"At one point, I considered going to Europe to get my master painter’s certification,” says Dennis Wilde. The 46-year-old journeyman painter, who operates Dennis J. Wilde Painting & Decorating in Sylvan Lake, Alta., about 20 kilometres west of Red Deer, was hoping to follow in the footsteps of his boss, mentor and friend, Martin Scholz. The German-born Scholz, whose father was a master painter, was trained in, but never received, a master’s certification.

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It took some time, but Frank Seviour’s creative skills are now right where they belong
“Aaahhhh – he’s trying to upsell me.”
That was David LaThangue’s first reaction when Frank Seviour, a fellow Brit and the man he was considering hiring for some paint work, suggested a high-end paint for part of the job. But then, moments later, Seviour recommended a much cheaper product that would be sufficient to go beneath the final coat.

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Let’s get down to the reality of painting as a profession – you need a solid business plan and excellent technical skills – and you need them now. Well, PROFESSIONAL PAINTER is here to help, with 50 of the hottest business and technical tips you can find from some of the best painting and construction industry professionals in Canada..

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You need the skill to properly patch and repair plaster. You need a good eye to see imperfections in the surface you are about to paint. You need the patience to sand the surfaces you are working until they are smooth and flat. Most of all, you need good primers and the knowledge of how to use them properly.

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What do you know about paint? How long was your painting apprenticeship? Where did you go to school to learn the painting trade?
You might hear yourself ask these questions of a potential employee, but if he is younger than 40, the answers to questions about apprenticeships and schooling will likely fall on deaf ears. The reality in Canada today is that there are virtually no opportunities for young people to receive a solid, formal education in the painting trade. It is as if painting—unlike carpentry, plumbing or electrical—has fallen by the wayside as a respected career choice.

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In an Industry as competitive as painting, where the average business lasts only two years, Neal Pope of NPC Services can already claim success. He’s going into his fourth year-not bad for a guy who got into painting by accident.
The short average operating lifespan of paint companies elicits little surprise from Pope.“I have no trouble believing it because it’s very tough.There are lots of people out there competing for a limited number of jobs.” He runs his business from what used to be a furniture manufacturing plant in Garden Hill, Ont., a tiny village just north of Port Hope and Cobourg.The two towns have more than their fair share of historic and heritage buildings, both residential and municipal, which are Pope’s bread and butter. “Our work is very specialized. We concentrate on restoration work.We use techniques, some old and some new, which are suited to that kind of building.”

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At a supermarket somewhere in Western Canada, the last customer of the day passes through the checkout. In the parking lot, one final shopping cart is slammed into the line. The building’s outside lights are switched off. Cash registers are emptied. Sorry, we’re closed.
Inside the store, however, the work day is just getting started for a crew working for the Venger Group, a 20 year-old family business based in Leduc, Alta., just outside Edmonton. Seven or eight guys have a job to do – repainting meat and vegetable display cases – and they have to be finished before the store’s morning crew arrives in six or seven hours.

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Painter Profile
Terry Jennett and Shayne Butcher
How these guys went from paint rags to riches
By Bruce White

The boss’s office is decorated with Montreal Canadiens memorabilia. There’s an autographed photo of Yvan Cournoyer holding up the Stanley Cup in the late 1970s. There’s also one of Patrick Roy, the goalie who frustrated Calgary Flames’ Cup ambitions in 1986.
It’s a provocative choice of décor for an office in an industrial park just south of the Flames’ Saddledome. Other items on display are more conventional: paintings by school-age kids, a salmon fishing derby trophy and a wad of golf score cards pinned to the bulletin board. (The card on top, with 73 penciled in as the final score, is from the notoriously difficult Trickle Creek Golf Course in Southeastern B.C.)

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Any pro painter with a conscience won’t go out of his or her way to paint outdoors when Mother Nature is up to no good. But there are times when bad weather gets in the way of a deadline, and what’s a painter to do when snow, cold, rain, high humidity, wind or other harsh conditions threaten to shut down a job?
To start, find out if there are any new paint products that address the conditions you face. In recent years major paint manufacturers have come up with a number of paint formulas to battle inclement weather. One of those innovations is cold-cure paint. The best of these paints are specified for application at temperature as low as – 2 Celsius.

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