that we know of and their variations…………

wallcoatings
wall coating
Advanced exterior coating
Textured coatings
Elastomeric coatings (USA)
Liquid Vinyl siding (USA)
Resin based flexible coatings
Weatherproof paint
Waterproof coatings
Spray applied exterior coatings
Trowel applied wall coatings

and so on……

BLOG USER QUESTION (copied from recent chat window) :

Hello npa, i see you have a spanish side to your operations, do you have anyone in the javea (costa blanca north) area?

Spanish villa

NPA: Hi, thanks for your question, yes we do have a sub office around the javea area (which also deals with painting jobs and contracts south of valencia city), how can we help you today?

USER: We have a villa on the edge of javea, and we had it painted a few yearsa go but as its a bit exposed to the sea and wind and all that it has cracked, quite badly in fact, can you help us?

NPA: Of course. When you say cracked, what is cracked exactly, the paint or the rendering?

USER: I think you need to come and look at it really…, the crack in the outside wall is quite bad. it starts at rear and goes around lhs side…. Theres a few other stuff too like some damp in the underbuild, or the cellar as some call it, we have a leak in the rear terrace by the upper balcony, and as we had 2 new doors put in last year, they didnot repair the rendering very well around where they put the doors in. Is this something that you lot can do also?

NPA: Yes, again, no problem, if you give us a call on my mobile on 659 354759 (spain only) (or call us free if you are in the Uk on 0800 970 4928) and i’ll take some more details and get someone to take a look, no obligation of course, but we need to take a look to give you a price.

USER: A price for repairing the walls and putting your special wall painting stuff on yes? Cool, how do i do that, phone you yep??????

NPA: Yes thats right, our NPA exterior wall system.  Bes thing 2 do amigo is to take a look at out site which is specifically related to exterior villa and house painting in Spain. You can see it at www.neverpaintagain.es

Thanks for chatting today, speak to you shortly

GB

Is your roof looking bad?

We have the solution!

NEW PRODUCT NEWS!!!!!

Our professional contractors, (All seasons wall systems ltd), are pleased to introduce a new range of high performance roof coatings, manufactured by Andura, the leading brand of exterior coatings in Europe today.

These fantastic products are known as “Roofgard roof coating” and they are professionally applied to the roof of your house by our skilled teams. They are available in a range of 5 natural looking colours, and as they are totally weather resistant, they protect your roof tiles as well as looking great, in fact, they give the appearance of a whole new roof! They are available across the whole of the UK, and all products carry the BBA certificate of proof of performance, meaning they have been thoroughly tested and they do “what it says on the tin” (!)

They key features of this great new product are:

* The roof coating is Weatherproof & durable.
* Roofgard is colour fast so it wont fade or discolour.
* The roof coatings are resistant to all types of airborne chemical deterioration such as acid rain and pollution.
* Roofgard is quick drying and low odour. (VOC)
* Totally resistant to the growth of mould, algae etc, even in traditionally shady or damp areas!
* Completely maintenance free.

WE ARE ALSO LOOKING FOR SUITABLE ENTHUSIASTIC PEOPLE TO BECOME AUTHORISED FRANCHISE AGENTS FOR THE NPA ROOF COATING SYSTEM. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A CHANGE OF CAREER OR A NEW JOB FOR 2010 THEN CALL US TODAY FREE ON 0800 970 4928 TO DISCUSS HOW WE CAN HELP YOU! ….MORE TO FOLLOW LATER……..