exterior paint adhering or not?

During the past couple of weeks, we painted the exterior of our house with Glidden Spred Dura Exterior Satin paint (water based latex), which was rated high by Consumer Reports. The paint underneath was in good condition, and we had cleaned and rinsed it beforehand, letting it dry of course. It required several coats to complete cover the underlying paint, which seemed very odd. The new paint color is a pale yellow, and the underlying color was a light, coffee color -- not very dark but darker than the pale yellow.

Over a week after it was painted, we noticed it starting to blister after some condensation formed on the sides of the house, and it got worse after some rain. Most of the bubbles and blisters disappeared within a coupel of days, but we are wondering if the paint is ever really going to adhere well. The Glidden rep claims it still will adhere, but I am very doubtful. I don't know if the Glidden paint is just bad in general, if we happened to get a bad mixture from the store, or if our experience is not unusual at all.

I am interested in hearing what others' opinions are. We don't want to scrape everything that we just painted, and then repaint if we really don't need to.

Gary

Reply to
Gary C
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My guess is the "cleaned and rinsed it beforehand" got the wood a little more moist than you think and it was not really ready for the paint. The surface may have been dry, but it looks like moisture is trying to come out. Another possibility is you are not in the heating season and moisture is coming from the inside of your home out because it does not have a vapor barrier, other than the paint on the outside. The old paint may have been more permeable.

In the first case, you may be ok as it dries out. I wish you luck.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

The old "put on new paint and it blisters" problem. You have moisture coming thru the wall and lifting the paint. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that you used so much new paint, but the source of the problem is moisture in the wall. How did it get there? Generally lack of a good interior vapor barrier is the culprit. Now....Check out those bubbles. Is it just the new paint that is lifting, or is it the old paint coming off under the new paint? I am guessing the latter, having seen this many, many times in my old neighborhood, full of early '50's houses with no insulation and no vapor barrier. Over the years, moisture collects under the old paint and slowly bleeds thru to the air, loosening the paint but not blistering it. You put new paint over the old paint, cutting off the escape route. The moisture gets serious about it and lifts the old paint into a bubble.

I am afraid that this problem is not going to go away, no matter what the Glidden guy says, and it is not really the fault of the paint either. In my case, I removed all of the paint down to the bare wood (back in 1975), and repainted with a coat of primer and one coat of paint. Then, every 10 years I put on another coat of paint. The water still came thru but never got blocked, and the paint never blistered, 1975-1998 (when I sold the house). Most people would go with vinyl siding, but whatever.

Reply to
donald girod

Gee, willikers! How many coats is "several"???? Five? Ten? Is the home sided with wood, stucco, aluminum? What did you clean with? TSP and bleach? What did you clean off? Mildew? Paint chalking? Where are the bubbles appearing? Only on shady side of house? Sunny side? Seams or end grain of siding? All over?

I wouldn't jump on the "house wrap" bandwagon before you analyze where/why the paint is bubbling. First thought is damp wood. Moisture in the wood will cause paint to bubble. How long did you allow it to dry? Minimum two-three days? Was there any chalking remaining after you washed?

If you painted in hot sun, the paint can form a film before the solvents cure out, so the solvents are trapped beneath the film. I don't know about condensation, other than the idea that if condensation forms, the same area may already have stayed damp from long term moisture intrusion. Bubbling/blistering would most likely occur at seams or end grain where exterior moisture intrudes - your comment about the blistering increasing after a rain makes this seem more likely. If you painted in hot sun, you might get a little help from poking pin holes in the blisters so's solvents can escape, but it's a bit late for that. Please describe the surface/conditions a bit more.

Reply to
NorMinn

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