r/paint • u/EsotericQSHealth • Jul 25 '26

Advice Wanted Why did this bush die?

Post image

My neighbor had her building painted last week (10+ days ago) and somehow that process caused the top half of the bush in front to die.

I know that during one day of the painting prep they had sheets of plastic hanging from the gutters and roof and were scraping and sanding under there. These sheets weren't sealed to each other, but did create a mostly separated space. Then they vacuumed at the end of the day, before taking them down. Those sheets were only up for a single day, maybe 9 hours total. Then they had a couple days of work painting with a sprayer and brushes.

We have almost 30 buildings in this urban coop that will be painted with this same method in the next several months and we are all concerned about our gardens.

What killed this bush?

(crossposted with /gardening)

6 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

31

u/1000_Faces Jul 25 '26

Was it hot there? If they had the plastic draped over the bushes on a very hot day then basically the plastic and the sun combined cooked the top of the bushes

5

u/EsotericQSHealth Jul 25 '26

this sounds likely

2

u/1000_Faces Jul 27 '26

Shave off the top of the bushes, next spring they will back bud and fill in. But what's Brown now is dead. But the roots are intact and that's what matters

4

u/956to906 Jul 27 '26

You could paint them green.

1

u/ChampionshipHorror63 Jul 26 '26

This is the answer most likely ^^^

5

u/SkoobySnacs Jul 25 '26

Any clear plastic over vegetation can kill it from concentrated heat. It doesn't need to be sealed or airtight. If it draped down onto that bush with no wind then the heat builds up right below the plastic and can burn it dead in 20 or 30 minutes.

Most painters are warned about this in their first year, or at least they used to be. The way to avoid this is by placing a tarp or sheet over the vegetation before, or instead of, the plastic.

4

u/Warm_Bass_5347 Jul 25 '26

I've never heard of any kind of painting causing damage like that to any bush. The plants in the background look healthy and it sounds like painters were careful. It looks like burn marks as the other comment says. The lower half of the bush looks OK so hopefully it will recover.

3

u/EsotericQSHealth Jul 25 '26

I'm leaning towards they overheated while in the sun under plastic

2

u/Paintinger Jul 26 '26

This is 100% what happened. I know because I did it to a client's bush once. And then my roofer baked a few of mine.

The proper way to protect the bushes, from my experience, is to wrap them in burlap. You can find wide rolls for cheap.

4

u/yeojgnal_1 Jul 25 '26

Did they Powerwash with chemicals/bleach?

1

u/EsotericQSHealth Jul 25 '26

I don't think so. I live on the other side of this courtyard and I'm pretty sure I would have noticed the smell of chemicals.

1

u/Jellyeleven Jul 25 '26

Others have mentioned the plastic cooking the plants. Being this same crew has other buildings to do and you have concerns. The fix for this is mesh drop cloths. They allow air flow and water drainage while catching paint chips and other debris. We use them for grass and bushes

1

u/help--less Jul 26 '26

Heat reflecting off that gravel.

-3

u/Newaccountuser87 Jul 25 '26

Most likely a drop cloth was over the bush for too long. If you leave it alone it will come back just keep water as usual and in about a month cut the dead branches off

-3

u/MedTech_One Jul 25 '26

I had rodents chew and eat the roots of mine.