Protect your investment by replacing rotted and worn out wood before the winter months arrive. Rotting wood should be replaced before additional structural damage is caused by water infiltration into the home.  At Harbor Paint we employ the best solutions for making repairs and replacements for rotted wood on trim, fascia, rakes, sills and soffits.

Should I paint the Azek trim on my house?  It's a common question today.  In the past exterior trim was made of wood (typically pine) that was subject to rot, insects, and maintenance painting every few years.  Contractors have been specifying to homeowners and property owners PVC trim more and more with Azek as the leading choice.  Azek is a very good product that is impervious to moisture and insects but it is more expensive.  To keep the additional cost of the trim material in the project budget, some contractors are "selling" homeowners on the idea you don't have to paint azek.  Homeowners appreciate saving the expense on paint, but are often suprised a couple of years later when there home looks like it needs to be painted.

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Harbor Painting Receives 2010 Best of Huntington Award

U.S. Commerce Association's Award Plaque Honors the Achievement

NEW YORK, NY, June 23, 2010 -- For the second consecutive year, Harbor Painting has been selected for the 2010 Best of Huntington Award in the Painting Contractor category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA).

The USCA "Best of Local Business" Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Nationwide, only 1 in 70 (1.4%) 2010 Award recipients qualified as two-time Award Winners. Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2010 USCA Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USCA and data provided by third parties.

About U.S. Commerce Association (USCA)

U.S. Commerce Association (USCA) is a New York City based organization funded by local businesses operating in towns, large and small, across America. The purpose of USCA is to promote local business through public relations, marketing and advertising.

The USCA was established to recognize the best of local businesses in their community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations, chambers of commerce and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to be an advocate for small and medium size businesses and business entrepreneurs across America.

SOURCE: U.S. Commerce Association

• The EPA now requires companies who engage in renovation, repair and painting in pre 1978 housing and child-occupied facilities to be trained and certified as "certified renovators". The EPA adopted the RRP rules to protect residents and especially children from lead exposure during renovation activities by educating, training and requiring lead safe practices when lead paint is present. This new law presents a number of challenges (it will cost a little more for some projects) and opportunities (for certified companies) and should not be taken lightly as the EPA fines are substantial, but more important is the fact that these rules are in place to protect children and failure to comply can lead to liability and negligence claims that could break a business. Ironically, many of the contractors in our area are ignorant of this law and many others don't plan to comply and homeowners need to understand this.

• Harbor Paints completed EPA certification earlier this year. We plan to have all of our people certified as a minimum standard to work here. All of our people currently have the OSHA 10 hour safety training and we will include this as part of our ongoing and onboard training.
  The implementation of a couple of systems will determine those opportunities for us:
  1. Our employees will be certified and know the law
  2. Our clients will know the law (without creating so much fear that they choose not to hire us)
  3. We will line item the cost to comply with EPA safe lead practices in our proposals (full disclosure)
  4. We will document all tests and include photos
  5. We are working with our attorney and rewriting clauses for change orders and trade interference as it pertains to safe lead practices and creating a client sign off form that states we complied with the law
  6. We have set a decision model to determine what jobs we will do and what jobs we can't in compliance with the law 
  7. Even in this economy, it's OK to walk away from certain jobs 
• On April 22, 2010 this will become the law of the land.
  http://www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/renovation.htm
  
• We welcome your thoughts.

Even as the economy appears dull and gloomy, the winter doldrums cast a dark shadow, designers and homeowners are creating rooms and home environments that are anything but. The paint colors for 2010 are bright and optimistic. Benjamin Moore's color experts even chose a zippy apricot yellow as a top interior décor color for 2010.