How To Paint Aluminum Siding
The painted finish on aluminum siding will, over time fade a bit. This takes a lot of homeowners by surprise but probably shouldn’t. Having to repaint aluminum siding is one of the few downsides to using aluminum siding.
Don’t Forget:
There are a few key things to keep in mind when painting your aluminum siding in order to maximize how long the paint lasts. For instance, you’ll want to avoid latex primers when painting your aluminum siding because almost all latex primers contain ammonia. When ammonia and oxidized aluminum come into contact with one another they create a gas. This gas will cause bubbles to form underneath the paint on your siding, which will ultimately lead to the paint coming off and fading much faster than it normally would. In a little bit we’ll tell you specifically what to use as a primer, but for now remember not to use latex primers.
Painting Aluminum Siding:
- Wash you aluminum siding before you paint it. The first step to preparing your aluminum siding for painting is to make sure the siding is clean. Your first inclination when presented with having to clean your aluminum siding is going to be to use a power washer. It is not suggested you use a power washer unless you have some experience using them. A power washer, if used incorrectly, will get water behind the aluminum siding, which will likely leak into your house.
You want to use a good, high quality soap product – preferably a powdered soap – a scrub brush and a tough sponge to rinse, wash, and rinse you aluminum siding. Old paint chips will in all likelihood wash off during the washing. Not to worry, though, just keep washing and rinsing until there’s no more paint in your rinse water.
- Prime the aluminum siding before you paint it. It is recommended that you use a mixture of a gallon of an oil based primer and one pint of paint thinner. Don’t go cheap on the primer, pay a bit extra and get the high quality stuff. This combination is going to create a good solid layer between the potentially oxidized aluminum and your finish paint.
After you wash the house, wait for it to dry over a few days. Once it is dry, go ahead and apply the primer. Note that you don’t want to use primer of the exact same color as your finish paint, you’ll probably want your primer tint to be approximately one half the strength as the color of your finish paint.
- Apply the finish paint to your aluminum siding. Finish paint needs to be as close to 100% acrylic latex house paint as possible. Again, the good paint pays for itself here, so don’t go cheap. The reason for this is that the really good exterior home paint typically has a higher volume of acrylic resin in it. More resin means longer lasting paint. Buy the cheap paint and you’ll back out there painting your aluminum siding again well before your neighbor who used the good stuff.
It is important to remember to wait 48hrs before you apply the finish coat of your paint. You will also want to avoid painting on windy days or in direct sunlight. The best days for painting your aluminum siding are overcast days with where the weather isn’t too hot or windy.