Venetian plaster

My heritage should not leave any doubt: this is one of my absolute specialties.

We are here to simply show the difference!

This plaster, often shiny and pearly, smooth to the touch even when showing breath-taking textures, is one of the most common and beloved, and therefore one of the most abused and misunderstood not only by clients, but also by those who perform the work without knowing exactly the correct traditional procedure.

You wouldn’t believe how many times I have seen a work completed, introduced as venetian plaster, and noticed how much has been left for improving.

Anyway, take a look at some pics and if you are unsure, shoot an e-mail and I’ll tell you what there’s to know about it.

Wanna see more? http://www.italianpaintingservices.com/decart.html

Well, today I want to begin a brief cycle of posts talking about one of the techniques I like the most (and sorry if this sounds like plain advertising but one of the things I am best at in Los Angeles!!!): marbleizing!

Faux stone painting and related artistic techniques became renowned and took off during the Renaissance, first in Italy then in France.
The amazing art of creating marble or wood out of plain surfaces has made its way to our time, becoming a great architectural device for your living space.

Look at these pictures: it shows how we were able to perfectly match the wooden baseboard to the marble floor. That’s right, the baseboard on the picture below is simple wood but now it looks just like the marble floor.

Same for the column above.

http://www.italianpaintingservices.com/decart.html

As of April 22, 2010, contractors remodeling or demolishing more than six square feet indoors or 20 square feet outdoors must be trained and certified for lead safety by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) to work in homes, childcare facilities or schools built in or before 1978.
Buildings constructed in or before 1978 are likely to contain lead-based paint that can be disturbed during remodeling or demolition, creating dust and exposing workers and occupants to the potential health hazards associated with lead.
If you are expose to lead you can suffer from:

Here you can find out more:

http://www.italianpaintingservices.com/leadpaint.html

http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/lead/index.html

Below are some photos of how Italian Painting Services is handling a Project contains Lead:

Its been nice getting to lunch time and try one of their yummy dishes….

Wanna check out other I.P.S. commercial works….click here: http://www.italianpaintingservices.com/commercial.html

Click to view slideshow.

http://www.italianpaintingservices.com/onsitegallery.html

The first time in my life I saw a woman working in a construction site was here in USA.  I was in Florida and I saw a painter (woman) an electrician (woman) and I just couldn’t believe it.

Well, believe it or no I now have a 26 years old woman working for my company and I she is good.  Who could have ever thought of it?  I called my father in Italy the day I hired her and I told him: “Dad, you are not going to believe this, I just hired a woman painter to work for my company”.  At first he didn’t believe me, then I told him I was serious and he thought it was strange and interesting.

Maybe I was wrong… thinking a woman should stay home cooking and cleaning

It is not always true that if it cost more it means it is a better job, but I truly believe that sometime we need to go based on common sense.

I believe a home owner should ask their self the following questions when they compare two or three different proposals.  Remember, there is always a reason why one proposal is lower or higher than the other one:

1) Is your contractor licensed?          “You can check this by visiting the contractor state license board at: http://www.cslb.ca.gov

2) Does he have general liability and workers compensation insurance?

3) Who are the employees, how long they have been working for the company and how much do they make?       “This is extremely important because many contractors out there are only paying the minimum wage to their employees and do you know what that means? It means the employees are miserable to be on the job, they are only there to make the money and can’t wait to be 4:30PM to go home.  They definitely don’t take pride of what they do, they definitely don’t care about making the company look good, they hate their Employers and they simply don’t care to properly sand, properly clean and properly prime or paint”.   All my employees are making what they deserve.  I treat them good, I personally train them on a daily basic and I can guarantee you they are not miserable on the job.  They take pride of what they do and yes they do care about the company they are working for because they understand that if we do good we will always grow more and always be busy.

4) Does the contractor pay their employees cash or on payroll?       ” This is also very important.  All my employees are on payroll with PAYCHEX which mean I have payroll taxes expenses, payroll fee expenses and of course I have to consider all of this when I give a proposal”.

5) How does the contractor make you feel when you talk to him?  How confident is he when he answer your question?

6) What is the contractor’s background and what kind of project has he worked on?

Please don’t just hire a contractor based on the price of his bid. Talk to him, ask him many questions. I see clients going straight to the price page instead of going over the work details first. Yes the price is important but quality is what you must receive. If the proposal is not detailed is not a good proposal.   Always get at least two bid, three is best.  Compare the bids based on the work details, not the price difference.

It is easy for a contractor to say he can do it for much less.  The question is, how is he going to do it?

Check out more about me at http://www.italianpaintingservices.com/index.html