Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to our valued customers!  It is a pleasure to work with property owners who desire quality, value craftsmanship, and are willing to make the investment for both.  We love working with you and beautifying your structures and spaces!

Happy Veterans Day!

Thank you to all who have served our country so bravely!  We appreciate your service and sacrifice. Our gratitude cannot be fully expressed through these few words or the military discount we offer, but BOVE Designer Finishes is deeply grateful for your service and sacrifice. We celebrate and thank you for asking what you could do for your country not what your country could do for you. Your sacrifice of time, life, and family is greatly appreciated and valued. It means we have the privilege of living in a nation that is free and freedom is not free!

Exterior Spruce Up

In many cases, your home is your most valuable asset and/or investment. In order to protect it, you need to preserve it. The best way you can preserve your home is to undo winter’s damage. The following services (among others) are required to do so: power washing, caulking, painting or staining, and wood maintenance or repair.

Here is a brief overview of each service so you can understand their purpose along with a few tips.

Power Washing:

• Required to clean surfaces like vinyl, wood, metal, concrete, and brick.
• Removes mold, mildew, dirt, stains, and oxidation.
• Should be done no less than once every two years.
• Different detergents and soaps make it easier to clean, so you don’t have to get too close to the wood or damage it or power wash every lap of vinyl siding.
• Be sure to check the detergent or soap’s ingredients and method of operation. There are some detergents that will kill shrubbery within five days.

Caulking:

• Adds to the insulation of your home.
• Preserves exterior wood by preventing moisture from getting into cracks around windows, doors, and trim.
• Most caulks in big box stores are primarily water, so in a few years they will dry out, become brittle, crack, and even pull away from the surface.
• Silicone caulk cannot be painted. It repels paint or stain, so it is not a good product for paintable or stainable surfaces.
• The best caulks to use are made with elastomeric and urethane compounds because they are paintable or stainable, durable, made to stretch, and last longer.
• Some really good caulks are “siliconized”, which gives the flow and hold of silicone, but allows it to be painted or stained.

Painting or Staining:

• Required to protect wood, vinyl, brick, metal, and concrete.
• It is very important to know the correct product to use for each substrate.
• Should I paint or stain? This typically depends on whether it is a horizontal or vertical surface. Paint does not hold up on horizontal surfaces as well as stain does. It can also depend on the desired life of a job. If it is a vertical surface you get more out of paint than any stain.
• Can I stain something after it has been painted? Yes, only after using an oil primer then a solid stain or an oil-based solid stain with proper preparation. However, this is not recommended. Stripping the surface to the bare wood and starting fresh is recommended.
• To prime or not to prime? You do not need to prime if the house is properly maintained and there is no chipping, peeling, or cracking; and mold or mildew has not set in, but sanding with 120 grit sandpaper or finer is required.
• Should I use oil (alkyd) based or waterborne (latex/acrylic) products? It depends on the surface it is being applied to or over because oil-based products penetrate while waterborne products stay on top.
• Always make sure the area to be painted or stained has been properly prepared.

Wood Maintenance or Repair:

• Water-damaged wood and dry rot are caused by improper preparation (priming and caulking), improper painting or staining, or just plain neglect. However, it can also be caused by improper building.
• On decks, conventional building has proven to be detrimental to the life of deck boards, so proper maintenance is essential.
• The tighter the spacing and more cracks in the wood the more attention is required and it should never be overlooked.
• It is cheaper and more efficient to maintain a deck (or any wood) properly than it is to replace it. This is why it is vital to hire a licensed, educated, professional contractor to spruce up the exterior of your home.

City Lights Auction

On February 10th, we participated in Wave City Care's City Lights Auction. Wave City Care is improving the lives of individuals, providing help and healing for the release of the best in human potential. They accomplish this through food distribution; tutoring, mentoring, and life skills programs; and addiction recovery and women’s support groups. For this event, we introduced a new service "Painter For A Day". This allows our customers to have those small painting projects they have been meaning to get done completed in one day for one price. It was a hit at the auction and we believe it will also be a hit with our existing and future customers.

Happy New Year!

As we enter 2012, we are very pleased to announce that 2011 was a year of increase for us. Our closing ratio improved by 17% and our net income went up by 11.9%. We could not have accomplished these goals without the support of our employees, customers, and associates. We appreciate you all and look forward to another great year! Our main goals for 2012 are to improve our customer and prospect follow up, track our job costs better, and complete more jobs in less time while we continue beautifying structures and spaces™. Happy New Year!