If weather conditions have been good, the representatives of other branches of house building have got along smoothly excepting a little shaking up now and then, caused mostly by the men occasionally yielding to the seductive influences of Old John Barleycorn or his rival King Growler. The owner, having previously engaged or contracted for inside painting, now calls on the painter. The man of colors and brushes is always ready to promise quick work (and we are free to say the mysteries of his trade are equal to any reasonable emergency), and is apt to humor his employer’s impatience, and meekly submits to his wishes knowing that his employer’s hurry is his gain. House-builder, did it ever occur to you that first-class inside painting is a slow process? Think of this; after the first coat is laid, it should stand long enough to become thoroughly dry, dry enough to be sand-papered. The second coat should be a little heavier than the first or priming coat. It does not dry as fast as the first. (We are speaking of good materials properly proportioned.) Each coat must be thoroughly dry before it is sand-papered. Any kind of good work requires three coats. Extra good work—four, besides varnishing.
If you succeed in doing this work inside of four weeks you are fortunate. Thus you see it requires time to do good work. Time for the men to do theirs, and time for Nature to do hers. Sometimes Nature frowns and lowers a curtain of humidity for days at a time, which prevents the oils from drying. It is possible for your painter to finish all four coats in as many days; but if he is honest and you have not hurried him unreasonably, his conscience will suffer. Good painting, like other good things, is durable, looks well, and is the cheapest in the end.
Good painters pride themselves on doing good work. So if you desire first-class work, you should give the painter a reasonable price, and sufficient time in which to do the work properly.
There is doubtless more adulteration in paint than in any materials used in house-finishing. So general is this the case that it is often difficult to get pure materials. This is caused by the low price of the products of petroleum, the earth materials used to adulterate mineral paints, and the demand for cheap work.
ATTENTION, ROOFERS!
Our Broad Rib Roofing and Steel Plate Shingles are not protected with a coat of richer metal like those made of tin or terne plate, and consequently their durability depends upon the paint with which they should be covered.
For this purpose nothing, so far as we know, is equal to a mixture of pure unboiled linseed oil and the oxide of iron. The Shingles should have two coats, one before they are put on, on both sides (this we do), the other immediately after they are laid. This last coat should be repeated every four or five years.
Remember, it is the rust-preventing qualities of linseed oil, combined with the oxide of iron, that makes steel or iron sheets resist the corrosive action of oxygen, which is ever present in the atmosphere. ([See page 101.])