Rusting Nails in Siding Have a Shiny Solution

LESLIE: Laura in Connecticut is on the line with a question about how to avoid rusting nails. What are you working on?

LAURA: I was listening to your program on Saturday, OK, and you were referring to galvanized nails rusting with siding.

TOM: Yes. Mm-hmm.

LAURA: I have a similar problem. If I polyurethane the nail and paint over it, would that work or would it chip?

TOM: It will still rust through if you don’t have the right kinds of nails.

LAURA: Uh-oh.

TOM: See, if you’re talking about cedar siding, what you should have used – or the carpenter should have used – was a stainless-steel nail. Those nails, obviously, won’t rust. If they’re standard galvanized nails, you do tend to get sort of a bleed through it.

Now, if you refinish the siding and you stain it or paint it, then – and you prime it first, by the way – then you probably will do a pretty good job of being able to avoid rusting nails. But the problem generally happens when you want to stain it, as you want to enjoy the grain of the wood, then it’s really hard to cover it up.

LAURA: Thank you very much.

TOM: You’re welcome. Unless, of course, you go with rust-colored stain.

Right, Leslie?

LESLIE: You could do that.

LAURA: Oh, OK. That sounds good.

TOM: If you can’t beat them, join them.

LAURA: Exactly, exactly.