painting aluminum siding

I would like to paint the faded green aluminum siding on my house. Are there any special considerations for preparing the surface before painting? Is there any downside to spraying vs. brushing? Thanks in advance.

Reply to
Dan-o
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Mobile homes are often painted, so products (both cleaners and paint) formulated for their aluminum siding ought to work just fine.

If you're not familiar with the many types of spray rigs you could wind up with a monochromatic neighborhood. Visit a specialty paint store (the kind where the pros buy their stuff) and ask some questions. Your choice may be either airless or HVLP, either one a mite pricey for a one-off job. Consider having a crew come in and do the job after you mull over all the caveats. Good luck.

Joe

Reply to
Joe Bobst

I don't do this myself (house is too tall and too many difficult angles for the ladders) but we have a painter do it. We use Benjamin Moore "Moorglo" exterior latex and it works great. The paint job lasts around 8+ years on average. We use semi-gloss -- it looks a little glow-y at first but tones down in a few weeks. One time the painter used flat paint and it didn't look as good and didn't last as long.

By all means, paint it. Our cheap aluminum siding was in pretty bad shape after years of neglect by several previous owners and painting it was the single best cosmetic improvement we made to the house.

Wash it down and prime it the first time around. The painter used a regular hose and a brush to wash it the first time, but it was no big cleanup job, believe me. He came with a power washer in later years, but was very gentle with it. No blasting.

The only disadvantage is that you have to continue painting it when it needs it. But you know that.

Our painter used brushes and rollers -- mostly brushes. If you spray it, you risk a big mess and you are faced with a lot more prep work masking off windows and doors and trim. However, that's my perception, and I'm not the one doing it.

HTH.

Reply to
Tom Miller

I'm just about done painting my siding now. I used Behr Premium Plus Acrylic Latex - Simi-Gloss. The paint is very viscous and went on easily with brushes. A single coat was all that was necessary. For pre-cleaning I just used a hose attached to a bottle of Olympic House Wash (Lowes). In easy to reach areas I scrubbed the siding with a scrub brush. Doing this myself has been quite an effort, especially moving a 28' ladder around, I'm not as young as I used to be. Several sections have been complete for seveal months now and everything looks really good! I'm not sure that spraying would have been easier, especially considering the architecture of my home, I would have spent as much time prepping things to handle overspray and then cleaning all of the apparatus. Also consider how much time you can devote each day. Clean up time is short with brushes.

Strato

Reply to
strato79

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