What Color is Your Eichler? - Page 2

Palladino and Eichler Network director Marty Arbunich teamed up in 2008 to painstakingly reconstruct much of Eichler's original paint palette from old Cabot Stain catalogues and Eichler brochures, color swatches in hardware stores, color chips, and other sources. (Though they compared their project to an architectural dig, Palladino and Arbunich did come away with a color chart of their own, which is posted at the tail end of this article.)

Original Eichler-friendly colors aside, Palladino strongly recommends that homeowners choose a palette they can live with for a decade or more, however long the new paint lasts before repainting beckons.

"When people want my opinion [about color choices], I'm happy to give it," he says. "Some people are fine and have a very clear picture of what they want.

"I don't get that attached to the colors because it's the homeowner that has to be happy [with it]."

Eichler Homes originally used a Cabot oil-based stain for the exterior siding, and some homeowners, Palladino says, still opt to stain rather than paint, though stain typically lasts about half as long as a good paint job.

"If the home's exterior has been converted to paint, you have to stay with paint," he says, explaining that stain cannot penetrate previously painted wood. "Stain is a wood-penetrating product."

Regarding the typical longevity of a paint job, Palladino says, "If the surface is strong, a decade-plus is not too much to expect."

One advantage to repainting an Eichler today over past decades is, if any siding needs replacement, it's much easier to find today. Palladino says previously unpainted bottom edges of the siding are particularly vulnerable to dry rot, as are exposed beam ends.

If the wood in a half-century-old home is not in good shape, he says, the house expands, contracts, and generally "acts like an accordion with temperature change. That's obviously going to affect a paint coating with cracking. You're not going to get a decade out of that."

• To contact Palladino Painting and other painting companies that are part of the Eichler Network, click here. For Eichler siding, click here.

• For a more in-depth Eichler Network article on painting, 'Hues About You,' click here.

• For the Eichler-friendly color palette assembled by Lou Palladino and the Eichler Network, review the two color charts on the next page.