Exterior siding that is in bad shape and should I replace it or can it be repaired?
Siding, for the most part, may have a lot of coats of ‘not so good paint’ applied on it and now it is peeling off in thick pieces. However not all sides of the house are damaged, it is not peeling everywhere. Can I still paint this bad looking wood?
YES! At first look, it seems that it is everywhere however only one or two sides of the house contain most of the damage.
There is a magic product that I have been using for years with extraordinary success. This product is “Peel Bond” high build primer manufactured by XIM, Rust-Oleum.
This product is amazing. First, you need to power wash the siding with a fan tip, not a blaster round tip. The strong round tip may blast faster, however, causes a lot of unnecessary damage. After blasting with water will leave parts of the paint on the edge curled up and then you need to scrape off the excess loose paint. Try to scrape as soon as possible while the paint is still wet and soft so as not to cause dust. Note the age of your home needs to be addressed, 1978 or older. It is possible that the old paint contains lead. A booklet for safe handling of lead paint is published in a PDF Lead Booklet about lead handling. Click on this link to open up this booklet.
After reviewing this booklet you may be very frightened or alarmed however in my opinion the biggest danger is the dust caused by the sanding or rubbing of the old lead paint. If precautions are followed in handling this issue, one can still be safe.
So back to the exterior siding. After wet scraping the siding you will need to let the surface dry. Then you can apply one or two coats of Peel Bond to seal up this old siding and even up the surface. It may not look perfectly smooth however when you apply the finish low sheen water based finish you will see that the siding looks great again.
My northern Arizona paint company deals with these issues and you might want to view the site: www.RogerMerrill.com