The wooden housing company’s colors restored to their glory – Oma-Asunto Oy’s painting project in Käpylä, Helsinki

The courtyard of a beautiful wooden housing company in Käpylä, Helsinki was bustling with green-shirted painters during the summer: a painting project for 12 wooden semi-detached houses was carried out during the summers of 2021 and 2022. The nearly century-old houses were restored to their deserved glory in terms of color.

The atmosphere of Puu-Käpylä in Helsinki is unique: charming communal gardens are hidden within the lovely wooden house blocks. This green neighborhood is just a tram ride away from Helsinki city center, and it’s no wonder that many who have found a home here don’t want to move elsewhere.

The exterior cladding of Oma-Asunto Oy’s twelve wooden houses, completed in 1924, was in need of maintenance painting. Väriset Oy was chosen to carry out this extensive project. The original paint on the houses was homemade clay paint, and various layers had been painted over it over the years.

A discussion about the appropriate paint was held between the housing company and Väriset’s professionals. By mutual agreement, Virtanen’s Four Oil Paint was selected.

Four Oil Paint suits Väriset’s brushes and heritage sites

“From the painters’ perspective, Four Oil Paint is very pleasant to work with,” says Väriset’s site manager Eemeli Niemelä. “The coverage and brush feel are good.”

In maintenance painting of old wooden houses, the importance of careful preparatory work cannot be emphasized enough. If you cut corners in the prep work, the paint surface can flake off as early as the following summer. In this project, the exterior cladding surfaces required exceptionally extensive preparatory work.

“After removing the old paint, the houses are gone over three times: first with mold protection, then with primer, and finally, of course, the topcoat is applied. Four Oil Paint is well suited for heritage sites like these.”

During the painting project, the vertical battens of the houses’ exterior cladding were replaced. A single semi-detached house can contain up to a kilometer’s worth of battens, and in the spring, before the outdoor painting season began, they were primed with brushes flying at Väriset’s hall in Espoo.

Ahead of schedule

The weather during the Finnish summer can be notoriously variable.

“Four Oil Paint is forgiving when it comes to weather.”

However, the summer of 2021 was exceptionally good weather-wise from an exterior painting perspective, and nine of the company’s wooden houses were painted instead of the planned five. The remaining three semi-detached houses received their new coat of paint during the summer of 2022. The painting project accelerated as the summer offered plenty of suitable painting days weather-wise.

“It’s nice to look at the freshly painted houses from the garden”

The housing company is satisfied with their choices regarding both the painting company and the paint.

“The work pairs who painted here radiated joy in their work,” says the housing company’s chairman Juha Ala-Hiiro.

The nearly 100-year-old housing company has naturally required renovation work over the decades. All exterior surface repairs and restoration work have been done according to the preservation plan. The exterior painting project was also planned from the start to be appropriate for a heritage site.

“The right materials, the right tools, and the right methods were chosen.”

Painting work done with thought and professional skill, along with the right paint choice, ensures carefree and maintenance-free years for the wooden cladding. The yellow, red, and terracotta-colored houses standing around the lush communal garden were restored to their glory from nearly a hundred years ago.

“In the summer, it’s nice for the residents to look at the freshly painted surface from the garden.”

If your housing company needs a new surface, we’ll gladly handle exterior cladding painting as well as tile roof coating and cleaning on your behalf with ten years of experience. By booking a FREE assessment visit, a Väriset expert will check the condition of your home’s exterior surfaces, recommend a suitable solution, and calculate a quote for the work. The assessment visit is always FREE and doesn’t commit you to anything.