Our summer is going to be coming to an end soon and you may have put off the repair projects you meant to do all season. It seems like summer is never long enough in Portland for us to do everything we meant to do to the exterior of our homes. August is a good time to try and get a good contractor to come help with repairs before it is too late and it gets put off for another season.
At Absolute Painting & Power Washing we give hundreds of exterior bids each year and we also help homeowners discover repairs that may need to be done before painting. A huge problem in Portland is wood rot. More than half of the homes I go look at have some type of wood rot going on. It is typically on wood trim that was put on homes built in the last 20 years.
Many builders have used very cheap wood to put on homes to save money and the rain destroys it very quickly. You will see signs of it that can be very obvious in many cases. Some wood trim will actually have moss or mushrooms growing out of it. You will see wood that looks like it is getting big cracks or looks very soft. You can usually feel with your fingers if it is getting soft and needs to be replaced. If you catch the problem early you may be able to do a rot patch that you can get from a store. In most cases you just need to find a good contractor to replace the wood.
So now that you have discovered the problems you need to get them fixed. How do you find a good contractor to do the repairs? You can ask friends, family or neighbors who they have used in the past. You can go on Yelp or Angie’s List to find good contractors and read all about them.
When I find these problems I try to give you the names of contractors that can do this type of work. The last couple of years it has been more difficult to even get a contractor to come look at the problems as they are so busy with other work. We always keep a list of companies that do great work and we try to give our customers our best referrals. We do appreciate feedback on how these companies did for you so we know if we should keep referring them. Please take the time to research the people you are hiring to make sure they do good work and that they have a valid contractor’s license. The time you spend researching will be well worth it when the job is done right!
