Americlean: All-American Painting in Knoxville, Tennessee

When we bought our house a little over 2 years ago, one of the first big-ticket tasks we knew we'd have to deal with was painting the exterior. It was looking rather rough, with huge flakes of paint at least 25 years old falling off the Masonite siding like the leaves of a dying tree. The numerous, drafty cracks needed caulking badly and the window frames screamed to be refreshed with a brand new coat of paint.

Like most of my home improvement projects, I was bound and determined to tackle this one myself, but with so much work that needed to be done to this badly neglected exterior, it would literally take me the entire summer between work. sleep, and chores to do it right; plus there was way too many other fix-ups that needed my attention and could not be ignored. So it was decided that we would try and find a painter who was reasonably priced and would stand behind his work.

After getting estimates from several competent, mediocre, incompetent, and even downright scary-looking house painters, we decided to take a chance with a man named Mike Elmore, owner and president of Americlean Painting and Roof cleaning. He was clean, friendly (but not ingratiating), and prompt, answering all our questions thoroughly with patience and a firm command of his chosen trade.

Two weeks after we accepted his estimate of $2,105 to paint our 1,200 square foot one-story house, he showed up promptly to meet me in my driveway after I came home from work. He walked me around my property, pointing out everything that needed to be done while supplying valid and plausible reasons for the required work. After thoroughly briefing me on the details of the job, he immediately got started with a thorough pressure washing of the exterior.

The next day he returned with his two hard-working, polite, and experienced apprentices, Pablo and Marco, and got started scraping every bit of the loose paint from the exterior siding, trim, and window frames. From there, they repaired and/or replaced every piece of rotten wood (especially around the eaves and soffit of the roof), and caulked every crack and crevice, which actually increased the efficiency of our home so much, it knocked our electric bill down by a whopping 13 percent!

The next day, they papered and taped all the windows and the brick, even the underside of the shingles protruding from the roof's edge, taking extra care to cover my landscaping with plastic drop-cloths. Perhaps most impressive about the prep work of Americlean is that they removed all the storm windows, lighting fixtures, trim, and even the shutters before spraying on the primer, just as an experienced body-man would begin painting a car. This way, every bit of wood and Masonite was given a protective coating, which would prevent any decay from beginning underneath them.

The third and final day was when the two coats of 10-year Pittsburgh paint was applied (we kept the same colors so as to minimize our costs; Jeez, painting's expensive!), and the paper was removed from the windows and our hardware, fixtures, and storm windows reinstalled. The fact that they removed the shutters to paint them separately really impressed us, because they look VERY nice once they were reinstalled!

Americlean has been in business since 1992, but painting isn't all they do. Americlean also cleans mildew and sap stains from asphalt shingle, tile, and tin roofs, as well as sealing driveways, sidewqalks, and patios. They deliver professional results and treat their customers with respect and courtesy. And they did a great job on a horribly neglected finish while charging a price that was more than fair (about 15% under the citywide average). And on top of that, owner Mike Elmore, himself having 20 years painting experience, is a special kind of person that you don't find everyday in the building trades.

It seems we had a nest of newly-hatched Robins in the crook of one of our downspouts, right in the way of where Mr. Elmore and crew needed to paint. My wife and I didn't want any harm to befall the baby birds or their mama, so we decided to carefully move the nest from the downspout to one of our inverted tomato hangers. Not only did Mister Elmore duct tape one of his personal umbrellas to the pole to shade the little hatchlings from the intense April sun, he also got on his hands and knees with me in my corn garden and dug up some fat night crawlers to feed them by hand!

No, not many contractors would have even bothered with such a seemingly insignificant thing as making sure 'our' birds were kept safe, let alone get his hands and knees filthy digging for worms to feed them! This is a man who truly deserves your business, for Mike Elmore is a professional with a heart as big as the Smoky Mountains themselves! So whether you need your house painted, your roof cleaned, or your driveway sealed, Mike Elmore and Americlean will do a fan-tastic job on your home for a very reasonable price!

Americlean: P.O. Box 52971, Knoxville, TN 37950