The Summer Swelter

In the early spring of 2014 ESS was contacted by Fr. Jozef Musiol the pastor at St. Stanislaus Catholic church in Chappell Hill of the Austin, Texas Diocese, Fr. Jozef was in need of a skilled painting and decorating contractor to restore both the interior and exterior of his historic church. After meeting with Father and the building committee of the parish, we came up with a general concept for both projects with detailed specs, paint systems used, time frame, and exact cost. This particular project was a little unique for our company because we mostly like to focus on interior restorations, but we were game to take on the total restoration of the church. The project would be done in two phrases first the exterior in summer 2014 and then the interior starting in early 2015.

The church had a stucco finish with an open wood soffit, window frames, dome, and Spanish style features; we had a three color scheme to complement the architecture. We first power washed all surfaces to insure sound surfaces for Sherwin -Williams elastomeric con-flex smooth high build acrylic paint to adhere to. We brush and rolled the finish two coats with twenty four hours between coats; on the window frames and soffit we use Behr premium plus ultra also two coats by brush. Before we applied the finish Kilz clear fast dry primer on areas we scraped and patched.

We also painted their flag pole, propane tank, bell tower dome, and refinished all three sets of oak door for the parish. The project took a little over four weeks to complete in the mist of the harsh Texas summer heat June 16 – July 18 2014. In order to get to every square inch of the building we scaffold the front and rented two portable lifts a 35, 50 footer and had several ladders. The crew consented of Don Wendt, Alex Wendt and long time associate and master carpenter Cliff Foth.