I am having a house built and it is getting to be time to “paint” the exterior. I have a clapboard and shingle house now and always thought if I had it to do when it was new, I would stain it to avoid all the scraping that comes with a new paint job. Now I have it to do new and I’m not so sure. If I want the house to have some recognizable color, I almost have to go with a solid stain. I’m told (and have read) that that is a surface coat and could peel. if I were to prime it first that will still be a surface coat and could peel. if I back prime it that should forestall the peeling for a long time if there are no other problems. if I am going to use a solid color stain and back prime it, why not just use a paint?
On the new house the shake will be stained with semi-transparent. the siding and trim (cedar) needs more color ( I think) so it should be solid color stain or paint. what are the pros and cons of these choices? in order to avoid peeling completely, do I need to use a semi-transparent stain? or is back priming a good alternative?
Replies
I think the issues of peeling are somewhat a thing of the past. Todays paints bond much better and if you re-paint it at reasonable intervals, you won't be doing much scraping in the future unless you are letting water get behind the skin. Seal that and you are good to go.
Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
I find that water based solid color stains don't peel, they just sort of disappear over time. No scraping involved, just re-coat. The downside is that without a primer, on cedar the tannins bleed through for the first year or so.
You definitely want it backprimed regardless which product you use and the best way to do it all is prepainted ( or stained ) at the factory
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
To me the biggest advantage to the solid color stain vs a traditional paint is the amount of wood texture that still shows through a stain. If you are using rough sawn trim, the stain will still retain a lot of the rough look, whereas a couple of coats of paint will diminish it.
I also agree that I have seen less solid stain peel than paint. It does tend to just wear away. Downside is that the life span of stain vs paint isn't quite as long in my experience.
With either way, backpriming is the way to go.