Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep # 121 Transforming Spaces: The Art of Professional Painting
The walls around us tell stories, but sometimes they need a fresh chapter. That's where professional painting comes in, transforming spaces with expertise that goes far beyond simply applying color to a surface.
Christopher Hagen, owner of Paint It All Professional Painting Services in Fair Lawn, NJ, joins us to share insights from his 11-year career in the painting industry. Having recently relocated from Florida to New Jersey (partly to pursue his midlife passion for snowboarding!), Chris brings a wealth of knowledge about both the technical aspects of painting and the dramatic transformations it can create in homes and businesses.
One of the most valuable revelations from our conversation is that vinyl siding doesn't need to be replaced when you want a color change. With proper bonding primers and surface preparation, vinyl and aluminum siding can be beautifully painted, saving homeowners thousands compared to replacement. Chris explains the importance of thorough cleaning and preparation before any painting project—whether interior walls, exteriors, or specialized materials—as these steps determine how long your paint job will last.
We also tackle the overwhelming world of paint colors. Remember when homes had just primary colors on their walls? Today's hundreds of options (including countless shades of white alone) can create decision paralysis. Chris offers practical advice for choosing the right color, emphasizing the critical role lighting plays in how colors appear. His professional recommendation: apply two solid coats of sample colors and view them throughout the day under different lighting conditions before making your final decision.
The transformation that comes from a professional paint job brings joy not just to homeowners but to Chris himself. "Taking something older or damaged and making it aesthetically pleasing again" drives his passion for the craft. With proper preparation and application, paint can completely rejuvenate a space for a fraction of the cost of full renovations.
Ready to transform your space? Whether it's interior rooms, exterior surfaces, vinyl siding, or even a playground set needing restoration, professional painting might be the cost-effective solution you're looking for. Listen now to discover how the right approach to painting can breathe new life into any environment.
Paint it All LLC
Christopher Hagen
201-742-3000
christopherhagen24@gmail.com
this is the good neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together.
Speaker 2:Here's your host, doug drohan hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the good neighbor podcast brought to you by the bergen neighbors media group today. I'm joined by christopher hagen, and he is the owner of painted all professional painting services based out of fairlawn, new Jersey. Chris, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having me Doug. So Paint it All. That's the name of your company, so you guys paint it all, paint everything.
Speaker 3:yes, sir.
Speaker 2:So what does that mean? Interior?
Speaker 3:exterior office space pretty much anything you can think of, we can paint it.
Speaker 2:Can you paint my portrait?
Speaker 3:No, I don't do that kind of painting.
Speaker 2:Not that kind of painting. No, sir, not that kind of painting, right, okay, and when you do an interior residential job, do you do just one room or does it have to be like uh, you know, an entire floor, or how does it usually work either?
Speaker 3:way, uh, whatever. Whatever the client's needs are, whether it's one room, several rooms, the entire home doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:Got it, got it. So what is it? Um, I mean, I would think since covid, there's been a lot of uh you, an explosion of work at home and home offices. Have you seen a lot of work being done? I mean, I know you do office space, but you know, home office space is probably something you didn't think of five years ago, six years ago.
Speaker 3:Actually, when COVID hit, I was still in Florida. Then I just moved here. Last year. Okay, when COVID hit, I was still in the same. Then I just moved here last year. Okay, when covid hit, I was still in the same profession. There we got busier. We never missed a day of work. We got busier if anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, sitting at home looking at their walls and you know yeah, it's funny, I uh my magazine in 2020 actually was the march of 2021. We did a kitchen renovation, like spread, and uh, it was basically you know, quoting paul mccartney stuck inside these four walls, stuck inside forever, and it was, yeah, a lot of people were like looking at their house or their rooms and saying, man, I need an update. Or, you know, they're doing a zoom meeting and they're like look at my walls, oh my god, they're awful yeah, so I could.
Speaker 2:I could totally understand why you guys get really busy. Yes, so now that you know, that was five, four or five years ago when it started, what has it been like recently?
Speaker 3:uh well, like I said, I just moved here last july and the winter was a little slow, but things are picking up again now.
Speaker 2:So are you from Florida or are you from New Jersey?
Speaker 3:Like what brought you to New Jersey, painting the exteriors, and you know, 100-degree weather with a heat index of add 20 degrees to the 100 takes a toll on you after a while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, what part ofida are you from, jacksonville? Oh okay, I'll be flying there in a couple weeks. My parents live in palm coast oh nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love that airport.
Speaker 2:It's easy in and out yeah, I tell you I used to love when I could fly into daytona from newark because it was a lot easier going from daytona and it was a nice way, you know, up a1a about a half an hour to palm coast, right, you know now I gotta get on 95 for a bit of over an hour, but you know it's okay, um, so all right. So what got you into, uh like the painting business? Like what was it? Uh like how old were you when you decided?
Speaker 2:uh, I've been in the staining industry for 11 years now.
Speaker 3:Uh, subcontracted for the same. Uh, prime sub there for 10 years. Uh, raised my sons, brought my sons up in the business. They would go to school, do their classes and then come work. And they're doing the same thing. And I wanted to be closer to the snow. I took up snowboarding when I turned 40. Nice, and got tired of going to North Carolina to ride. Yeah, so I figured I could do both there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah, I mean the nice thing about northern New Jersey. I mean not that we have great ski here in New Jersey, but you can drive up to Vermont. You could go to the Catskills in a couple hours, yeah. Or if you want to drive up to Canada. A six-hour drive to Canada, it's not too bad yes sir, yeah. Yeah, you don't hear too many people taking up snowboarding when they're 40 but um especially if you're from florida.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely. It's just so hot there, the humidity is so hot, it's yeah it's just, you know, after, after a decade of it, it just wears on you, yeah, yeah so what is it?
Speaker 2:so you also offer pressure washing. Yes, so is that something that just came out of? Like you meet with a client.
Speaker 3:No, and you painted my exterior a few years ago.
Speaker 2:Could you recommend somebody to pressure wash it?
Speaker 3:Well, no, not actually. The surface needs to be cleaned and prepared correctly first before you paint. Oh, right, so that the coating lasts longer. But then, once the coating's applied, then yeah, if you use a good quality product and it's applied correctly, then you can just rinse it off for a few years and it'll still maintain the same nice luster and shine, right?
Speaker 2:Now a lot of houses have siding right Vinyl siding up here. Yes sir, can you paint that you?
Speaker 3:can actually Vinyl siding, aluminum siding. It can be painted. You just have to use more of a bonding primer process. Okay, make sure that all the oxidation is off of it first.
Speaker 2:so the painted years correctly got it so that, um, but it can be done. I mean, you do a lot of it, yes, sir yeah that's good to know. So if you had a, you know you bought a house. Or maybe you're living in your house and you're like I don't like the color, or you don't have to change all the siding, you can just get it painted exactly.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir, I think that's a big misconception, because I think a lot of people feel that you can't paint it actually, or that the paint won't stick, or that it'll get more easily, but that's actually a misconception got it, got it all right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't know that, because usually you think I just have to replace my signing, but but right, it's good to know. So what have you seen in in terms of, um, like trends? And then let me also talk about, uh, competition, because, um, you know, there's a lot of guys I see, these valve packs that I get, and certainly with pressure washing is one thing, but paintings, you know, a little bit more challenging, I think, maybe not as easy to get into that business as maybe pressure washing is, because I've seen home cleaning businesses get into pressure washing, I've seen landscapers.
Speaker 3:Nobody does do that.
Speaker 2:They just buy the equipment, and now they're offering pressure washing. I know there's a lot that you can do harm to your house if you don't really know what you're doing. Yeah, that's for sure.
Speaker 3:Break windows, break concrete, anything you know wow, you're talking about 4 000 psi.
Speaker 2:That can do a lot of damage if it's not done correctly yeah, I bought a little pressure washer thing from harbor freight and I already put some gurus in my day. I didn't mean to yeah crap, oh well, um, going back to my other question, so what are you seeing trend-wise when it comes to painting? Certainly paint colors. You look back at photos from the houses from the 70s and for some reason, people liked oranges and greens.
Speaker 3:Well, back then actually, doug, there was really only primary colors used for paint choices. There was only blue, green, yellow, red, and now there's hundreds's, hundreds of colors.
Speaker 2:How many shades of white are there?
Speaker 3:A lot. There's a couple of very popular staple colors that seem like you know, that are very elegant and classy and really make the trim and doors pop. You know they're the go-to colors I always recommend to clients if the space allows for it and the design. You know, every year the paint companies come out with their quote-unquote new colors for the year, with their quote unquote new colors for the year. I think one of the colors for this year is cinnamon slate, which I've actually used on an interest?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a, it's a. It's an interesting dark burgundy kind of color.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you have to have the right.
Speaker 3:That'd be like a living a living room.
Speaker 2:I'd imagine Right, yes, yeah, it all to have the right That'd be like a living, a living room, I'd imagine, right, yes, yeah. It all depends on the space.
Speaker 3:You know the color has to fit the space as well as the client.
Speaker 2:You know, for a while we were into Monroe bisque we liked in my old house that I had, and then you know, then when we but that tends to get a little yellow and dry looking, but at the time we loved Monroe Bisque and that's the thing about colors, I think you know. It's great to have choice, but there's a. There is a book written by a sociologist called the Paradox of Choice and how consumers are human beings and we're faced with too many choices.
Speaker 2:It makes us anxious and stressed I agree, and you know when you go into a paint store and you look at okay white and there's, like you know, turn to, I turn a wider, pay it uh, shade of pale. And I walk in and I see like, oh my god, can I just get white? Uh, yeah, it, not just the white, it's. Do I want eggshell? Do I want satin? Do I want flat?
Speaker 3:Yeah, on and on and on. Too many choices. I agree they are overwhelming and it does appear it can be easily overwhelming for the client as well, especially if you're not familiar with it, because it is just a bombardment of information and choices.
Speaker 2:So what do you recommend? So you know, you could buy your little. They give you swatches, but that doesn't really give you a great representation, right? If you put that swatch on your wall at different times of day, do you recommend?
Speaker 3:My recommendation is the lighting source. It's all about the light. You know a lot of people, a lot of homes, uh, still have that classic yellowish light bulb. You know soft glow. Yeah, you actually need the, the natural light bulbs that have the more it's more similar to daylight to get the true color of the color, because in every different lighting aspect the color is going to show differently right and then yeah.
Speaker 2:So do you recommend that people put a little tester paint on their walls and just let it dry and come back at different times a day?
Speaker 3:yeah, you should. You should make sure that the surface is clean. Um, you know, apply two coats at least so that the paint appears solid, not see through, okay, uh, some people recommend checking it with the phone light, which some sources say that's adequate. Some sources say it's not a true representation. But then you know, you should view it at different hours of the day, different times, and it's really about what you're trying to achieve for the space yeah, yeah right if you want something calm and more um, serene, versus you know kitchen, where you've got to be.
Speaker 2:You know it's usually brighter Right, exactly. It's interesting. I think that's one of the hardest things to choose when you're redoing a room or even just painting a room is the paint color pink color, and my wife recently did her office and you could buy, you know you could put four or five different brush strokes of you know a different shade of pale and it's like, okay, which one do you like better? I'm like holy cow, I don't know. You know I never did two coats of a test. I always, we always, only did one coat.
Speaker 3:It's on top of the paint. That's already there, yeah well then also, you run the risk of whether the underneath color shows through if it's not. Because paint should be applied in a number of millage, how many millimeters? Especially for exterior paint work, there's set manufacturer-regulated millage limits so that the paint shows and also performs to what they say it's going to perform to right right.
Speaker 2:So in your professional opinion, what paint uh manufacturers do you prefer?
Speaker 3:I hate that question, okay, uh well. No, it's fine really because you know, the best two are obviously benjamin moore, sherwin-williams. I'm a sherwin-williams guy myself because, okay, we use a lot of their product and it also depends on the area because, like in Florida, we have a company that manufactures paint more gear-driven specifically for homes in Florida for exteriors that have more mildew sides, more pesticides and stand up longer to the ultraviolet rays. You know, got it got it but for here. Benjamin Moore, sherman Williams, definitely.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, and you just mentioned pesticides, and so are there things in paints that people like to. You know, I don't know if there's anything called organic paint, but are there paints that people are asking about that are less toxic, if if it is toxic there?
Speaker 3:are actually now there, are they? They changed the specifications on the paint a couple years ago so that all the voccs are less. You know, lead's been gone for a long time, but also there there's. There's a lot of chemicals in the stuff, right? You know it's, it's definitely not good for you, but they do write things now that are more green, acceptable, less harmful, less harmful to the environment. Right, but I guess in your mouth and swallow it, and right.
Speaker 2:Back in the day when you used to paint the room and I'm talking about, like my parents era, let's go back to the 1960s, 70s. It took a long time for paint to dry. You know, it's like that term, it's like watching paint dry right now. But you know the I guess you could say that the good thing about vocs or volatile organic compounds is that they evaporate quickly, right? So that makes the paint dry quicker, right? But then you know, I guess there's a yin and a yang and you know to everything.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it makes it dry quicker.
Speaker 2:But I guess those are the compounds that people might find unpleasant.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I'd say that maybe the smell has gotten a little better over the years and it and it doesn't last as long. You know, sometimes that's a question of the clients. You know, how long is my home going to smell like a paint?
Speaker 2:can I? Mean is it?
Speaker 3:toxic If I breathe that. Is it going to affect the children? Yeah, nowadays it's.
Speaker 2:It's a lot, a lot more safer than it used to be yeah, I mean, you're somebody who paints every day, so if it was, yeah, well you got to make sure to have your ppe on.
Speaker 3:You know you definitely need that mask on it, especially if you're spraying gloves, you know yeah so what is it that you'd like people to know about paint at all?
Speaker 2:um, obviously you paint it all, right, you know. You say painting is your passion. So yeah, I get.
Speaker 3:What point in your, in your career did you say, man, I want to do this, I love painting I think it's the fact of taking something that is older or damaged or just doesn't look as aesthetically pleasing anymore and doing it the right way, painting it the right way, preparing the surface correctly, applying the product correctly to the manufacturer's standards, to the manufacturer's standards and then giving the client something where they're like wow, I love this you know when?
Speaker 3:yeah, when the client's just satisfied and they're amazed and happy it makes me happy, you know yeah, yeah, no, it's true.
Speaker 2:When you, when your room is transformed, it it is this um, you know, there's's like certain things that people describe happiness, like the smell of a new baby, the smell of a new car Right, but also the feeling of walking into a newly either your new home or newly renovated room. And it's amazing what paint can do to you know. Oh, I didn't have to spend all this money in redoing my entire room. I just changed the paint color and maybe some light bulbs, exactly For a fraction of the cost, completely transform everything. And I think that's, you know, there's a reason why painting and painters, if you will, are, you know, are timeless in a lot of ways. So I get it, it's cool. So what's the best way for people to reach you? And and you met, so you're in fairlawn, do you cover, like, mostly bergen county or are you all over new jersey?
Speaker 3:we, uh, I try to stay up here. You know, probably about 20, 30 mile radius, stay okay in the area. Best way to reach us 201-742-3000. Uh, text call, whatever works. Uh, right, always free estimates. And you know we try to provide the customers with reasonably priced paint, not so much like the big box paint stores where you're going to end up with the same product but for an astronomical price, because you know we want to.
Speaker 2:We want to be the people that you continue to call back for whatever needs you know, right means you know not just the one and done, and we never see you again yeah, yeah, and that's a good point, because you know, like with my wife, it was just her office this time, but you know, now it could be the basement, it could be this, it could be that, so you never know. Just yeah, excellent. So, chris, thank you very much for joining the show. And again, let's, let's repeat that number it's 2, 0, 1, 7, 4, 2, 3,000 number, it's two zero one, seven, four, two, three thousand, painted all exterior, interior, residential, commercial, office space, uh, and also offer pressure washing, fence and fence deck and concrete standing as well, which we didn't talk about.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's the trend right now. Oh, how does that? So? What is that? So you're? You're restating well, I see, when you have a playground and I'll call it a playground a swing set, and they're expensive, and if you don't keep them maintained, that wood goes pretty quickly. Do you guys do any of that staining as well?
Speaker 3:Yes, sir, we do. We actually just did one for a client last week. Came out beautiful. They make so many choices in stain nowadays that you know you can, can. You can apply a solid body stain and it takes old wood that looks like it's about had it and just completely restore it to new again. Do you need?
Speaker 2:to pressure wash the playground. You know the swing sets first, or because they're usually cedar. Yes, sir, yeah, okay, good to All right. So then it's residential interior, exterior, commercial interior, exterior office space and pressure washing fence, deck, swing sets and concrete standing as well. Chris, thank you very much for joining the show. We are going to be right back. Chuck is just going to say goodbye to us. Thanks, doug All right.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good. You right back. Chuck is just going to say goodbye to us. Thanks, doug, all right.