LESLIE: Darren in Maryland’s looking to refresh his house. What’s going on? Tell us about it.
DARREN: I have a question about my vinyl siding.
LESLIE: OK.
DARREN: It’s about 16 years old and it’s getting kind of hazy. And I’ve tried washing it – power washing it and stuff like that – but it’s really not doing the job. And I was contemplating painting it but I’ve heard mixed reactions from that.
LESLIE: Well, actually, you can. According to the Paint Quality Institute – there’s actually such a thing – you can paint vinyl siding if you use a top quality exterior acrylic latex flat or satin paint. They’re actually excellent for vinyl siding. The only thing that you need to do is make sure that when you’re changing the paint color or you’re changing the color of your vinyl siding, that you choose a color that’s not darker than the color of your existing vinyl siding. And what you want to do is you want to make sure you power wash the house very thoroughly, but make sure you don’t use it with a very heavy psi because you can blast a whole right through that vinyl siding.
DARREN: OK.
LESLIE: Make sure you power wash it well; get rid of any dirt, mildew, any sort of debris that’s on the house. Then make sure, again, that you use a top quality exterior 100 percent acrylic house paint. You don’t have to prime. Make sure you paint under the proper weather conditions; apply at a proper spread rate; use two coats for your best performance; make sure it’s flat or satin finish and it should be great.
TOM: And Darren, one more thing. You know what comes after paint? Repaint. (laughing) So remember, once you paint it, you’re committing to a lifetime of repainting that; probably every five to seven years. So, you have to decide, you know, whether or not that’s something you want to step into. So you can paint it but you’re going to have to repaint it because, once you put that surface on it, it’s going to wear out again.
Alright, Darren. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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