PaintByNumbers Posted May 27, 2008 Share Posted May 27, 2008 Every 20 years or so ya gotta repaint the outside woodwork. What a PIA. I enjoy the painting, but the cleaning & prep & cleanup work is 90% of the job. Looks like this is going to be The Summer of Outside Maintenance. I'm starting on the basic detergent cleaning to get the dirt off. Then I'll need to apply the mildewcide. Probably should remove the areas of failed paint I'm discovering on the cleaned surfaces first. I guess I should do sections, since covering the vegetation to catch the paint scrapings will serve to protect it from the mildewcide. Need the weather to cooperate; can't have it raining every 3 days. Kinda concerned about the top of the trim just beneath the roof edge on the eaves; might use Thompsons' Water Seal or even a good coat of the MinWax wood hardener. Hope its not truly rotten up there. The paint under the eaves is over 40 years old and its still tight, but alligatored. Probably can get away with not painting it. But I'll be up there to do the wood behind the gutters so I may as well get it over with; using good paint, hopefully for the last time in my life. Dunno how I'm going to remove the gutters in a re-mountable manner; I can see lots of bare wood back there so its got to be done. Then there's replacing the screens all around the porch. The stain or paint on that woodwork is also holding up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enchantra Posted May 27, 2008 Share Posted May 27, 2008 If the paint is "alligatored" as you call it, then it should be checked and repainted over. Even if you feel the stain/paint is holding up fine, I'd still clean it and redo it. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Protect the wood again now and you won't have to replace it later. I've heard that houses should be repainted a lot more often than every 20 years. I have extended family members that do it every 5-10 years to keep the paint looking fresh. If you do have paint that is 40 years old on the outside of that house, be careful cleaning it and then definitely repaint over it after scraping it off the best you can as it is 100% likely to be lead based paint which the dust will be harmfull to both you and any children around. I suggest calling around and doing some research as to the best way to safely remove the lead paint before you repaint it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaintByNumbers Posted May 28, 2008 Author Share Posted May 28, 2008 Its not lead. By the 1960's houses were no longer being painted with lead, unless someone brought home some marine paint. I've repainted windows several times; the eaves are so well protected that they are in pretty good shape. I should say "checked" instead of alligatored. Plywood tends to do that. Need to determine if a "sand ban" tackifier is good enough, or if I really need to do a prime coat. The outside is oil based; wondering if water based has really improved enough to give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattmcl Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 You might want to use something larger than a Windsor & Newton Series 7 Size 0. I think they make them up to size 4. Man, that's going to take a lot of Dullcote. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastman Posted May 29, 2008 Share Posted May 29, 2008 You might want to use something larger than a Windsor & Newton Series 7 Size 0. I think they make them up to size 4. Man, that's going to take a lot of Dullcote. especially when they paint the whole house as SE-NMM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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