Atlanta Painting

Thousands of Atlanta homes that are more than 5 years old have a problem.  They were  built using faulty siding.  As many people know, a class-action judgment was awarded to homeowners who have LP Siding on the exterior of their homes.  However, as the case with many class-action lawsuits, no one ever receives the awarded monies.

The problem is that water will penetrate the siding boards and begin to rot them.  The first sign of water damage is the bottoms of the boards be to open up and separate.  This is known as delamination.  Eventually, this damage will spread through the boards, causing the boards to warp and rot completely.

The only way to remedy this problem is by replacing all of the siding.  This is an expensive process;  approximately $450.00/square.  In other words, $4.50/square foot.  For the average home, this process costs around $10,000.00.

After a TON of research and a lot of field testing, I have found a quick fix for bad LP Siding.  Here is my disclaimer:  This process will not reverse existing damage.  Nor, is it an acceptable substitute for siding replacement.  This solution which I have developed can slow down the deterioration of the siding and postpone the dreaded cost of siding replacement.

When you see the first signs water damage on the siding, you will see the bottoms of the boards opening and peeling.  The paint will be peeling as well.  But it is not actually the paint which is peeling.  Atlanta Painting Pro Tip:  Here is a simple test to see if your siding is bad:  Pull off a piece of the peeling paint.  If the backside of the piece you took is brown and has a wood-like or cardboard-like substance on it, your siding is bad.  That brown underside is actually a layer of the siding that had come off.  I want to emphasize that this is not a paint failure, as the paint is still adhered to the siding.  This is a siding failure because the siding is what is coming off with the paint on top of it.

The first time that we tried to fix this problem, we took a simple approach.  We scrape the areas that are peeling, spot prime, and repaint.  This worked…for about a week.  The customer called us back and said that new areas, that originally had no problems, were peeling.  The places that we scraped and repainted were, though.  I was baffled.  This is when I started researching and analyzing the problem.  What I deduced was that the areas that were originally not peeling still had problems, but were not showing them.  When we put a new coat of paint on them, the weight and moisture from the coating, pulled the layer of siding down and caused the delamination to occur.

Now I was left with a new problem.  I didn’t want to go fix the new peeling, only to have more peeling in another week.  I had to find a way to stop the delamination.

I found a product manufactured by XIM called PeelBond.  This is a high solids, acrylic coating, designed to bond loose surfaces.  It looks and smells a lot like children’s Elmer’s glue.  Here is the process that I have been using to fix the problems described above on a budget.

1. You must replace the boards that are too far gone to fix.  If you can poke holes in the siding with a pen, you need to replace that board.  Also, if too much of the board is coming apart, you need to replace the board.  The worst areas are usually around the chimney.
2. Now, you need to scrape all of the areas were the paint is peeling from the bottom of the boards.
3. Use the Peel Bond to coat the bottoms of all the board that are fat and look like they are puffed up.  The Peel Bond goes on white, but dries clear.  You can apply it with a brush or a sprayer, so long as you have completely covered the problem areas with the proper mil thickness.
4. Let the Peel Bond dry to the manufacturer’s specifications.  Take temperature and humidity into account.
5. Now repaint all of the siding using a good acrylic coating.

While this process is more expensive than painting, it is much cheaper than re-siding the house.  Again, this is not fool proof and should not be viewed as a substitute for replacing the siding.  This is a method that I use to help my customers get a few more years out of their defective siding.

If you are interested in having an expert provide an estimate and more information on this process, please contact GreenWave Solutions.  Our mission is to provide Metro Atlanta affordable, high quality, sustainable contracting solutions.  We also offer Atlanta Painting, Atlanta Roofing, Atlanta Windows, Atlanta Solar, Atlanta Radiant Heat Barriers and more!