today i worked on a shitty mexican apartment that was filthy with roaches and mexicans still living there, kids running around with no diaper butt naked, walls scribbled all over food, n filth on walls. shit staked everywhere, two mopeds in the kitchen, moving furniture around to paint walls , patched some holes in walls replaced some cutouts of drywall, it was what i had to do cause the landlord got a letter from the city even though its the tenant fucking up the place but to be fair theyve been there 6-7 years or more. i did it fast even with furniture in the way painted whole house inside moving at light speed drank only one soda took me about 6 hours drank alot of water
i never spray i already know the hassel that brings totally not worth it
latex paint plus primer is awesome paint
i hate oil because of the fumes and that i have to use gasoline to clean my hands
Your post brings back so many memories of when I worked with my stepdad. His primary business was painting apartments in West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles. When he first went into business he got the bulk of his work from property management. After several years he built a clientele of customers who had nicer apartments in these neighborhoods. The main feature of his business was his ability to get in and get out of a place quickly and leave no mess behind. When he packed up at the end of the day, a new tenant could have moved right in.
While I don't remember working with my dad when he had a job like the one you describe, I can think of two jobs he had where I helped him that were pretty gross for different reasons.
The first was a fairly modest apartment in a large building. The prior tenet had committed suicide in the apartment by drinking ammonia which caused her to vomit blood all over the walls and floors before she died. I think the floors and walls had been cleaned before we came in to paint, however there were stains on the walls and the place smelled bad.
The second apartment my dad was hired to paint where I was going to work with him was in Beverly Hills, CA. It was in a very nice six unit building. The apartment was a pretty large place with Spanish architecture. It was nicer than a lot of houses. Anyway, the man who lived there had died....in the apartment. His body wasn't discovered for several weeks. The apartment had been cleaned after his decomposed body was removed and aired out for a few weeks before we arrived. I don't know if it was power of suggestion and just me being a wuss, but the smell made me feel physically sick. I couldn't stay there. My stepdad did that job on his own. I don't know how he managed it.
It was rare that we would work in an apartment that was occupied. My dad also painted the homes of his customers, but mostly interiors because he had an issue with heights. Moving furniture is a hassle. We'd put everything into the middle of the room and cover it with drop cloths, then cover the remaining floor area with drop cloths and paint the ceiling first. Walls were easy since all the furniture was already out of the way.
As I mentioned, trim work was my specialty. A lot of the old buildings we worked in had small paned wood windows. I developed a system for painting sash, which was painting from the inside/center out and top to bottom. We never used painter's tape in those days. You just had to be exact in cutting in without getting paint anywhere where it wasn't supposed to be.
These days a lot of property management companies use the on site apartment managers as painters regardless that they may have not expertise in that field. I feel for you working in this profession and trying to make a good living doing it.
If you have an occasion to use oil based paint in the future, the solvent is " paint thinner" not gasoline. In some instances you might use lacquer thinner to clean up which will even dissolved oil based paint which has dried. Your are right though, these are toxic substances. One time while working with Al Dahl, a high end painting contractor, we painted the exterior siding on a house with lead in oil paint. It had already been outlawed, but he'd purchase a quantity just for this repeat customer who preferred it. What I remember most is how heavy it was. Not the most ideal way to develop big biceps and triceps! LOL.
