# Painting Exterior of House - Hardboard siding



## Matthewt1970 (Sep 16, 2008)

By the time you mask all the windows and anything else you don't want to get paint it might take longer than a brush and roller. I see windows, gutters, plants, a fence, a storm door, light just from your pic that will all need to be taped up. Don't forget the time to set up and clean the sprayer. 


A pressure washer might reveal some areas you thought were sound but were not and is good at getting the large loose pieces but it rarely gets the peeling areas to where you are ready to paint. People often make the mistake of getting in to close trying to chip away old peeling paint and end up damaging the wood. You also may not even realize you damaged some areas until after it has dried. You really need to go after the loose paint with a scraper and then every minute you can spend sanding the areas, even by hand, is well worth it. You only need to prime the areas that you scraped down to bare wood.


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## user1007 (Sep 23, 2009)

You need to get the peeling paint off and hand or power scraping it will work. Powerwashing may but I personally think those things are too often used inappropriately and flamboyantly. I expect to see limping dogs at times because somebody powerwashed at 3200psi rather than washed fido. If you use one, use only the amount of pressure you need and take care not to get water up under the siding or you will begin a series of nightmares you do not need. Consider whether one of those car wash brush setups might not work as well or better. Or a hand brush or sponge as you move along scraping. 

You look to have a lot of shutters, windows, plants to cover, etc. that you are going to have to mask off before you spray. The spray will find its way to anything nearby that is not masked. 

I think you will find painting this with a quality thick nap roller cover and brush will go as fast for you as spraying. And, do not underestimate the learning curve if your husband has not used a sprayer before. The fact you do not know about backrolling or brushing suggests he has not which is fine and I am not putting you down.

With backrolling or back brusing you chase after the spray pattern with a roller or brush to make sure you even it out, catch any drips or sags, and reach to the trim, etc. Again, if you are going to do this anyhow? Why not just roll in the first place. Use something like a 1" or even 1.5" nap roller on the brick and you will fly through painting it. 

As for whether to prime the whole thing or just new material and bare or repaired spots? It really depends on what the remaining paint looks like. You are not going to fix any adhesion problems it has from the top down but if it is chalky or showing signs of surface failure you would be wise to lay down a nice primer over all before you paint your finish coats so they have a nice underlay to attach to. 

You mention a poor performing box store product but you got 12 years out of whatever it was? Granted the home is white so reflected a lot of heat and UV rays but 12 years is not bad for an exterior product of marginal quality. I would still use good quality paint store paint that fits within your budget though.


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## kimberland30 (Jan 22, 2008)

Thank you so much!!

Now that you mention it, there is an awful lot of stuff to be taped up out front, maybe we can roll the front and spray the sides/back of the house? The back doesn't have near as many things that need to be protected except windows and doors, and there are long and tall spans of siding on the rest of the house. Hubs works most Saturdays so we are trying to get as much done in the limited time we have when he has a day off. I'm not against rolling/brushing the entire house though. That's exactly what my dad and I did when we painted years ago. A sprayer might be helpful/quicker for the louvered shutters and the porch pickets, but then again I painted those with a brush/roller the last time too. 

Guess we'll have to see what the pressure washer gets off. We definitely don't want to create more damage trying to go the easy route, I just wasn't sure what to expect from a pressure washer vs. doing it by hand. The main painted parts seem to be holding up just fine, it's mostly in the corners and around the windows/trim where the paint is peeling/chipping pretty badly. It probably doesn't help that there must be at least half a dozen layers of paint on this house..I counted five different colors when I was scraping/recaulking and that didn't even go to the bare wood. 

Hubs doesn't have a whole lot of experience with sprayers, just when we did the primer on the ceiling and walls of our plaster walls. We didn't really care much about evenness then and the spray was so light (we did 2 coats) that we didn't see any issue with it. We rolled the rooms and that might have covered up any defects from the sprayer. Again, he just thought it would be easier to spray the exterior because of the area that needs to be covered that doesn't have a lot of stuff around it.

The only reason I mentioned poor performance from a box store paint is because of the corners and trim around the windows that is peeling or chipping. Not all the areas with problems are in direct sunlight, we have the same issues under the porch as we do in the high sun areas. I was complaining about it to DH and he said that if there was a better quality paint on the house, we wouldn't have that problem. To be honest, I get mostly Behr or Kilz paint for everything because I personally haven't had an issue with it. He is more of a 'brand name' person and has been persuading me to go with either SW or BM. I don't mind spending the extra $$ if it will save us from having our house look like crap in 5 years.


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## kimberland30 (Jan 22, 2008)

Here are some other photos of the house to give you a better idea of what we are working with. 






































I apologize for our hot mess of a patio right now. We've been painting rooms in the house and everything kinda ended up out here.


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## ToolSeeker (Sep 19, 2012)

Are you sure it's Hardiboard they are a fiber cement board and there really shouldn't be any rot or places to repair. And really, tell your husband there are some really good videos on youtube about spraying watch them. Go to Sherwin Williams get a hand masker 3000 a couple rolls of different sized plastic for it. It takes about 10 minutes to mask a door or window. Get a box of painters plastic (really thin) drape it over the plants and shrubs, remove the shutters since your going to paint them anyhow and spray away. And fas for cleaning the sprayer put the pick-up tube in a bucket of water and hold the trigger down until the water runs clear, shooting it into a empty bucket. The only thing is put your car away and tell your neighbor to do the same in case of overspray. Tell your hubs to get some big pieces of cardboard and practice a little so he knows what to expect.


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## kimberland30 (Jan 22, 2008)

Here are a couple of pics of the corners and around a window where the paint is peeling/cracking. I've already scraped and removed all the caulk around the front door and front windows, where the brick meets the siding, and where the siding meets the trim. All that is left are the other corners of the house and the other windows. This is what I was hoping the pressure washer would do for me.


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## kimberland30 (Jan 22, 2008)

ToolSeeker said:


> Are you sure it's Hardiboard they are a fiber cement board and there really shouldn't be any rot or places to repair. And really, tell your husband there are some really good videos on youtube about spraying watch them. Go to Sherwin Williams get a hand masker 3000 a couple rolls of different sized plastic for it. It takes about 10 minutes to mask a door or window. Get a box of painters plastic (really thin) drape it over the plants and shrubs, remove the shutters since your going to paint them anyhow and spray away. And fas for cleaning the sprayer put the pick-up tube in a bucket of water and hold the trigger down until the water runs clear, shooting it into a empty bucket. The only thing is put your car away and tell your neighbor to do the same in case of overspray. Tell your hubs to get some big pieces of cardboard and practice a little so he knows what to expect.


They are NOT Hardiboard. That is what we'd like to replace it with in the future. We would have done it this year but we just got a new roof and need to get the AC/ducts replaced later in the year. The panels we have now are hardboard siding - at least that's what Lowes calls it. It's basically particle board siding that is primed and ready for paint.


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## Gymschu (Dec 12, 2010)

Looks a lot like masonite siding which took its' run at popularity in the 60's and early 70's. It can be great siding but its' weakness is when it begins to peel. If you don't get to it right away, it tends to get wet and flake off, especially on the underside.


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## chrisn (Dec 23, 2007)

All those places it is cracked and peeling in the pics is because of a piss poor caulking job. Dig it all out and do it right, prime and paint.
BTW, I could brush that whole house in 3 or 4 days, I see no need at all for spraying.


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## kimberland30 (Jan 22, 2008)

Gymschu said:


> Looks a lot like masonite siding which took its' run at popularity in the 60's and early 70's. It can be great siding but its' weakness is when it begins to peel. If you don't get to it right away, it tends to get wet and flake off, especially on the underside.


Yeah, we've experienced that a lot. We haven't been taking as great care of the exterior as we could have (obviously) but this is the year we're making an effort to not be the crappiest house on the block. If we'd paid more attention and fixed a spot when it happened rather than letting it sit, we probably wouldn't have had to replace as many boards. 



chrisn said:


> All those places it is cracked and peeling in the pics is because of a piss poor caulking job. Dig it all out and do it right, prime and paint.
> 
> BTW, I could brush that whole house in 3 or 4 days, I see no need at all for spraying.


Are you available for hire? We're only about 4 hours away.


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## kimberland30 (Jan 22, 2008)

Another question - there are some areas at the bottom of the boards that will need to be repaired. The areas aren't enough to justify replacing the whole board. How do I patch those areas? Can I use a drywall repair kit (mesh, spackle, sandpaper) for the repair and prime it after sanding?


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## Matthewt1970 (Sep 16, 2008)

After seeing all the added pics I would get a 7" roller setup. Roller in one hand, 4" brush in the other for backbrushing and go at it.


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## chrisn (Dec 23, 2007)

kimberland30 said:


> Yeah, we've experienced that a lot. We haven't been taking as great care of the exterior as we could have (obviously) but this is the year we're making an effort to not be the crappiest house on the block. If we'd paid more attention and fixed a spot when it happened rather than letting it sit, we probably wouldn't have had to replace as many boards.
> 
> 
> 
> Are you available for hire? We're only about 4 hours away.


 
You pay my travel time and hotel, sure:laughing:


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## kimberland30 (Jan 22, 2008)

chrisn said:


> You pay my travel time and hotel, sure:laughing:





Got an oscillating multi-function tool today at the local tool warehouse, it might not be the best brand but it was only $15 on sale and saved me a bunch of time gouging out the old caulk. Only got 2 windows and the back door done before the weather decided to curse me...now we have to wait for the rain to stop. Hubs was able to pressure wash one side of the house. The prep work is going to take FOREVER but we might as well do it right. Also talked him into rolling the house instead of spraying it so point one for me!


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## chrisn (Dec 23, 2007)

Supposed to be nice today. Good choice on the sprayer(IMO)


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## rocky279 (May 17, 2013)

Although siding is certainly the largest area to paint of you're painting your house, the work goes surprisingly fast, even if you're using a brush. And with a sprayer, you move so fast that you have to be careful not to bump into yourself! This is your reward for doing such a good prep job.
Consider a few tips for painting wood siding:


*New or untreated wood siding:* Coat new wood siding as soon after installation as possible. Untreated wood requires a primer and two topcoats if painting, or two coats of stain. Previously untreated or bare redwood and cedar may bleed tannin through a paint finish unless you seal the surface with an alkyd primer-sealer (preferably two coats) before applying a 100-percent latex topcoat.
-------------------------------


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## kimberland30 (Jan 22, 2008)

chrisn said:


> Supposed to be nice today. Good choice on the sprayer(IMO)


It never rained last night but it sure wanted to. Got really dark, felt a couple of drops so I packed everything up and nothing. Supposed to be nice today and scattered t-storms/showers throughout the weekend so we'll see how much we are able to get done.


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## wdpcpa (Nov 15, 2012)

kimberland30 said:


> Here are a couple of pics of the corners and around a window where the paint is peeling/cracking. I've already scraped and removed all the caulk around the front door and front windows, where the brick meets the siding, and where the siding meets the trim. All that is left are the other corners of the house and the other windows. This is what I was hoping the pressure washer would do for me.


Your siding looked a lot like mine. I came here for help as well.

I hated the inside corners so I put trim boards there. Then I had them painted the same color as the wall and let them blend in. I liked that lots better. I have a thread on this forum so you can see what the inside corner looks like with trim instead of just caulk. 

On the caulk someone on the contractor site mentioned Big Stretch. That's what I use. Seems to work well and will stretch with house movement. It's paintable.

Good luck.


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## kimberland30 (Jan 22, 2008)

wdpcpa said:


> Your siding looked a lot like mine. I came here for help as well.
> 
> I hated the inside corners so I put trim boards there. Then I had them painted the same color as the wall and let them blend in. I liked that lots better. I have a thread on this forum so you can see what the inside corner looks like with trim instead of just caulk.
> 
> ...


We have trim pieces on the outside corners in front of the house and had the same problem with the caulk on either side of the trim. When the addition was built to the back they used the corner caps which makes it so much better - no caulk to worry about. 

Today I was up early and started hand scraping and caulking the rest of the house (didn't want to wake the neighbors at 8 so I did it by hand). Once Hubs got up we decided to go to the box store to look at porch posts and railings. Four hours and $800 later we have new vinyl posts, 4x4s to replace the ones we already had (they will be too short because they are sitting on concrete blocks) and the rails. Came home and started to take out the old picket fence that we had up and got them all down before it started to rain. Got most of the shutters off so I can paint them - will have to recaulk them once they are up. Hated to destroy the work the window guys did when we had the new windows put in but it's going to be so much easier painting them when they are down rather that still hanging. Which reminds me that I need to find unpainted wood shutters to go on the windows on the ends of the house. Especially one side where they is only a door (which I'm going to paint green to match the front door). There is only one window on that side of the house and it looks naked by itself.


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## kimberland30 (Jan 22, 2008)

Another long day of construction but all the scraping/caulking is done, shutters are down, front porch posts and railings are all replaced, and we're 90% ready for paint. Supposed to rain all week so we'll see how much more gets done before we can actually get to the painting part of this project. Thank godness for Aleve and prescription drugs or I would have never made it this far. I don't mind physical labor but my body tells me otherwise.


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