PIPP - The 2009 Picture it Painted Professionally Award Winners

The PIPP Awards, the very first national awards to honor the very best of the painting Industry is PDCA’s way of paying tribute to the work you do as a professional painting and decorating contractor. It’s our way of saying, “Great job!” PIPPs National recognition for a company's best work also honors craftsmen by showcasing their stellar work among their industry peers from across the nation. 

Industrial     Photos

Alpine Painting & Sandblasting Contractors; Exterior Penstock Painting
Penstock is a 1 mile long pipe that 1 billion gallons of water rushes down through this 20 foot diameter above-ground pipe each day. The workforce on site ranged from 4 men during mobilization and touchups to more than 18 during times of peak workload.  The project was completed in only 6 weeks, including touchups and demobilization.  Safety, Quality Control, Scheduling, and Environmental controls were implemented so well that Alpine was granted the full 10% Bonus for excellent performance. Project Facts: 117,000 SF of surface area , 30 gallons of Spot Primer, 550 gallons of Full Primer, 500 gallons of Full Finish Coat and 165 gallons of thinner.

Postupak Painting Co Inc ; Wyoming Valley Flood Walls
What made this last phase an industrial project was the decision to use a release compound on the form walls. Because the project came with a ten year warranty, Postupak Painting did not feel comfortable with the release compound Epically since it stated on the product can that  this product not to be used if the surfaces are to be painted. A change order was written for sandblasting the gel coat off the last wall, as with the nature of sandblasting concrete, every bug hole and imperfection came out on the concrete wall. The walls were returned to a smooth finish. A raft was constructed to apply the graffiti coating to the 300 foot long fishing pier.

Commercial     Photos

Commercial Restoration Interior
Rumberger & Company, Inc. dba Classic Painting; South Congregational United Church of Christ
Because of the age of the building, lead safety was a primary concern. An especially challenging aspect of the project was ascending to the rafters 45 feet overhead to handle the scraping inside the church’s arched ribs. It took five days to erect the scaffolding needed to reach these areas. Rumberger & Co. used more than 20 gallons of bonding agent and 100 bags of plaster and compound in the restoration effort and more than 250 gallons of paint on the project. Rumberger & Co. did not disappoint, bringing the project to completion on deadline. The project was also featured on the front page of the local newspaper, the Middletown Press.

Commercial Exterior
Alpine Painting & Sandblasting Contractors; NJCDC William Waldman Independence House
The sign painting portion of the project was challenging for several reasons: The letters, numbers and pictures on the existing signs were not completely visible. Many of the sign surfaces had to be hand cleaned as to not remove any more of the painted lettering. Once Alpine was able to identify all of the wording they provided their men with a computer generated layout of each word to be painted in the appropriate font to ensure each word was recreated as accurately as possible. Alpine was able to finish this project prior to the cold weather and met the customer’s deadline. The NJCDC was so pleased they asked Alpine to bid the entire interior!

Commercial Interior
Theodore Hooven & Son Company; Association of the Shrine of the Miraculous Medal
Theodore Hooven & Son was contracted to restore the interior of the main Shrine. They applied one full coat alkyd primer followed by two full coats of acrylic latex enamel, an eight (8)-color pattern was followed. All the stencils and murals in the church were restored; all the capitols were painted and highlighted in 23-1/2 carat gold leaf. The conservation of the priceless Virgilio Tojetti paintings was very delicate. They used chemicals and Beva Consolidation along with a mechanical method of scalpel scraping to clean the paintings This project took 4 months to complete. The project used 100 gallons of coatings and applied $26,400 of 23-1/2 carat gold leaf:

Residential      Photos

Residential Exterior
H J Holtz and Son; Brookhill Estate
H. J. Holtz & Son applied forty gallons of acrylic aliphatic urethane to all roof surfaces and railings. Over sixty-seven gallons of paint was applied to siding, windows, doors, shutters and other trim. The most challenging parts of this project were the overall size of the residence, the coating removal process and the ability to access all areas that needed to be painted. Due to the size and height factor of the house and its roofs, the entire perimeter was scaffolded and wrapped. H. J. Holtz & Son achieved incredible results because their employees and their relationship with follow PDCA contractor, G. M. Clements.

Residential Decorative Finishing
A Allbright Painting and Wallcovering; Andrews Banducci Media Room
Allbright had some initial concerns for the room. For the decorative glaze work, they used 8 different metallic paint colors. The oval inset in the ceiling was a very important focal point. When Allbright started to mimic the sky on the ceiling, the owner decided she wanted a little more movement to it than the original. The hidden door to the equipment and private gym was another challenge that came up. The rest of the cabinetry doors, drawers and other entry door were wrapped in a silk crinkle chiffon fabric. Altogether this 425 sq ft media room project took a total of 350 man hours to complete. This project won “Media Room of the Year” by Home Entertainment Magazine.

Residential Interior
Signet Painting, Inc.; Luxury Basement Finish
The scope of work was a ½ bath, family room, bar, theater, wine room, gaming area, and exercise room that would tie into a finished hall and stairwell. The project took six months, utilized one to four painters at a time and totaled over 650 labor hours. Over a dozen paint colors, three stains and two enamel colors were used. The wine room was one of the most challenging, the colors were still unknown the day they were scheduled to start. A Texston Frascati finish with a variety of Elegant Transformation Glazes in gold and brown tones was used. Signet Painting continues to work for the contractor and has been hired by the homeowners for additional work.

Residential Restoration Exterior
Schuster’s Roost Painting; Stoddard Home, Petaluma
The home is registered as a historic landmark. After extensive tries and retries they found what they felt was the perfect blend of colors. This involved the use of eight colors in addition to gold leaf.  Since the scale of operation was enormous, a five-level scaffolding was built around the entire house.  What Schuster’s saw, was a total of three colors on a house that not only badly needed a new paint job, but also really needed a minimum of five to seven colors to enhance the incredible detailed design. What was most exciting for Schuster was how it felt to take the extra measures to bring the wood back down to its original luster and strength.

Residential Restoration Interior
John Neill Painting & Decorating; Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion
A total of eight interior rooms were restored. One of the more challenging rooms was Mrs. Maxwell’s Sitting Room, which had suffered extensive water damage to the walls, ceiling and woodwork. The first stage of restoration was to repair the plaster. Next, the elaborate stenciling was re-created by hand. Forty-five colors were hand mixed during this process. Due to extensive wood rot, much of the woodwork in the room required repair, which was done through the use of a two-part epoxy, followed by a primer and two finish coats of paint. Wood graining, decorative painting and stenciling were then used to recreate the original designs on all the doors, baseboards and shutters.

Residential Wallcovering
Hester Decorating Company, Inc.; Chicago Illinois Residence
Hester Decorating installed wall covering in 18 different rooms from 7 different manufacturers. The project lasted four months with a five-man crew working full time. The vestibule and the husband’s bath were both hung with a brand new wall covering from Maya Romanoff called Mother of Pearl Chevron which is actually tiles of inlaid shell. The dining room and the powder room wall coverings were from de Gournay out of London, which are hand painted silk panels. Each panel requires a tremendous number of hours to paint. You cannot get this paper wet at all because even a drop of moisture will ruin the panel, even the most minor mistake could have cost our company approximately $10,000 in replacement materials.

Charity Projects     Photos

HSP Painting Company; Washoe Arc
Frequent vandalism had turned the building into a patchwork of mismatched graffiti repairs. Altogether HSP had about 50 of their painters who volunteered their day for this job. At 7:30 the prep crew started working their way around the building, taking care of any masking, scraping, or sanding that was necessary after the power wash. The painting crew then began applying the main body color. With 5 sprayers going, it didn’t take very long to completely coat the building. One crew got to work on the accent stripe at the front of the building, another crew started on the blue roof metal, and a third crew started on the touchup and cleaning.

Lundco Painting LLC; Winter Wonderland
Winter Wonderland is a community based project in Slater Memorial Park in Pawtucket Rhode Island. Lundco volunteered to repaint and restore the façade of each building for this year’s display. The project involved use of ladders in confined spaces, multiple color combinations, repairs and resealing of the woodwork as needed. Lundco Painting used In excess of sixty (60) work hours, which were donated, to complete this project.  The finished work product was surveyed by the Winter Wonderland Committee and their satisfaction with the work was expressed. The Winter Wonderland project is one of Lundco Painting’s most visible community Charity projects
American Wallcovering Inc; St. Judes Catholic Church Rectory
The house was completely gutted, leaving only the main support studs, some joists, and the roof. American Wallcovering’s proceeded to tape, bed, and spray splatter texture on all the walls and ceilings. All three paint applications were utilized-brush, spray, and roller. The exterior was achieved with two coats of exterior latex flat. This included not only the Rectory, but also the garage. Unique to the exterior was the gingerbread applications on the three porches bringing the look back to the 1890’s. American Wall covering is extremely proud of all the work and efforts. The house is now being considered for a National Historical Marker.

Postupak Painting Co Inc; Boy Scout Tank
The project is located at Camp Achahela, located in the Pocono Mountains. It is the summer camp for cub scouts from North East Pennsylvania. The last time the tank was painted was back in 1983 when Postupak Painting panted the tank the first time. Working with NES lift rentals, Sherwin Williams paint and the union painters association. They were able to prep, end prime and paint the tank the week prior to camp opening for the summer. The tank was water blasted, power tool arid hand tool cleaned. Given one coat of epoxy mastic, and one finish coat of aliphatic urethane, the gaskets and caulking was all replaced.

Washington State Council; PAWS
The Washington State council wanted to give back to the community by pulling together their members. PAWS The Wildlife building where they care and rehabilitate wildlife before returning them to the wild is one story at the entrance and two stories at the back. They had to take special care not disturb the animals that were in their care. They also painted 6 out building that included the Volunteer shed, tool and storage sheds and new buildings for wild cats and birds. The schedule for the project took two weekends, the first to pressure wash and remove all the moss and the following to paint, 11 paint contractors and 3 associate members came together.