automobile clear coat over hardi
Was wondering if anyone has ever used an auto grade clear coat over paint on james hardy siding. I am a builder/remodeler in the process of putting hardy on my own, new dream home and wandered what could prolong the paint job on it. I know hardy holds paint well and will be using primo paint, but I have to wonder if an auto clear coat would make it durable even longer. I am 32 yrs. old, plan to stay for the remainder of my life, but I only want to paint it once!
Replies
i come from a autobody background,first let me ask do you know what a gal of urethane and activator cost? any decent stuff will run in the 200 + per gal range.
so maybe 10 gal to double coat a house,OUCH!
but beyond the cost i'm not sure it would hold up at all,sheetmetal is a very stable material so the paint don't move. i'm not sure if hardi expands or contracts much ,but if it did the auto paint would not stick around.and it's not made to adhere to "latex" usally it bonds to the urethane base coat.
plus the high shine and the monthly waxings would get real old.
besides i think hardie is suppose to have around a 20 year life on paint isn't it? cars usally don't make it that long.
"I am 32 yrs. old, plan to stay for the remainder of my life, but I only want to paint it once!"
thats what we all think when were packing the moving van 8 years later,at 32 it's way to hard to predict where you'll be when your 60.paint it with a good latex,then when your 52 hit it one more time ,after that who cares the kids can worry about it.
YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T
MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE
DUCT TAPE.
"but I only want to paint it once!"
That's my thinking too but then I wake up and realize my beer just slipped out of my hand. Hardi holds paint as well as anything out there but paint isn't made to last that long. Paint is constantly oxidizing so it looks fresher and cleaner. In 20 years, on the sunny sides of your house the paint will be almost gone no matter what you do. The plus side is that Hardi is real easy to paint.
Have you seen a car left out in the sunlite for a decade?
Not much shine left is there?
Auto paints need protectants to survive.. so unless you plan on waxing your house periodically Think about another solution..
One of the most practical is to eliminate maintinace completely. Use bricks or stone as a siding.
(tuckpointing)
every century or so? My stone has been up on my house for almost a decade now and I haven't found a single crack or fracture anyplace in it! considering the movement involved that's remarkable. I mean those 8 inch wide 4 inch thick black walnut timbers move considerably as they shrink and swell with moisture..
In addition they are tied to the inner white oak timbers which again will shrink and swell.
In retrospect I shouldn't have used so many timbers and simply stoned the whole exterior I sure know it would have cost me a lot less. but with no cracks in nearly a decade I feel very confident
Here is something to think about: Once you paint something, it will always need to be repainted. Why not look at an exterior finish that doesn't require paint?
Tu stultus es
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
Look, just send me to my drawer. This whole talking-to-you thing is like double punishment.
Stainless? The John DeLorean home...PaulB
http://www.makeabettertomorrow.com
http://www.finecontracting.com
"Stainless? The John DeLorean home... "
No, the Lustron, from 60 years ago. But luckily it isn't stainless, so you can hang pictures with a magnet.
http://www.oldhouseweb.com/architecture-and-design/lustron-homes-part-1.shtml
Edited 6/20/2009 3:02 am by aimless
I'm with Paul on this--why not stain the Hardy (I don't know, but suspect it would take stain)? I think a semi-transparent would soak in and never flake off, would look nice, and not need a lot of maintenance.
At 32 and you want it to be your lst and LAST paint job, that's one hell of a pipe dream and that has to be some primo stuff in the pipe.
Mother Nature will never let that happen, read SUN, WIND, RAIN etc., etc. Not a bad thought though.
It might be better to put it this way:
Tu stultus esRebuilding my home in Cypress, CAAlso a CRX fanatic!
Look, just send me to my drawer. This whole talking-to-you thing is like double punishment.
Good thought, may work in smaller scale but not in this application.
I regularly base/clear exterior metal and fiberglass doors(smoothstar) and it holds up real well.....maybe too well. My own shop door faces west, in Ohio and I haven't waxed/rubbed it or anything else in 5 years and it looks like the day I did it(it's white). When any customer comes around, they want their doors to look like my shop door.
Base /clear gets real spendy fast. I use DuPont Chroma....Supplies for a single door can approach $200....and they don't sell clear in qts. Base you can buy in 1/2 pts.
I was thinking I should lay down some bitchin' flames on the shop door......Keith C
i saw a shop door once where the guy had painted a picture to look like you was looking into some high tech custom shop,cars were being worked on etc. it was the greatest advertising for a custom painter i could ever imagine.
when you opened the door,looked just like every other bodyshop,messy and dusty. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'TMOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THEDUCT TAPE.
Myself and my Danish wife are a similar age to yourself and are thinking about leaving the UK and moving to Denmark and building our own house, this is not a option in the UK as we live on the outskirts of London and land costs are way to high, plus we fancy a change.
We have started throwing around ideas on the outer skin of the building, we do not like the idea of maintaining cladding so are considering mainly brick with sections of cladding, this way we get the best of both worlds.
Brick while a durable long lasting exterior finish does not last as long as stone.. especially hard stone such as Granite etc.
A cheap source for smaller pieces of granite would be places that make headstones. or do cladding for buildings.. around here the granite quarries have piles and piles of stone yours for the hauling..
Given the choice, stone is the best option, but it is very dependent on local supply and cost, it looks like we will being going for brick as a cheap supply of stone does not seem a option in DK.