Spring cometh and with it, come siding and painting.

The weather here is just like spring, it reached 86 degrees today. Correspondingly, I have seen an increase in requests for siding repair and exterior painting. This is to repair the damage of winter or winters and summers past, the Texas sun is hard on paint and the rains can do a number of the siding as well.

Due to this increase in requests I though it a good idea to explain some of the ins and outs of siding repairs and painting.

First we will discuss siding.
During the late seventies, all the eighties and even early nineties, siding was mostly a product called Masonite. There have been a large number of class-action lawsuits against the manufactures as it rots anywhere it was cut or had a nail put in it. Now do not get me wrong, I have it on my house and it is just fine. I am lucky as I keep my well painted and it is mostly in dry areas. I have seen it so bad, we had to replace or overlay all the old siding with new siding or cover it with vinyl siding.

So if you have Masonite and need repairs what are your options.
1. Repair the areas affected with any product you can get hold of that has the same or a similar style and profile. Cover the damage with trim if possible, IE Hide it.
2. Replace or overlay the entire siding with a new siding product.

Repair is usually the cheapest and can be at best a temporary fix. Sometimes it is impossible to find the profile of your current product in the exact size and shape. This can lead to the patched look or a quilt pattern look. But lets not forget to address the actual cause of the siding/trim rot. Was it water from a sprinkler aimed improperly, was it water from the roof ? Can adding gutters help? Can adding proper drainage help? This questions are the same for replace or overlay.

Replace or overlay works like this, repair the damaged or missing siding with OSB board, then overlay that with optional foam insulation sheets. This allows you to get insulation where there is none or add to what you already have. Once the areas are repaired and the optional insulation is applied you can overlay them with the new siding product.

This begs the question, what do I replace it with that will not rot?
The simple answer is with a concrete fiber board from James-Hardie. It does not rot, holds paint like a dream and is easy to install. Comes in a wide variety of styles and profiles for siding and trim. The only complaint I have it that it does not have profiles for some of the more popular Masonite profiles and thus cannot always be used for a seamless repair of the Masonite sidings. Now is James-Hardie the only concrete fiber board? No, there are others but they invented it and therefore are the best at it.

Vinyl siding never needs painted, it can be cleaned with a garden hose, it is weather and rot proof. It can even be installed with insulation in it or under it, to add more R-value to help with the raising cost of electricity.

There are other siding products out there and you may find they work better with your type of home or installation. Louisiana-Pacific makes several products they claim are better than the concrete fiber board, but they are still too new to really have been time an weather tested.

Now we can talk about paint.
There are too many companies out there that make paint, so pick the one your father used and stick with them. Not all paint is created equal, but there are things to look for. Warranty, company name, BBB complaints and quality. Sears has a good name for paint and so does Sherwin-Williams. If the quality of the paint is good, it will last, right? Wrong, if the surface is not prepared properly to accept the paint; and he paint is not applied properly, then you will not get the years out of the paint warranty and it will fade, chip or peel.

The proper preparation includes these steps:
Pressure wash surface to be painted - This removes dirt, grim and any loose bits of paint.
Scrap the areas that the bits of paint came of off and prime them. (This step take time)
Replace any bad siding, wood or trim, caulk it in and prime it. (some products come pre-primed)
Tighten up any loose boards, trim etc.
Remove and re-caulk all areas where the caulking failed.
Make sure temperature and humidity are right, not to hot, not to cold, not to humid.
Now you can paint and the paint will hold and last. Never thin your paint.

Spraying VS Brush and roller.
Spraying gives a nice even coat and with modern latex paints and with the right sprayer, this works great.
Brush and Roller in the right hands give a nice even coat, and can have the added benefit of "working the paint onto the surface". (The repeated brushing back and forth or in different directions to "work the paint" onto the surface.) This way often uses more paint thus you get a thicker coat. It is better, it really depends on who does the job and what type of material you are painting. Two coats of sprayed on paint work just as one coat of brushed in most cases.

What type of paint should I use?
Flat or Satin?
Flat can be chalky or have a white film of powder on it over time and may not repel water as well as Satin. Satin is the best paint, as it is washable and will repel water better than a flat paint.