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I have a farmhouse that dates back to the 1860’s. The heads of the
nails holding the wood siding on are rusted. I had the house painted (latex paint) 2 years ago and some of the rust is beginning to show through the paint. Is there anyway I can prevent this from happening either now or before I paint it again without having to remove all of the nails and replace them? On my garage,I have a similar situation but it has not yet been repainted. Some of the nails have rusted through (between the siding and the sheathing) and the siding is beginning to loosen. Should I leave the nails in, remove them and put new nails in the holes or fill the holes with a wood filler (suggestions for which kind to use)? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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Hey Dennis,
There are a lot of benefits to latex paint on the siding, (especially its flexibility through temperature cycles) - but inhibiting rust sure isn't one of them.
What we've done that has given us the best success is to set each nail just below the surface, and then putty over the head using an oil-based window glazing putty. This particular type of putty has about the optimum flexibility you'll probably find - important because siding moves a lot w/ temperature changes and regular spackle which hardens will pop out and peel your paint. It's also easy to knife flush w/ the surface, and you're gonna have a lot of holes to fill.
The oily nature helps to inhibit the rust, and the fact that it doesn't harden quickly is a plus in a wood siding situation. Let cure about 72 hours to a week, and then spot prime or you could probably just go ahead and paint the whole thing.
As for the loosening nails - just drive another nail next to it. If that causes the first one to back out even more, then just pull that first one w/ a pliers. Good luck!
George
*We had an 1860's house in MO and did just what George did. Except any new nails we put in were aluminum.
*You could try spotting the nails with oil-based Killz but I'm not sure it will block the rust and it may flash throuh the latex...try it on a board or two first and wait a couple of weeks to see what happens.George's suggestion will work for sure.
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I have a farmhouse that dates back to the 1860's. The heads of the
nails holding the wood siding on are rusted. I had the house painted (latex paint) 2 years ago and some of the rust is beginning to show through the paint. Is there anyway I can prevent this from happening either now or before I paint it again without having to remove all of the nails and replace them? On my garage,I have a similar situation but it has not yet been repainted. Some of the nails have rusted through (between the siding and the sheathing) and the siding is beginning to loosen. Should I leave the nails in, remove them and put new nails in the holes or fill the holes with a wood filler (suggestions for which kind to use)? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.