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CMU wall with Efflorescence.

What is Efflorescence

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Efflorescence.  What a weird word.

Efflorescence – ef-flo-res-cence (ef∋ le res∋ens), 1. a change on the surface to a powdery substance upon exposure to air, as a crystalline substance through loss of water. 2. to become encrusted or covered with crystals of salt or the like through evaporation or chemical change.

In English, efflorescence is that white, powdery stuff that you see on masonry walls.  Because this isn’t a chemistry class, we are going to focus on prevention and remediation, instead of causation.

Although efflorescence is ugly and sounds scary, prevention and removal are simple and inexpensive.

How to prevent efflorescence

This is very easy.  Make sure that the masonry substrate is  at least 14 days old.  If it seems uncured or “hot”, wait another week.  Then, prime it using a masonry primers.  Sherwin Williams makes a great product called Loxon Primer.

Once you have primed, simply apply an appropriate top coat and you are done.  If you followed all of the manufacturer’s instruction, you should not have any problems with efflorescence.

How to remove efflorescence.

This is more difficult than prevention, but it isn’t a huge problem.  First off, efflorescence is a cosmetic problem.  It does not degrade the monolithic strength of the substrate.  The efflorescence on the wall pictured above is ugly, but it won’t hurt the wall.  So if you have efflorescence and it doesn’t bother you, leave it alone.  If its unsightliness does bother you, here is how you fix it.

  1. Clean the efflorescence with muriatic acid.  Be careful; hydrochloric acid is nasty stuff.  You may need to dilute depending on the molar strength.
  2. Scrape the efflorescence.
  3. Make sure you have rinsed all of the muriatic acid and allow everything to dry thoroughly.
  4. Prime and repaint using the system described above in the “prevention” section.

I hope that you were entertained while reading this riveting expose` on efflorescence.

GreenWave is also the best interior house painters, exterior house painters, and house painting company and serves Atlanta, Alpharetta, Brookhaven, Buckhead, Chamblee, Doraville, Dunwoody, Grant Park, Inman Park, Johns Creek, Duluth, Milton, Roswell, and most major suburbs.

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Atlanta Faux Painting & Finishing

Faux Painters in Atlanta

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Wallpaper has been out for a long time.

While you can do a lot with good color schemes, sometimes it is nice to have some extra decorum in your home.  A great way to achieve this is with faux painting.  There are literally dozens of faux finishing techniques that all have different appearances.  Faux Painters are the true artists in the paint contracting world.  Faux finishes are special because each one is one of a kind and can never be reproduced exactly.  They also look really cool!

Faux finishes vary from technique to technique.  Each technique renders a different appearance.  Venetian plaster looks like a marble or stone look.  Some ragging techniques make the walls look like leather or cloth.  Here are some popular and beautiful faux finishing techniques in which GreenWave Solutions specializes:

  • color washing
  • sponging
  • ragging
  • metallic
  • glazes
  • antiquing
  • murals
  • Venetian plaster
  • stripping
  • combing
  • texture
  • suede
  • sandstone
  • Our faux painting specialist is skilled in all faux finishing techniques

Faux finishing requires more skill than “regular” painting.  Faux finishing requires an eye for art, as well as a skilled hand.  Some faux finishes require more skill than others.  Ragging, for example, is easier to do than painting a mural.  Venetian Plaster is extremely labor intensive.

To learn more about faux painting techniques, call or email us and our Atlanta faux painting specialist will provide a consultation.

GreenWave Solutions also does faux painting in Alpharetta, Milton, Roswell, John’s Creek, Buckhead, Midtown, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, and Brookhaven.

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GreenWave Solutions has the most skilled painters in Atlanta.

Tannin Stain, Painting Company, House Painters, Atlanta, Alpharetta, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Brookhaven, Buckhead, Roswell, Marietta, Milton, Decatur

How to Avoid Wood Tannin Bleed from Knots

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We completed a project last week that gave us some trouble.  Because this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this problem, I felt that it warranted an article so others can avoid this problem.  The problem is tannin and resin bleeding through knots and “self-priming” stains and paints.

Many of the new paints and stains boast “self-priming” properties.  The selling point is that “it requires fewer coats and products to finish the job so you save time and money.”  While this sounds awesome, it is misleading.

No current product that says “paint and primer in one” or “self-priming” is going to perform as well as separate primers and paints.  For simple applications such as interior painting on previously painted substrates, these products perform fine; but when getting into applications in a more demanding environment, they fall short.

I specifically speaking about wood stains that say “self-priming to prevent tannin bleed.”  My instinct is to ignore these statements and use a stand alone alkyd wood primer or shellac primer on wood, but this time I went just with the stain.  We used package white.  The painters sprayed and back rolled the product per manufacturers’ specifications.  It looked beautiful at first and everyone went home.  When we went back the next morning, every knot on one side of the fence had bled through the stain.

To be fair, this was the side of the fence that had the sun hitting it from first thing in the morning until about 2pm.  This heat causes the tannin and resin to be more active.  However, the data sheet should have said something about this.

I told the home owner I was unhappy with the product’s performance and I wanted to prime and put another coat.  Our client obliged so it time to research.  I have heard horror stories of people applying 3, 4, and 5 coats to still have the knots bleeding through.  I didn’t want to have a story of my own so I got on the phone with technical support.  They told the “self-priming” properties are weak and that it is still advised to prime.

I went with what worked with even the most “knottiest” wood (get the pun? knotty vs. naughty).

Shellac-based primers are the best primers for sealing in stains.  Shellac comes from the lac beetle.  I don’t remember how they beetle makes it, but I am positive that all shellac comes from this little bug.

We see shellac in our everyday lives.  The easiest example is on pills.  The shiny coating on pills or the plastic parts of capsules are examples of “food-grade” shellac.  Now that I provided a visual of what shellac is, it should be simple to see why it is such an effective sealer.

When shellac primers dry, they effectively seal the stain beneath a layer of plastic.

What makes these primers such great sealers is the same thing that makes them ineffective primers for exterior house painting.  Because shellac based coatings create a solid, rigid coating, they are only specified for “spot exterior” application.  This is because of the movement that exterior substrates exhibits due to expansion and contraction from temperature fluctuations.

For this reason, we spot primed the problem knots with an aerosol primer and repainted.  If the bleeding was throughout the wood, we would have opted for an exterior alkyd primer designed for bare wood.

After everything was completed, the fence looked beautiful, our client was happy, and GreenWave Solutions did another good job.  This is why we are consistently rated the best painters in Atlanta.

 

Daniel Macris is the president of GreenWave Solutions for 8 years.  GreenWave Solutions is Atlanta’s First “Green” painting contractor.  We specialized in commercial and residential painting.  We are launching our Atlanta kitchen and bath remodeling division soon!

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