Painting - most durable paint job after good prep?

hello,
i'm painting my parents house for them. the paint was peeling off in huge sheets. we've power washed it to brake most of it off then followed up with intense scraping, taking off all the loose stuff, and have sanded down the edges of all the scraped places and washed it off again.

the paint is a flat grey paint.

i was told that a coat of oil primer followed up by two coats of laytex paint would be the best because the oil primer will soak into the wood and into the old layers of paint a little bit to help the new paint stick better. do you agree with this?

is there any other suggestion you would make to make this a rock solid paint job?

how about "peel stop" by zinsser, i just saw that product in the store. is that something we should use on the house? there is no more peeling paint or loose edges though because we took em all off.

thanks for your tips.
max

I would recommend to continue your surface prep. Scrape off all loose paint remaining, and sand any rough areas. Replace any loose, or damaged wood. If you suffer any mildew areas, clean them with a solution of 1/4 bleach and 3/4 water. Rinse thourghly, and let wood dry a minimum of 2 days. Considering you have power washed, maybe even 3 days.

I would use 1 coat of A-100 oil based exterior wood primer. This is a "long" oil primer that will need a couple of days dry time before topcoating. The "long" oil denotes that it doesn't flash dry like Kilz or Problock (these are "short" oil primers). I would stay away from any quick dry primers as they are much more brittle and tend to "float" on the surface of the wood vs. soaking in and sealing the fibers of the wood.

After prime, I would recommend the Duration line of coatings from SW. These apply very thick, and have expansion and contraction similar to an elastomeric (very, very flexable). With I belive 2 coats over primer, SW will guarentee the coating for as long as you own the home. Please bear in mind that ANY mfg only will replace the coatings, and not pay for labor if there is any sort of failure. Again, the failure must be coating related, and not because the previous 40 layers of paint let go.

I have used the coating, and it is worth every penny of the expense. That being said, there are other coatings that are less pricey, like SW Superpaint (25 year warrenty) and A-100 (20 year warrenty).

Regardless of mfg, make sure you use a "long" oil exterior primer and the best quality LATEX coating for the finish. This will give you the lasting, non-chalking look that you want.
Stay away from exterior LATEX primer though. These have no where near the penetration of the oil primers. Good luck!

PS.....If you can, BRUSH the prime coat. This will help insure coverage, and physically helps to force the coating into the wood. Rolling is faster, but would not be advisable for the prime coat. Finish coat would be fine, but brush prime coat. As always, do it out of direct sunlight, and maintain an adequate wet edge to avoid lap marks and brush strokes.

I would add there is one condition that would be advisable to use latex primer instead of oil. Houses that have poor insulation and no vapor barrier are better off being primed and finished with latex paint. Oil base primer does a better job of sealing the wood and offers more protection but doesn't allow a house with poor insulation to breathe which often results in paint failure.

I would add there is one condition that would be advisable to use latex primer instead of oil. Houses that have poor insulation and no vapor barrier are better off being primed and finished with latex paint. Oil base primer does a better job of sealing the wood and offers more protection but doesn't allow a house with poor insulation to breathe which often results in paint failure.

We see a lot of that up here
If the paint has peeled because the house is "wet", then with an oil primer the paint will fail within a year, often within a few months

I would concur w/ latex vs oil on poor insulated walls. However, I would skin that cat another way. I would STILL use the oil primer. But on the walls, I would pound some shims under the siding pieces. This will allow for the ventilation, AND allow for the superior oil primer. It may be a bit more work, but will give a substantial benefit for the paint job. This solves both problems!

on the walls, I would pound some shims under the siding pieces. This will allow for the ventilation


I believe that would be a hard sell to most home owners. I don't believe many would care for the resulting gap under the laps.

I am not talking blocks of 3/4 posts here. They are "shims". At most your resulting gap will be less than 1/8-1/4".

The difference in paint jobs would more than offset any minor gap. Most likely, you wouldn't even know they were in the siding.

Anyway, the OP wanted to know his options. Latex primer is one option, but oil primer is the better option. With proper prep (shims in this case) the resulting job would be longer lasting w/oil.

Now the OP has to decide what course to take.

thanks a lot for the replies you guys.


i have determinned that the house isn't insulated - although i think it has a vapor barrier (sheets of black tar paper that are layered undernieth the siding).

slikshift - where are you? we are in san francisco. is the weather's anything similar? and you're saying the lack of breathability would make the long drying soak in oil primer peel off?

ground beef - i'm having trouble finding a long drying soak in oil primer out here. SW paints are not sold here. Kelly Moore and Behr don't seem to offer such a product. any other ways i could find it?

thanks again for your help
m

slikshift - where are you? we are in san francisco. is the weather's anything similar? and you're saying the lack of breathability would make the long drying soak in oil primer peel off?

Possibly similar climes
I'm basically in the ocean here on Cape Cod
Very, very, humid all year round
Many former cottages were converted to year round residences w/o adding vapor barriers, then "winterized" by plugging up all the "drafts" in the attic and over insulating
Houses with a moisture content of over 15% are common
We call them "wet" houses
If they are primed with oil primer, it will fail and peel
-from the "inside out", rather than from the surface down to the under layers/primer like normal weathering

While it isn't yet a problem in my location, I've heard the various regions have [for the most part] outlawed the use of solvent paints. With the lack of insulation, I would recomend you use a latex primer with emulsa bond added. Emulsa bond should be available most everywhere paint is sold.

I'd stay away from behr products. Do you have Benjamin Moore stores, or Pittsburg Paints, Pratt & Lambert?

slikshift - where are you? we are in san francisco. is the weather's anything similar? and you're saying the lack of breathability would make the long drying soak in oil primer peel off?

ground beef - i'm having trouble finding a long drying soak in oil primer out here. SW paints are not sold here. Kelly Moore and Behr don't seem to offer such a product. any other ways i could find it?

thanks again for your help
m

Ahhh yes, the west coast. I am pretty sure you guys cant even talk about oil based paint out there. I bet you were followed home by the VOC enforcment patrol just for asking. Yes, in CA you will not find long oil primers. Or just about anything else that has VOC (volatil sp? organic compounds) or solvent.

Your best bet then for SW paint would be A-100 Latex exterior primer. If SW is not avail, try a BM or PL latex primer (for EXTERIOR).

Good luck!