House painting in Kanata and Stittsville

Kanata spans a wider span of building years than most Ottawa suburbs, and that changes the work street by street. Beaverbrook dates to the late 1960s and 1970s and carries cedar siding, oil-based trim and the odd plaster wall, so bonding primers and careful prep matter. Kanata Lakes, Morgan's Grant and most of Stittsville went up from the 1990s onward and are conventional drywall and latex throughout.

Cedar is the local complication. A lot of the older Kanata stock has real cedar siding or cedar trim, and cedar bleeds tannin through a light-coloured coat unless it is primed with a stain-blocking product made for it. A painter who reaches for a general acrylic primer on cedar will hand you brown streaks by the second summer.

The other Kanata pattern is mature tree cover. The 1970s neighbourhoods have large trees over the house, which keeps north elevations damp late into the morning, encourages mildew on siding, and shortens the usable exterior working day in September. Washing and a mildewcide matter more here than in the open newer subdivisions.