How to Determine Cause of Peeling Paint?
Our house, built in the 1960’s, was completely re-sided with cedar clapboard 7 years ago. Tyvek was applied over the sheathing before the cedar went on. The re-siding projected finished in October, so the cedar weathered during the winter and the initial coat of paint was applied the following spring. (We live about 30 miles west of Boston.) The first coat held well on the north and eastern sides of the house, but peeled within two years on the front of the house, which faces the southwest.
Last fall, a professional painter repainted the entire exterior. Within weeks, there was blistering and peeling everywhere, but most extensively on the front of the house. Paint comes off down to the bare wood everywhere. The blisters do not run water when opened.
We had a couple of other painters look at the house for their suggestions. They all concur that moisture is the problem (their moisture meters all read very high) but offer no suggestions about the source of the moisture – whether it is from the interior or a defect in the application of the siding. They also suggest that the siding may retain a glaze from the manufacturer that closed the pores.
How do we determine the cause? It’s too expensive to respond to all possibilities! Who do we call?
My thanks for your help
Replies
Cedar and Tyvek are not compatible. Gently remove several of the cedar clapboards in the worst areas to see what is happening behind the siding.
May neighbors respect You, and troubles neglect You.
Gord
I won't be too much help - just a couple of comments. Ii generally is a moisture problem that raises blisters.
Thefirst time around, you let it weather all winter, then applied paint to worn wood. The top layer of lignans was destroyed already by UV so there was nothing to bond to.
cedar and redwood have tannins that make it hard to bond to begin with so the paint needs to be chosen for the wood.
you don't comment on what sort of prep work was done by the second painter. he shgould have sanded down to bare wood and primed immediately. when it was done the first time, it likewise should have been sanded clean immediately before painting.
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Was the siding backprimed before it went up? If not, all that moisture wicking out of the housewrap is wicking right into the back of the cedar. Sunlight hits the face, expansion from heat, paint pops. Cedar is notorious for doing this. I'd say whoever installed it is pretty green if they didn't know any better.
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After months in the weather mill glaze would not be a problem.
But I am wonder the last guy pressure washed it and then painted before it dried.
That is the reason why I completely paint the siding before I put it up. I have never had one problem with any kind of siding. Even when I have back primed siding which will be bare wood on the front it has not given me any problems.
Read "Finishes for Exterior Wood" from Forest Products Lab. If you let the wood weather that long it almost surely the problem. Forrest Products says to sand the wood, brush off the dust and prime immediately. Then paint as soon as you can. I used to prep the whole house, then prime the whole house and then paint the whole house. Now I do a side at a time.
Thank you for your suggestion on the US Forestry Lab. It was a good article. The problem could be any one or several of the items mentioned in the article. I could easily waste money fixing the wrong thing or fixing things unnecessarily.
I would like to hire an expert to determine the cause of the paint peeling. What kind of professional can provide a definitive answer that I can act upon? Is it a home inspector? An architect? Who? It's too expensive to solve every possible contributing factor.
Try you local paint store (SW, Bennie Moore, or the like).See who they suggest. Might even have someone on the staff. And sometimes with real problems they have the paint manufacture look at it.
Try you local paint store (SW, Bennie Moore, or the like).
See who they suggest. Might even have someone on the staff. And sometimes with real problems they have the paint manufacture look at it.
Maybe he'll have better luck than me. I had a recent paint job failure where the primer did not adhere to the old paint. I spoke with the factory rep who immediately suspected incorrect application without even looking at it. I described in detail the steps that I took, he agreed that it sounded like I did everything right and took a look at the job.
His conclusion was that he didn't know but MAYBE it was because the primer and top coat were expanding/contracting at different rates and he would have preferred if I had not used primer at all. The instructions on the can said that primer was not necessary, even on bare wood, but I thought I would do the best job possible and used exterior latex primer. I didn't used oil because it was an exterior porch and latex is more moisture permeable than oil and so (to my way of thinking) less likely to peel if the moisture levels are different above and below.
He took a sample back to the lab to have it looked at, but never got back to me. He was very courteous and bought me a few gallons of paint as compensation, but never really explained why the paint job failed. Basically, I learned nothing.
I went back, sanded everything that was loose and/or peeling and re-painted WITHOUT using primer. I haven't been back yet to see if it's holding up, but I will.
-Don
The siding was'nt back primed before it went up, now its a huge waste of money. There's two things you can do, remove it and prep it right and re-install or watch it peel.
On my own house I was in a hurry to finish one corner board so I installed it and made a mental note to watch how it reacted. I primed it in place with a good quality primer and painted. Sure enough, it took 2 years to start peeling and its been peeling ever since. the only peeling paint on the entire house!