After being in storage at a Valspar Minneapolis facility for 40 years, an extensive collection of Chicago paint color cards from the 1920's through the 60's, has made it back to the Chicago area.  These color cards came from seven old-time Chicago paint manufacturers, which over time were merged and or acquired by what later became Valspar. Read on for details on the significance of this collection and the role Painting in Partnership played in it.

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"I have rusty nails on my house.  Can you permanently solve my problem?"

Rusty nails are indeed an unsightly problem, especially on white painted surfaces. When nails begin to rust on an old house, it causes a rust stain to appear on the surface of the paint.  Eventually, the rust will cause the paint film to fail and flake off.If you have a problem with rusty nails on your house, this is what we would do to permanently resolve this issue. As a first step, our house painters would set the nails using a nail punch slightly smaller than the nail heads to sink the nails by no more than 1/8". 

Second, we would then scrape the loose paint off the face of the nails and apply a rust converter to kill off any rust residue. Our painters would then fill the nail holes using a waterborne, rust-inhibitive window putty.  This putty requires no sanding and no priming, and has a quick curing time.  Because this product shrinks, we had to hit the nail holes two or three times to eliminate any cratering of the product.

We recently handled 3,600 rusty nails for the owner of an old farm house, prior to doing any painting work on the house.



The paint on my brick is peeling.  Even some of the brick is falling off.  Why is this happening and what is the solution?

Paint restoration sometimes requires starting over, especially when it comes to painted brick.  Painting brick is not a good idea, especially when you are dealing with common brick. Common brick was fired at a lower temperature and was therefore softer than face brick.  Common brick was usually used on the rear and sides of buildings.  Face brick was used on the front of the house and was much harder and durable, and also more expensive.  So, why is it not a good idea to paint brick?

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Please send me your question(s) via my e-mail at [email protected].

Every issue of The Craftsman Way newsletter has a section devoted to paint memorabilia because we believe that an understanding of the history of the painting industry gives us a better appreciation for the work of painters today.  Over the years, Painting in Partnership's collection has grown to almost 800 items and is recognized as a "Custodian" of the painting industry's past.


Ascertaining the level of moisture in a substrate has long been a concern for house painters and many other trades, that it be wood, plaster, concrete or drywall.  There are two types of moisture meters.  The most common one measures the electrical resistance of the substrate; the more moisture there is, the lower the resistance will be.  This type of meter uses two electrodes that are driven into the substrate.  The output of the moisture meter is translated into a scale or dial on the device. The greater the moisture level, the higher the number on the scale will be.

Here are two generations of electrical resistance moisture meters.  The first one is from the 1920's and was made by the L.R. Bradley & Co. of New York.  The device used 45 volt batteries.  You set the dial on the device to the maximum moisture level permitted for that substrate. A light turns on if the moisture is higher than that level.

The second moisture meter was called the "Midget Wood Meter" and was made by Weston Electrical Instruments, Corp. of Newark, New Jersey.  Using the mallet provided, the pins were driven into the wood and the moisture level was displayed on the dial.  This meter was from the 1940's or 50's era.

Newly cut wood can have moisture content of 80% or more.   Painting wood when the moisture content is elevated will surely cause paint failure, because the moisture will prevent the paint from adhering to the substrate.