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Exteriors

Siding, doors, trim and decks. On this coast the preparation is the job and the painting is the short part at the end.

Interiors instead

Drag it

The wood was still good.

Gray, blotched, and failing in patches where the old finish had let go. None of that is a reason to replace siding. It is a reason to wash it, take the loose finish back to something sound, and feather the edge so you cannot see where the scraper stopped.

The boards, the barn doors, the hinges, the windows and the light are the ones that were already there.

The same shed stained warm cedar, the same doors, the same hardware and the same windowsGarden shed before work, board-and-batten siding weathered gray and blotched where the old finish had goneBeforeAfter
The same shed, the same siding and the same barn doors. Nothing was replaced.

Front doors

The one exterior surface everybody touches

A front door is a small job with a hard brief. It faces the weather, it gets handled every day, and it is the one surface on the house a visitor sees from two feet away. So it comes off its hinges, the hardware comes off with it, and it goes back on with the same medallions and the same handleset.

Drag the slider. The brass is the original brass.

The same door finished navy, with the original brass medallions and handleset refittedRaised-panel front door with the old stain sun-bleached and patchy across the stilesBeforeAfter
Same door, same medallions, same handleset. It came off its hinges and went back on.

Before and after

What a door looks like halfway through

Brown, with the two upper panels spot-primed and the handleset taped off. A trestle in the opening, paper down over the floor, and the door still hanging where it will be painted. That is the state a front door is in for most of the day it takes.

It went back into the same opening on the same hinges. What changed is the color, and the fact that the finish on it is sound again.

The same front door before finishing, old brown coating spot-primed at the top rail with the floor papered offBefore
The same door finished in navy from inside the hall, the brass handleset back on and the light frames cut in whiteAfter
The same door mid-job and finished, shot from opposite sides of the opening. Two positions, so it is labeled rather than wiped.

Recent exterior work

  • Front entry door finished in deep navy with the cream glazing bars and brick surround left as they were

    Front entry door finished in deep navy with the cream glazing bars and brick surround left as they were

  • Raised-panel front door finished navy, the original brass medallions and handleset refitted

    Raised-panel front door finished navy, the original brass medallions and handleset refitted

  • Backyard storage shed after staining, the weathered board-and-batten siding and barn doors finished in warm cedar

    Backyard storage shed after staining, the weathered board-and-batten siding and barn doors finished in warm cedar

  • Backyard deck stained medium brown against brick house with French doors and bay window

    Backyard deck stained medium brown against brick house with French doors and bay window

Straight answer

What is still missing is a whole house from the street

Everything above is real exterior work on real Hampton Roads jobs. None of it is a full elevation, because none of the full elevations Two Koats has painted since 2018 were photographed at a resolution worth publishing. Every other painting site you look at today fills that space with stock photography of a house nobody who works there has ever been to. This page would rather be short. In the meantime, here is what actually decides whether an exterior lasts three years or ten.

  1. Wash, then treat

    Salt film and chalk come off with a proper wash. Mildew does not — it has to be treated and rinsed, or it grows back up through the new coat within a season.

  2. Feather the edges

    Failing paint comes off, sound paint stays, and the boundary between them gets sanded to a taper. Skip it and you can see where the scraper stopped from the street.

  3. Then two full coats

    Siding, trim, soffits, fascia, shutters and doors, with the first coat allowed to cure before the second goes over it.

How exterior work is done

Get an estimate from Nate

Pick a time that suits you and the slot is confirmed there and then, at eleven at night if that is when you are thinking about it. Nate comes out, looks at what is actually there, writes down what he would do, and gives you a number.

Book your estimate(757) 288-1905
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