Questions about Victorian painting

Most two- and three-story houses are on the scaffold for one to three weeks, depending on how much wood needs repair and how many colors are going on. You get a day range in writing, not a promised date, because fog and rain move the days.

Yes, for exterior work. We close windows facing the scaffold in the morning, cover the garden and ask neighbors to move cars before the scaffold or a pole goes up. For interior work we cover floors and furniture and agree which rooms are off limits each day.

Dry months from May to October are the exterior season. Summer mornings are foggy, so we start the sunny sides first and wait for walls to dry. A rain day is a day off, and the schedule moves instead of being squeezed.

Plants are covered or moved, beds are tarped, the sidewalk below the scaffold is covered and kept open with a covered walkway where people pass. Neighbors get a note before the scaffold goes up.

Every surface and area, the repairs listed by location, the number of coats, the products and sheens, how many colors and where each goes, cleanup, the schedule, the payment stages and the warranty. If a line is missing, ask for it.

Rot found behind old paint, colors added after you sign, and fees the city charges for scaffold or street space. We price each one in writing before we do it.

Payments follow stages written in your contract, and the contract says what is due before work starts. Ask for the schedule before you sign.

Federal rules (the EPA's renovation, repair and painting rule) apply to paid work that disturbs paint in homes and child-occupied buildings built before 1978. They call for a certified firm, trained workers, plastic containment and a cleanup check. Every San Francisco Victorian is covered. Your estimate says what applies to your house, and our firm certification number is under Credentials on the About page.

It depends on where it stands. Scaffold on your own lot may need none; scaffold or a pole on the sidewalk or in the street usually does. We prepare the application, tell you the city's fee before we file and start the clock the week you sign.

Some districts, landmark buildings and HOAs review exterior color. We ask before we order paint, and we can print a color board for the review. The approval is theirs to give, not ours.

When a color doesn't point at a part of the house, it is noise. Three colors suit a plain facade. Five suit most Victorians with a bay and brackets. Seven suit a house with a tower, scrollwork and shingle patterns. We stop where the house stops.

Yes. We take a chip from a hidden spot, match it and paint a board for you to see. Old paint fades, so the match is to what the house is now, and you can choose to go back to what it was.

Bare wood gets primer, then two coats. Body and shingles take a low-sheen exterior paint, trim a satin or semi-gloss, sash and doors a semi-gloss, and small details can take gloss. Ask for the product data sheet for any paint we propose.

We do. You choose the colors and we choose premium exterior paint that suits the wood, then show you the data sheet. Special orders, like replacing a carved bracket, are written as an allowance.

Ask for the product data sheet for each paint we propose and read its label. We keep pets and children away from the work area and ask you to do the same during the day.

Peeling and blistering of the paint we apply, under the conditions in your written warranty. Terms, limits and exclusions are in your written warranty, which we hand you before work starts.