Services
The five coastal systems
01
Full exterior repaints
Pressure-washed to strip the salt film, scraped and sanded to sound coating, every weather-checked board replaced or feathered, then the three-coat marine system: spot primer on bare timber, full bond coat, finish coat — sprayed and back-brushed so the film rides the grain of the windward elevation, which on this coast is always the west one.
02
Windows, sashes & trim
The parts that fail first, done the slow way: glazing checked and re-puttied, sashes eased and brushed by hand in a linseed system, and the caulk lines at every frame joint raked out and re-gunned with a marine-grade sealant that stretches when the house moves in a gale instead of cracking the paint bridge across it.
03
Decks, docks & rails
Brightened back to bare grain, then flooded with penetrating oil or solid stain in a colour approved from a sample on your own boards. Rails and dock edges are brushed by hand — end grain drinks the weather, so post tops and cut ends get sealed twice, and the spray rig never goes near the water.
04
Colour-matching the original
Most headland houses are wearing their third wrong colour over their first right one. We cut a small exposure window, read the layers, match the original in a modern marine finish, and leave the swatch card with you — the parish looks like itself again, and the conservation officer approves on the first read.
05
Storm-damage repitches
When a February gale strips a gable, two crews hold slots every season for triage: tarping within 24 hours of your call, substrate dried and assessed, and the repaint scheduled to the weather window rather than the calendar. Salt damage goes from bare timber to primed inside a week or it becomes a rot bill.
Exteriors run May to September; the June board is full by mid-April. Storm-damage slots are held open all year — (555) 129-4470 reaches the yard before it reaches a menu.
Services & rates
The maintenance programme
A repaint on this coast earns its price back by being looked after. Plan holders’ exteriors average eighteen years between full repaints; the parish average is nine. The programme is the discount.
Year-one inspectionincluded
Full elevation walk, photo report, caulk and glazing check
Watch plan, per year$410
Wash-down of windward walls; spot-prime and touch the failures
Care plan, per year$760
Watch plan plus full caulk renewal on the west elevation
Headland plan, per year$1,120
Everything above, plus one coat to the gable every third autumn
Wash-down only, per visit$240
Salt film removed before it etches the finish
Priority storm slotincluded
Plan holders jump the triage queue — always
How it goes
Prep is the warranty
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
Day 0
The coastal survey
Moisture meter on the shady elevations, putty knife test on the failing coats, and a written system per face — which boards, which primer, which caulk, which weeks. Fixed price before the rig leaves the yard.
Days 1–2
Wash, scrape, correct
Salt film pressure-washed off, loose coating scraped to sound edges, rot-prone joints opened and dried. Nothing gets primed the day it got wet — the moisture meter, not the sunshine, says when.
Days 2–3
Caulk, glaze, prime
Every frame joint raked and re-sealed with flexible marine sealant, glazing cut in fresh, bare timber spot-primed the day it is bared, then the full bond coat — the layer the salt has to get through first.
Final days
Finish coats & the walk
Finish sprayed and back-brushed at the wall’s pace between the tides of weather, then a raking-lamp walk of every elevation with you before scaffold drops. Year-one inspection is booked before we invoice.
Every painter before Saltmark sprayed over the salt and called it done. These ones washed the house for two days first, replaced four boards nobody else had even mentioned, and re-caulked every joint on the west face. Three gales later the gable they painted is the only face on this street not peeling — and the year-one letter arrived before the invoice did.
The wall
The coast, kept painted
Fair questions
Why does coastal painting cost more?
Because the prep is longer and the system is heavier: the salt film gets washed off before anything sticks to it, the primers are marine-grade, and the caulk is the flexible kind. A repaint that skips those is budgeted again in four winters — we price the one that is not.
Can you work in shoulder seasons?
Yes, to the moisture meter and the forecast rather than the calendar: bond coats need dry substrate and finish coats need a temperature window. We would rather move a week than trap damp under a film the salt will lift by spring.
What if we do not want the maintenance plan?
Then you take the same three-coat system and the same warranty — the plan is how the finish gets kept, not how it gets sold. Most holdouts sign at the year-one inspection, which is included either way.
Do you match the other houses in the parish?
Happily — half our colour work is archaeology: exposing what the house wore originally and mixing it into a modern marine finish. The parish has a look; we keep it, and we keep the card with the swatch on it.
Storm damage — how fast are you, really?
Tarped within 24 hours of the call in-season, and plan holders go to the top of the triage list always. Bare timber gets primed inside the week, because salt-burned exposure is how a gable becomes a rot bill.
Tell us what the weather did.
The survey is free out to the headland parishes, the system is written per elevation, and the price is fixed before the rig leaves the yard. crew@saltmark.example