Signature Surfaces LLC

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my clients, suppliers, family, and friends. Thank you for the opportunities you have blessed me with this year. It’s been a year of transition for me. My schedule is getting back to a more normal one. Prior to Covid, I usually had a 6 to 8 week back log. These last 4 or 5 years, my schedule was 9 to 12 months. I lost a lot of painting opportunities because I just couldn’t get to them in time. But I am truly thankful that my clients would wait for me that long to do their projects. Now I have a lot more flexibility and can work in those projects than need immediate attention. Looking forward to painting a colorful new year with you! Let’s roll in 2026!

09/03/2025

Bathroom make over with only paint. The client wanted to freshen up their bathroom without doing a major remodel of the space. The floor was updated recently but it still had the ceramic tile on the walls and probably the original vanity. They asked if I could paint the tile and vanity as well as the ceiling and the drywall portion of the walls. Ceramic tile can be painted if done properly. Like the vanity, it is a three step process to clean, scuff, and de-gloss the surface. A bonding primer must be used as well after that. The bonding primer is designed to stick to hard glossy surfaces. It’s perfect for the tile and sealed wood on the vanity. Two coats of Ben Moore Advance paint completes the tile and vanity.

I told the client before I started that they would be amazed at what a coat of paint can do to their bathroom. They were amazed and love their new bathroom.

05/26/2025

Remembering our men and women (and their families) who made the ultimate sacrifice by serving our country. Freedom isn’t free. So grateful and thankful for their service. May God bless them and their families.

04/18/2025

Have brush, will travel. Here’s a picture of the view out of the “office” the last couple of days. Went to Callao, MO to work in a new 1500 sq. ft. addition. It was on 140 acres. The picture shows a “pond” that was recently dug. It will be approximately 1 acre of water surface and 25 feet deep when Mother Nature fills it up. It was a nice change of scenery in God’s Country.

Up next Bunker, MO to paint a house on 80 acres. Back to God’s Country for the week. Looking forward to it.

12/26/2024

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my clients, suppliers, family, and friends. I will be starting my fifteenth year of painting this coming year. That is hard to believe! I remember starting my business in 2010 when we were coming off the housing crisis. The construction industry was struggling. Probably not the best time to start a business. And I didn’t have a lot of professional painting experience either. But God blessed me with the opportunity, put the right people in my life to get my start, and gave me the willingness to learn and the fortitude to become a true professional. I am truly blessed by God and forever grateful to Him. Also, I am forever grateful to everyone who believed in me and trusted me with their painting projects over the last fifteen years. Thank you for the opportunity to put my “signature” in your home. Looking forward to rolling into 2025 with you!

05/27/2024

04/06/2024

Here are some before and after pictures of a client’s coffee and end tables I painted recently.

The client painted the tables years ago. She used a kit from a big box store and had good results with the kit. A few years ago, she had the tables repainted by someone who painted furniture. They used a milk paint. The client wasn’t happy with how they turned out. The person tried to fix and repaint the tables. The client still wasn’t happy. The finish on the tables was dull and uneven and the surface wasn’t very durable.

The client had me paint the tables. First, I washed the tables with TSP so we had a good clean surface to work with. Then I sanded the tables with my Festool sander / dust extractor to try to smooth the surface and to make sure we had a good bond from the original paint job. We did.

“Bullseye” Bill Warmbrodt at Reineke Decorating color matched the tables and mixed the paint in Benjamin Moore Advance. I use the Advance line of paint on all the woodwork I paint. It is a waterborne alkyd paint. Meaning a water based solvent with an alkyd (oil) resin. So you get the workability and clean up of a water based paint with the performance of an oil based paint. It is a smooth, hard, durable finish. The results speaks for itself.

I applied two coats of paint to the tables. The client loves her newly painted tables.

12/25/2023

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my clients, suppliers, family, and friends. Thank you for all of the opportunities you have blessed me with this year. I am forever grateful. It’s been another amazing year in the painting business. I have continued to learn and perfect my craft. I’m just so grateful to serve and work along side so many great people. I am truly blessed by God. Looking forward to making 2024 a colorful year with you.

08/21/2023

The most challenging project I've done in 13 years of painting.

The client had Venetian plaster applied to the ceiling and walls of their hearth room. The plaster had cracked and started to peel from the drywall ceiling. They had it repaired and the same thing started to occur. Typically when I've seen cracking and peeling on ceilings, you scrape those areas and eventually it stops. You are lefted with various sized areas that need to be repaired and the ceiling repainted. Not this one. The entire ceiling came off down to the drywall (and removed some of the paper facing of the drywall), the joint compound on the drywall seams, and to some of the original sand swirled ceiling.

Now we have two problems. One, I now have 360 square feet of ceiling to restore instead of several various sized areas where the peeling was occurring. Two, what caused this to happen? I had Carl Reineke from Reineke Decorating (my paint store) and Jim Archer from Benjamin Moore (paint rep) look at it. Carl has been in the paint business for over 50 years and Jim for 35 to 40 years. Neither one has ever seen a ceiling peel completely off like this one.

With some input from Bill Warmbrodt at Reineke Decorating, we came to the conclusion that it was moisture from the heat and humidity in the attic space of the vaulted ceiling. The client had their roof replaced last year because there was some indication of it leaking. The soffits of the hearth room were vented allowing air into the attic space. But the old and new roof didn't have any vents on the ridge of the roof or elsewhere. So with the combination of the air flowing in through the soffits and the sun beating down on the roof, this created humidity in the attic space and it had no where to go. The moisture from the humidity passed through the drywall ceiling into the hearth room. The client didn't have any problems before with the original ceiling because the moisture could get through the latex painted ceiling. Once the Venetian plaster was applied to the ceiling, it trapped the moisture in the drywall. The plaster is a thicker, heavier material than the original painted ceiling. Eventually the moisture broke down the bond of the plaster to the ceiling causing it to crack and peel. The client is having their roofer install some vents on the ridge of the roof to allow the attic space to breathe. Air flows in through the soffits and will be allowed to exit through the vents. We think this will solve the problem.

So how do we restore the ceiling? First, truth be told, I was questioning my ability at times on this project. I had never seen this happen as well. The answer, a little at a time. I broke the ceiling down in to segments. Work on this area, move on to the next. To look at the entire 18' × 20' ceiling could be a bit overwhelming. It was 13' from the floor to the peak of the vault too (you could feel the heat up there too on hotter days).

After 4 days of scraping and cleaning up the debris, I got it stripped. I sanded the entire ceiling with my Festool sander and dust extractor (I couldn't have done the job without it). This removed any loose drywall paper and any uneven joint compound, which there was a lot of (oh, and no dust. This machine is unbelievable). I tried to get the ceiling as flat and tight as I could. I spot primed all of the areas where the paper facing of the drywall tore off exposing the brown paper of the drywall with an oil based primer. I then primed the entire ceiling with the oil based primer. The ceiling was now stabilized and sealed and ready to repair. I applied two coats of joint compound to most of the ceiling to finish evening out the surface. I sanded the ceiling and primed the ceiling with a tinted latex primer. I finally applied the ceiling paint three weeks after starting the project. My client was in awe of their new ceiling (as was I).

A big thank you to Carl, Jim, and Bill for their time and input to hopefully bring a solution to my client's ceiling problem. Also, my belief and trust in God walked me through this project step by step. Without Him, none of this is possible. I questioned my ability but He provided the answer.

07/09/2023

I worked in the Rockwood Summit Wrestling Room (The Sanctuary) today to update the walls for the achievements from this year and to finish adding the team accomplishments from last year. I couldn't help to think about the countless hours of work these athletes, teams, and coaches spend in this room while I was there. It was an honor to spend some time there today rewarding those who have their name or team added to these walls.

Today I added Madeline Haynes to the state placement wall for her 2nd place finish. It's her second straight 2nd place finish (and she is only a sophomore). I have a feeling next year I will be adding her under a different place finish. Congratulations Madeline!

I also added Caelin Stegmann to the state placement wall for his 5th place finish. Caelin also set a new record for career pins with 102 breaking the old record of 101 set by Sam Frankowski. Now that is impressive! I have painted Sam Frankowski's name more than any other name on the walls. Congratulations Caelin!

I added the girls team from 2022 for their 6th place finish at state and their conference championship. Congratulations ladies!

I also added the boys team from 2022 for their conference championship. Congratulations gentlemen!

Continue to Rise!

12/25/2022

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my clients, suppliers, family, and friends! Thank you for the opportunities you have blessed me with, I am truly grateful. This year has been a lot like last year. I'm still overwhelmed with work. If you are on my schedule, I still ask for your patience. I will get to your project in time and you will receive the quality and attention to detail that I've built my business on. I am truly grateful and blessed by God to serve such great people. Looking forward to rolling in 2023 with you.

07/20/2022

Just finished up with this kitchen. It was one part of the project. I basically painted the entire main floor excluding the bedrooms and bathrooms. Here are some before and after pictures of the kitchen. The client had new counter tops and back splashes installed, added new lighting, and got a new refrigerator and range prior to the painting. I painted the ceilings, walls, trim, doors, cabinets, and island of the kitchen / breakfast room. The walls are Benjamin Moore OC - 24 Wind's Breath. The trim, doors, and cabinets are Benjamin Moore
OC - 65 Chantilly Lace. The island is Benjamin Moore 804 Chicago Blues. Shout out to Sarah at Reineke Decorating for working with my client to assist in selecting colors for the entire project. Thank you Sarah!

The client had originally selected Benjamin Moore 824 Yin Yang for the island. But after seeing the first coat on the doors the client thought it was not dark enough and too purple looking. So I took the can of paint to "Bullseye" Bill Warmbrodt at Reineke Decorating. He was able to work his magic by adding more tint to change the color to the Chicago Blues.

I installed the new black handles when I hung the cabinet doors and installed the drawer fronts. The client was "amazed" with the transformation of the kitchen.