# Exterior paint for Pacific Northwest



## chrisn (Dec 23, 2007)

Ben Moore, Fresh Sart oil primer,Aura top coat


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## user1007 (Sep 23, 2009)

chrisn said:


> Ben Moore, Fresh Sart oil primer,Aura top coat


Yup! Benjamin Moore's Fresh Start Alkyd Primer is great stuff for wood siding. But Sherwin Williams would be another choice. And where you are you can get Kelly Moore which used to be my go to brand on the West Coast. It is sold only West of the rockies. Something like Sherwin Williams Woodscapes Solid Acrylic Stain might be worth consideration but I don't know about maintenance in your climate. You can get it tinted, like paint, to any color. 

Scan back through posts from the last few weeks and find several from others with Pacific Northwest painting projects. There were several recommendations for paints out of Portland. Portland is sort of a paint mecca with great brush manufacturers and one supposes paint manufacturers as well. I just have not had access to a lot of the paint brands. I think Miller is out of Portland? They were just opening a paint store where I lived last. There are probably small manufacturers formulating paints just for your unique climate?

As for box store paint considerations please read the posts on this site, especially with regard to Behr. And just for laughs, read the Consumer Reports postings about it. It does not make people happy and has slipped in the CR ratings. People on the CR don't get how it ever got a high recommendation. 

Glidden is owned by a company well known for quality paints. I see the paint store trucks quite a bit around here. Something has to give in quality to live within box store price point and profit margins though. Others have box store brands too and I have not been impressed when using it on volunteer projects where it was donated. Pittsburgh at box store level is horrid stuff while paint store quality products are fine. Dutch Boy is Sherwin Williams brand and I would not touch it if it were not donated. 

It seems like you are approaching your project with appropriate care and maintenance concerns in mind. You are lining someone up to do the job correctly so don't go all the way to the finish line (pun perhaps intended) and blow it by not spending a little extra for quality paint. Shop in a paint store. Look for coupons and ask for discounts. Or trust your contractor to get you the best deal. Yours probably has better purchasing power than you do just by virtue of the annual volume of paint purchased. 

And to be honest, I might have offered you some choices but would not have allowed you to tell me to use a box store paint. I would not have warranted the job and was generally busy enough I would have politely turned down the work if you became insistent.


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## Andee77 (Sep 6, 2011)

*What is best product to use on stripping entire house?*

Thank you all for your input to my question.

Our last paint job was using BM Moore flat with their latex primer.

I thought it will be good idea to call BM rep for his thoughts on our issue and to prevent another peeling issue.

He advised we need to strip entire house down to wood before we paint to prevent this issue.

Any suggestion on choosing stripper for our project?

I am thinking of Smart strip. But not sure if we need to use peel away paper too or not.

This is so much money on material, I want to do it right and make sure we will be good after project.

Also, make sure it will be best way to finish.

Loof forward to all your help.


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## user1007 (Sep 23, 2009)

I've mentioned it before but an infrared stripper with a hands free rail system was one of the best tool purchases I ever made. Not cheap but the machine worked like you would not believe at getting layers of paint off safely and rapidly. I sold mine for a tidy sum when I retired so if you can spare the cashflow over renting one, do so and you will get your money back out. 


















Do remember that no matter what method you use you may have lead issues to deal with if you are going all the way down to the wood.


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## Andee77 (Sep 6, 2011)

This infrared stripper with a hands free rail system looks good. But probably requires some learning how to use.

Can you tell me, you still need to scrap with hand once paints are loosen up by heat, right?


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## user1007 (Sep 23, 2009)

Andee77 said:


> This infrared stripper with a hands free rail system looks good. But probably requires some learning how to use.
> 
> Can you tell me, you still need to scrap with hand once paints are loosen up by heat, right?


Yes, you still need to scrape but it goes remarkably fast. The rail system leaves one hand free to grip your ladder. Note that the infrared stripper itself is not heavy but without a place to put it you would have to use a hand to hang on to it. You may find you want to use a two-handed draw scraper but the paint really does get loosened nicely with the tool. 

The learning curve is very short. You will just have to get a sense of how long to leave it in place to loosen whatever layers of paint you have to remove. Of course you do not want to gouge your wood with the scraper.

As mentioned, if you have lead abatement issues you will have to plan for that with plastic to catch scrapings, protective clothing and so forth but you will at least not be sending anything airborne as you would with a power shaver, power scraper and sander. 

You can rent infrared strippers but there tend to be waiting lists and with rentals you are schedule bound. I really do not think you will have any trouble selling one you buy after you are done if you have no other uses for it. It should come out cheaper than rental but you have to fork out the money to buy one upfront. 

They are not complex pieces of technology. You might also see if a used one you'd trust happened to be availed on CL or eBay.


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## Andee77 (Sep 6, 2011)

*I need some help understanding Woodscapes from Sherwin Williams*

We are thinking of using solid stain from Woodscapes over oil primer with 100% acrylic paints.

We have worked with a company to strip 3 sides of house to stripped down to wood to prevent future peeling of paints.

Understand, solid stain is better breathable than oil primed with 100% acrylic paints. But our house is located in Pacific NW, does solid stain protect house from rain like primed and acrylic painted house?

Solid stain will give beautiful wood because we have clear cedar, but if solid stain is not durable for water protection, this may not be best choice for us.

Anyone familiar with Woodscapes from Sherwin Williams?

Thank you!!!


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## Windows (Feb 22, 2010)

Woodscapes solid stain is best applied without a primer. Stain needs to penetrate into the wood and the oil primer will make sure it cannot do that. Moreover I would probably not use stain of any kind on wood that had been previously painted. I used S/W Resilience with their their water borne wood primer a few years ago and my house, also in the pnw, is holding up very well.


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