Meet the President

Who Is The King?

Robert W. Lyon II

President and CEO Robert W. Lyon II started King of the Painters Co, in 1975. He graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Marketing, with a Minor in Art. King of the Painters has evolved from a very small company to a company of 70 experienced and knowledgeable employees, due to the background derived from his Business Marketing and Art College Degrees.

Similar to painting on a small canvas, our exterior and interior painting projects reflect his personal artistry. His color palette transforms the “ordinary to extraordinary.” He likes to take his clients “out of the box” in their perception of how colors translate into their own environment. Most clients are ready to take color chances; however they are not daring and need help with the direction of their color choices. Lyon likes to take them slightly out of their comfort zone to achieve that designer look, achieving the goal of accomplishing a rich “personalized” environment using his color palette to perfection. He enthusiastically likes to enhance his projects with specialty themes and finishes, such as faux finishes, Venetian plasters, marbleizing, and metal patinas. These finishes serve to integrate his colors creating the dramatic effects of his “extreme makeovers.”

A Word from the President

My Ultimate Goal

With nearly 41 years in the painting and construction industry my ultimate goal is to provide exceptional painting and design projects that exceed our customer expectations. As I mentioned earlier we try to personalize our jobs by bringing an artistic approach to our signature jobs. Utilizing the current color trends, special colors, lighting, granite, and tile we are able to combine these elements to provide our customers with a magazine worthy look. Secondly, beyond the artistry, color combinations, and finishes, our painters go through an apprentice program where they learn from master painters, the latest techniques, procedures, and safety measures that are part of the everyday protocol for painting.

Our crews go through specialized training to become the best in their field. Our interior crews specialize in interior painting, they are skilled in not only painting, but also learn how to install crown molding, baseboards, door casings, extensive drywall, wall framing, texturing, and specialty finishes. Our exterior crews are equally adept in stucco repair and blending, wood replacement, and lead renovation to meet the latest industry and EPA requirements. Finally, our commercial painting staff is trained for high rise buildings, hospitals, and commercial jobs that pose unique challenges to painting. Working on high rise buildings, dealing with traffic and road concerns, pedestrian traffic considerations, paint containment, lead, and safety make the challenges of commercial painting more difficult and require a different skill set.

As with the residential side, our goal with our commercial projects is to provide the artistry, and provide our customers with the best paint jobs, and best service available. We will continually strive with our “perfectionist” attitude to exceed our customer expectations, creating King of the Painters signature paint jobs.

Importance of Prep/Paint

As everyone always says “painting is in the prep”. At King of the Painters, Inc. (KOP) with our highly trained painting crews, “prep” is our middle name. For us prep starts with the estimator knowing the expectations and details of the project, and our client expectations. When the painting crew arrives they have been prepped by the estimator. Contracts are detailed with highlighted items outlined on them reflecting concerns they need to be aware of, such as special prep considerations, wood replacement, lead requirements, and safety issues.

The onsite prep begins with pressure cleaning the home, or commercial building to remove dirt, debris, and mildew. Careful attention is made not to gouge wood with high pressure water blasters, or damage plants when pulling hoses, as well as containment of water from drains. A special focus is made when mold and mildew are present. Chemical mildicide treatments are used to remove this and other problem stains on the structure. Often additives are combined with this procedure in the paint to further eliminate the potential for future mildew. Walkways, windows, and plants are covered to protect from overspray.

When addressing damaged stucco areas, we use flexible elastomeric patching to fill hairline cracks, while the larger water related stucco issues are repaired with an emulsion bonding glue and real stucco. The fascia boards, eaves, wood siding, and other trim areas are carefully electric sanded to remove the peeling areas and to eliminate the potential for future peeling. Most areas are spot primed in the sanded areas; however some projects particularly with older homes and structures require additional priming to stabilize the surface.

The edges of windows, edges along the stucco where they meet the wood, and gaps in general are filled with a flexible caulking material. Our projects are sprayed and back rolled, and a second coat is applied for good coverage to even out the paint. Finally, the trim enamel paint is applied with the attention to detail. All areas where color changes occur, the cut-in lines are straight and clean. Our jobs are thoroughly checked by our painting crews and an outside field supervisor that checks on our jobs daily.

Using Dunn-Edwards premium painting products combined with our experienced staff, we are able to achieve the best paint jobs available in our industry.

Here at King of the Painters, Inc., our philosophy is to offer the best paint jobs, combined with utilizing superb materials to provide our customers with the best value available.