Any time you are painting an aluminum siding, the key is in preparation and priming. All of the chalkiness must be washed and scrubbed off, any flaking paint must be taken off. In a nutshell, you need to start with a clean palette. Once everything is clean and dry, you’re ready to apply your primer.
Here’s where a lot of people make a mistake and, unfortunately, I’ve even heard of “professional” painters who do this. They apply a latex primer. This is probably the worst thing you can do when painting aluminum siding. Most latex paint has ammonia in it, and that includes primer. Ammonia has a chemical reaction with aluminum, and what happens is this reaction produces a tiny amount of gas. Latex paint, by nature, is very elastic. So, think about this…you’ve got this elastic coating over your aluminum that has gas bubbles underneath it. If you don’t quite see the problem here just think about how your own insides react a couple of hours after eating two or three bean burritos…’nuff said, right? The gas build-up under the latex primer pushes up and out, which bubbles and flakes the top coat…in other words, it will cause paint failure. The solution is to use an oil-based primer specifically designed for metal surfaces. You will have to wait longer for an oil primer to dry, but it’s better than having to re-do everything within a year or two. Once the primer is dry, you can apply your top coat and you’ll want to use a 100% acrylic paint for any aluminum siding. If you take this approach to your aluminum siding paint project, you’ll have a long-lasting finish you can be proud of.
Don’t just grab any paint
Before you dash, please hesitate.
Take your time to prep and prime,
And you’ll appreciate my rhyme.
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