PHOTO COMPARISON: The Power of Paint

I visited a property today to identify some repairs that need to be made.  The neighborhood is composed of turn of the century Arts and Crafts style homes.  Sometime in the 1920's, the home I was looking at and the home next door had work done which required that clapboard exterior walls be built.

The one property looks like this:

If you look carefully, you can see some old paint under this nice recent coat.  Nevertheless, it looks clean and to be in good repair.  The wood has withstood the test of time.

Now, lets take a look at the construction next door to see how it has fared:

Whoops!  It appears that this wood didn't receive the same attention as its neighbor just a few feet away. Years of naked exposure to the elements have taken their toll on this wood.  This structure will need to be resurfaced entirely.

So, the moral of the story is if you have exterior wood surfaces that need to be painted, do it before mother nature robs you of the necessity.