Neighbor104081 Wrote:
So, has the world discovered a better way to paint the house exterior? Every time I bring a painter, they do the job, 2 years later, it looks like it was never painted. All cracks and peeling. One company offered lifetime warranty but they want $30K (yes, no typo here - Thirty Thousand Dollars). I heard there are some paints that supposedly last a lot of years (10?). Anybody know about it? Any ideas/advise how I can get my house painted and forget for more that 2 years? Any advise welcome.

Neighbor105373 Wrote:
I really recommend (Colors by) Zoltan (webcard attached below). He did the exterior of my house and as he explains, it is the prep that is key!! plus he is a real pleasure to work with and comes on schedule and cleans up daily, was careful with my plants and the house looks super.

Neighbor105373 attached these links:
Colors By Zoltan Painting

Zoltan Wrote:
Almost every time when the stucco paint peels extensively, it is caused by someone who has painted over a chalky substrate sometime in the past. Subsequent coats will also peel after a short period of time. Repainting without addressing this problem will not make the peeling go away and likely make it somewhat worse. Applying an elastomeric finish over the failing paint film may hide the problem but to me it's not the solution. Eventually it will fail too and then there's a problem removing the elastomeric coat, which is a true nightmare. No matter what you put over an unsound substrate, it remains loose. Even when peeling is not apparent in some areas, you can run your hand over the stucco and feel/hear that the paint film has air underneath. Often you will find many air pockets like that. Moisture can get in, the pocket pops and the paint will start falling off. The best solution is to sandblast the old paint off, but it's cost-prohibitive most of the time and usually requires extensive stucco repair or a full skim coat. The next best thing is to water blast all the stucco, remove as much paint as possible (you'll be surprised how much paint will come off) then go over it again with a grinder equipped with a wire brush cup. Lots of hidden cracks will suddenly appear (quite normal and expected). Once all the loose paint is removed a bonding primer needs to be applied, such as an oil-based surface conditioner. Mixing regular paint with Emulsa-Bond additive is my preference, it penetrates the remaining paint and creates an excellent base for the finish paint. Patching the cracks with the appropriate filler, spot priming the patches, one or two coats of finish paint and voila, no more peeling. It's a messy and somewhat expensive process. Note that the above solution is not "bullet-proof" and some surface irregularities may occur, but it's very unlikely that you'd have a major peeling issue afterwards. Some very small areas may peel in the future but the overall problem is eliminated. Of course, you will get cracks, you live in California. When paint is peeling extensively on wood, it's an entirely different ballgame. It could be a result of applying the paint in wet weather, not allowing the previous coat to dry completely, caulking the underside of lap-siding and thereby trapping moisture inside, too many coats of paint, exposure to weather, etc. The list goes on. Average lifetime of a paint on a stucco is 7-10 years, sometimes longer. 2 years is unacceptable, even in areas such as the Coast or Daly City. Regular maintenance, such as pressure washing the exterior of the home will keep it clean and prevents mildew and dirt build-up. It will give your home a "just painted" look for many years. Some information about peeling stucco paint can be found at: http://www.resene.co.nz/homeown/probsolv/peeling.htm For a price tag of $30k it sounds like either a complete sandblast, re-stucco and paint (although I doubt that it would be a life-time guarantee on that) or a texcoat treatment (most likely), such as blowing a thick textured coating over everything in sight on the house, including windows, gutters, fascias, door frames, etc. Sears is one company that used to offer this service, not sure if they still do. I believe it was a big thing in the 70's. I've seen a lot of homes that have this coating and after 20 some years (hardly a lifetime) most of them have failed. Subcontractor for Sears out of business, there went the warranty. It costs a small fortune to remove the failed coating, some people just learned to live with it once they found out how difficult and expensive it is to remove it. About 10 years ago I removed texcoat from a small two story house for $16k and it nearly bankrupted me. It took me 2 months with 5 guys to complete the job. Lesson learned.:-) I hope you'll find this helpful. Good luck with your project!

Zoltan attached these links:
Colors By Zoltan Painting