Tricks of The Trade

I will try to share some of the things we at Cal-Tex Painting do, they may or may not be tricks, but at any rate, they still are things we do in the course of our work.

1. I like to use grip's (tool bags) to keep tools separate and handy, for instance, I use separate grips for brushes, hand tools (scrapers, files, extra blades, hammer, sheet metal cutters, staplers, small bush saw, hack saw, etc) also grip's for masking materials (hand maskers, tape, rolls of paper and plastic) , grip's for rollers ( frames, sleeves, 9", 7", 4", slim Jim's and whiz) I also use a grip for line stripping (rolls of string, chalk boxes large and small, chalk bottles and stick chalk, large nails and roofing nails) also stenciling materials, numbers and letters up to 12". The use of grip's keep all of the tools separate, handy, together and I can throw them in the truck with ease and they stay together no matter how they are in the trucks.
   
2.  I put leg levelers on all of our extension ladders, makes them very safe on all terrain, gives better footing on smooth floors too. I also put leg levelers on at least one 6' and one 8' stepladder, this makes them perfect to use on roofs and other uneven surfaces.
   
3.  I always use a SPRAYGUN CADDY® on all of our spray guns, this saves time when rolling up the hoses and saves wear and tear on the guns.
   
4. When caulking I like to use a product called the finger thing, it is a rubber finger sleeve or protector that keeps your finger clean, and free of splinters and from wearing your fingers out.
   
5. Whenever possible I like to use a pole gun on my airless sprayer (3'or 6' pole gun extension) when spraying, this saves a lot of ladder work.

I hope some of these above "things we do" will be helpful to my fellow painters.

Leonard Charbeneau

 Cal-Tex Painting

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