Recently I have been involved with an association that prides itself on it’s neat, pristine appearance.  As such, it does not take much to stand out like a sore thumb if something isn’t up to snuff with your property. In this case, some roofs have been damaged and repaired from storms resulting in miss matched tiles and unsightly stucco and grout issues.

Though some of the roofs are older they are not leaking and do not yet warrant a replacement. However time and wear and tear have caused the tiles themselves to lose their color while the sun is continuously breaking down the cement tiles. This is a perfect scenario to use roofing paint. What these roofs need are U.V. protection, resistance to surface mold and pigment , in a word, roof paint. Finding the right color to fit in with the other homes can be a bit of a chore. Most paint suppliers will color match any color you bring to them. In the picture below you will see a  painted roof sandwiched between two homes with new roofs. I believe the color works perfectly.

Painted Roof

Speaking of which the Keys house belonged to and was enjoyed by our family, for two generations. It hadn’t been utilized since the last of the kids grew up and stopped using it for weekend partying. Apparently, it was commandeered by crack addicts and was facing condemnation and razing. Although we had family in the Keys who are contractors, when they drove by to see if it could be sold,they didn’t want to work on it. I drove down from Pembroke Pines, to see it for myself. That started a good six weeks of hard ass work with a 2-1/2 hour commute every day. The good news is, after replacing just about everything except the walls (all cement,even interior) and the ceiling (tongue and groove Dade pine) we did turn a profit within a few months. These houses are called conch houses. Many were built during the prohibition by Rum Runners from the Bahamas to stash booze in and are also known as Rum Houses, as we believe, was the case with this one.

The next three photos are of  a home in Boca Raton, where I painted everything from the roof itself, down to the drive way and patio. The idea with the driveway was to faux finish it to mimic the brick accent of the facade. I sprayed multiple coats of Xylene based stain of  brick red and charcoal grey, back and forth until I achieved the right mix of color. It’s a process I call “smoking the paint”. I don’t know the technical name, or what any one else calls it, nor do I care.

In the last photos is a home in Weston Hills Country Club. My customers here got semi-screwed over by the previous painters because, they used sub standard paint and preparation. It’s not uncommon to see new concrete stucco facades being painted with no primer, almost as fast as it takes for the stucco to dry. That’s a big mistake. If you can not wait the full sixty days for the stucco to cure then, it’s important to use Crete-Seal or a similar product as a primer. If you simply paint over uncured, unsealed cement it will cast a green-grey tone in about six months to a year. We settled on Benjamin Moore’s, Moore Guard in satin finish. Cafe Royal is the main body and the trim is also Cafe Royal at 25%.

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