With so many exterior paints and coatings available on the market today, choosing the right product for your home improvement project can be confusing.
“By using a top quality 100% acrylic latex paint, you’ll enjoy a variety of performance benefits, whether your home exterior is made of wood, aluminum siding, vinyl siding, or masonry,” says Debbie Zimmer, spokesperson for the Paint Quality Institute.
Wood
When applied to a properly prepared wood exterior, acrylic latex paint can protect and beautify a home for up to 10 years or more, making it a great long-term investment. If an exterior is primed beforehand, the paint can resist peeling and flaking. Acrylic paint is also very elastic, making it stretch and shrink with the wood as necessary without the paint suffering damage.
Top quality acrylic latex paints also contain beneficial ingredients that ward off troublesome problems on wood. Mildewcide, a common additive in paint, can help prevent mildew growth on exterior wood surfaces.
Aluminum Siding
While aluminum siding is very durable, the paint applied by the factory tends to fade and chalk with time. Applying a coat of top quality acrylic latex paint can restore the appearance of the aluminum panels, as well as provide superior resistance to harmful UV rays that cause the fading and chalking to occur.
Special additives in latex paint help the paint to go on thick, level and uniform. Whether the siding is smooth or textured, the new paint will tend to duplicate the original appearance of the aluminum siding.
Vinyl Siding
Manufacturers often describe vinyl siding as being “maintenance free,” but over time, the surface can become chalky, marred, or discolored. Whether the surface is flawed, or just needs a change in color, acrylic latex paint adheres to the surface of vinyl siding and offers superior flexibility.
Vinyl siding has a slick surface, so it is imperative to use a paint that will grab onto the vinyl siding without slipping off. Using a top quality paint that is flexible enough to move with the panels when the temperature changes is also important. A quality paint will expand and contract with the differences in temperature.
To slow down the fading in color of vinyl siding, there are some top quality 100% acrylic latex paints that are made with reflective pigments that protect vinyl siding from the sun’s UV rays. As with aluminum siding, the good leveling quality of the paint chosen can duplicate the original appearance of vinyl siding.
Masonry
In order to get the best performance on stucco, concrete, brick, or any other masonry surface, there are many reasons to use a top quality exterior acrylic latex paint.
These paints can offer excellent chalk resistance, which helps to keep the color from fading, even under harsh UV rays. “By contrast, a lesser paint can quickly fade under these conditions,” says Zimmer.
100% acrylic latex paints also have superior alkali resistance. Fresh masonry often has a high alkaline content, which could cause a less-quality paint to change color, and over time, deteriorate the paint film.
Using a top quality paint on aged masonry offers the advantage of resistance to efflorescence, a white crusty powder that can ruin the appearance of any paint job.
Whatever type of exterior siding you have on your home, by choosing a top quality 100% acrylic latex paint, you’ll get some great benefits that will protect your home and keep it looking freshly painted for many years.
