Our shop is in Fernley, 31 miles east — about 35 minutes down I-80, and Sparks is the first place we reach. It's a city that has grown by two-thirds since 2000, so nearly a third of its houses are less than 25 years old and hitting their first repaint, while the old railroad town along Victorian Avenue is on its fifth or sixth. We do both, inside and out.
What Sparks' sun and winters do to a paint job
Sparks sits at about 4,400 feet, which means roughly 10 to 15 percent more ultraviolet than the same house would take at sea level. UV breaks down the binder that holds pigment to the surface, and the loose pigment powders off — that's the chalk on your palm when you run a hand down the south side. July afternoons average the mid-80s to low 90s while the nights drop to the mid-50s, so everything on the wall expands and contracts every day. Then winter: January nights average in the mid-20s, and the surface crosses freezing and back most days from November into March. So does any water sitting in a hairline stucco crack. It's why the south and west elevations go first while the north side still looks almost new.
Old Sparks: a railroad town that was moved here on flatcars
Sparks exists because the Southern Pacific moved its yard here in 1904 and shipped the whole town of Wadsworth with it — houses dismantled, loaded on flatcars, and set back down on 50-by-140-foot lots next to the new roundhouse. Some of those houses, and the ones that followed them through the 1920s to the 1950s, are still standing around Victorian Avenue and the streets south of the tracks. They are wood: siding, trim, eaves, porch columns, sash windows. Wood moves more than stucco and holds moisture, so paint there peels and lifts rather than chalks, and the job is scraping back to sound paint, spot-priming bare wood, and caulking the joints before any colour goes on. One thing to know before you call: houses built before 1978 can carry lead-based paint under the newer coats, and that changes how the prep has to be done. Tell us the age of the house up front and we'll plan around it.
The 1970s to '90s tracts: on their second or third repaint
A lot of Sparks between the old town and the new master plans went up between the 1970s and the 1990s, and those houses are on their second or third coat now. What we see most: old caulk that has let go at the trim joints, chalked south walls, and the previous painter's coat peeling where it went on over chalk without a bonding primer. The fix is not more paint — it's washing the chalk off, priming what's bare, and re-caulking before the first coat. That's the part of the estimate that decides how long the job lasts.
The Vistas, D'Andrea and the stucco built since 2000
Sparks grew from about 74,500 people in 2000 to over 111,000 today, and roughly 12,900 of its homes were built after 2000 — the Vistas, D'Andrea, the neighbourhoods along Los Altos and Vista Boulevard, the newer streets above the Marina. They're stucco almost without exception, and most are on their first repaint, which looks different from an old house: the thin original coat still fine on the north side and giving up on the south and west. Portland-cement stucco is alkaline — fresh, it runs pH 12.5 to 13 — so patches need about 28 days to cure and an alkali-resistant masonry primer under the finish, and a 100 percent acrylic finish resists that alkali far better than oil. White chalky deposits coming through the wall are efflorescence: salts carried out by water moving through the stucco. Find the sprinkler head or the bad flashing first, or it comes straight back.
If your association hands you a palette, we paint inside it
D'Andrea and the Vistas communities run architectural review with restrictions on exterior colours, and the local paint stores keep many Reno and Sparks associations' approved schemes on file, so the sheet is usually easy to get. Either way, get your final colours signed off by your association before we start — that approval is theirs to give, not ours and not the paint store's. Bring us the approved scheme and we'll price it from there. Two things set the exterior calendar here: overnight lows average below freezing from November into March, so exterior repaints run spring through fall, and the Washoe Zephyr comes up mid-afternoon on summer days and gusts 20 to 30 miles an hour, so summer exterior work belongs in the morning. Interior work, cabinets, and drywall and plaster repair we do year-round.
What we get called out for in Sparks, most often:
- Exterior repaints — stucco, wood siding and trim
- Interior painting — walls, ceilings, doors and trim
- Cabinet refinishing
- Commercial interiors and exteriors
- Decks, fences and patios — clean, paint and seal
- Plaster and drywall repair, skim coating
- Wallpaper removal
- Prep: scraping, caulking, priming, sanding
Why homeowners keep calling us back
Robert Goormastic started this business in 1988 as Wine Country Painting in Santa Rosa, California, and moved it to Fernley in 2002. Thirty-plus years, same trade, still family owned and operated. We're rated 5.0 on Google and 5.0 on HomeAdvisor — Eric B. in Sparks wrote that Rob "did a great job on our house and we would definitely recommend him." Estimates are free and good for 90 days. We stand behind our work with a firm satisfaction guarantee: we don't consider a project complete until you're satisfied.
Questions we get from Sparks homeowners
You're in Fernley. Do you really come to Sparks?
Yes. It's 31 miles and about 35 minutes on I-80, and Sparks is the closest part of the Truckee Meadows to us. It has been in our service area for years along with Spanish Springs, Reno and Fallon, and the estimate is free in Sparks the same as it is in Fernley.
My house is in old Sparks near Victorian Avenue. Is that a different job?
It is. Wood siding and trim peel rather than chalk, so the prep is scraping, spot-priming and caulking rather than washing and back-rolling. And houses built before 1978 can have lead-based paint under the top coats, which changes how the surface has to be prepared. Tell us the age of the house when you call and we'll plan for it.
My HOA has an approved colour list. Can you work from it?
That's normal in the Vistas and D'Andrea and it's no trouble. Get your final choice approved by your association before we start — that decision is theirs — and we'll paint whatever comes back approved.
How soon can new stucco or a fresh patch be painted?
Give portland-cement stucco about 28 days to cure. It comes out of the mixer around pH 12.5 to 13, and coating it while it's still that alkaline is how you end up with a finish that discolours or lets go within a season.
What time of year should I book exterior work in Sparks?
Spring through fall, and mornings in summer. Overnight lows average below freezing from around November into March, and the Washoe Zephyr makes summer afternoons a bad time for spraying. Interior work and cabinets we do year-round.