Exterior paint

What's the best to stand up to everything the Canterbury Plains throws at us? Wind, rain, dust, sleet, hail, snow, heavy & repeated frosts... The paint that was slapped on the house 7 years ago before we bought probably should have been done 5 years ago... not properly prepared and poor quality paint, or a combination of both. Also, is water blasting enough, or should I also take a wire brush to it so it takes the paint to it? I've done plenty of exterior painting before, but never on such from such a rough start. I want to make sure it's done properly, so I don't have to do it again in just a few years.

I'm probably not going to attempt it till the weather has settled, as it usually does in mid-winter, but then will the temps be too low for good adherence, etc?

What cladding is your house? Recommendations will vary for wood, stucco, 'fibrolite', etc.

Resene advised us acrylic for exterior timber as it retains flexibility better than oil based and so is less prone to cracking.

The longest lasting paint by a factor of about 2, will be white. It reflects so much more heat than other paints so it does not have to flex nearly as much. If you don't want to use white paint, I'd suggest you use Resene Cool Colours to maximise the heat reflected from the surface.

Water blasting anywhere on a building (other than a concrete wall with no windows or doors) is a really bad idea. I know it is commonly done, and saves elbow grease, but it drives water into places that are not designed to deal with the volume and pressure of water involved. With weatherboards, it is practically impossible to keep the water-blaster directed away from any gap that it could drive water into.
Buildings are designed to cope with wind driven rain, which is nothing like what comes from a water blaster. The water will not dry off that quickly once in these spaces, especially at this time of year, and you could end up with soggy insulation inside your walls for months.

Use a paint scraper to clean back to sound paint, with assistance of a hot air gun where necessary, and and then sand smooth, and reprime any bare wood areas.
We have a hot air gun with an attached scraper that makes the job much easier.

Oops... sorry, it is weatherboard. []

I had thought that about water blasting as well, hawkspur, but the most common recommendation I have had is to water blast. I have painted probably about a dozen houses in my lifetime, brick, stucco, wood, and have never water blasted. I am a 'fan' (well, not really, but it gives the best result for a 'starter' surface) of the scraper and brush, followed by sandpaper. I hadn't really wanted to go with white, as the dust kicked up from the road would soon have it grey. Was thinking more like a buff/beige colour, thanks for the tip about the Resene cool colours.

I'm wondering if the last paint job was oil-based, organix, as it has cracked badly in places.

hi there

we did the 'start again' on the 1903 villa..took it right back to bare timber, wore out 3 belt sanders.. but it was worth it.. used acrylic.
water blasting, did our last house with WB, ended up with water running down interior walls, real mess..would not do again...
beware of heat guns as well.. have heard of houses burning down because of the cobbies/dust/dry matter, catching in the walls.. and easy enough to do with weather boards..
anyone tried sand blasting? or would that be too harsh?

Sound advice about heat guns as the weatherboards should have building paper immediately behind them which is usually bitumen based and very flammable [:0]

Belt sanding is probably best, and definitely don't sand blast as it will erode the timber very quickly. You do need to remove most or all of the previous paint by the sounds of it otherwise it will keep coming away complete with the new paint. A quality primer is also essential and I would get quality advice from a specialist paint supplier like Resene as more reliable than the paint counter in a large chain store IMO.

A hot air gun can be used very safely on weatherboards, but of course some people do push things beyond their limits, like a friend of mine did...He thought one could be use to quickly dry out timber wet from a leak.[:0] He left it running unsupervised for half an hour and the wood had started to char! idiot.
Also the gas torch ones are much easier to misuse.

If cleaning off paint older than about 1980, watch out for lead paint. Wear a dust mask and pick up and bin any large flakes.

Watch the temperature range for your paint in winter. One tip for painting through winter is to lay tarps over the area you will be painting on the next day. This keeps the dew off and you can get painting much sooner, which helps when days are shorter. I do know from experience though, that if it is windy, you won't get much sleep as the tarps flap all night.[!]

Resene or Dulux, everything else doesn't last nearly as long.

Painting in cool weather is a fairly bad idea. I had to deal with a house in Blenheim that was painted in cool weather. The 3 warm sides were just alright, but the cold side did not stick anywhere near as well.

If you know you are going to have to paint when it is cold, you can get paint specifically designed for that, but you would not want to use it in warmer temperatures as it will dry too fast.
www.resene.co.nz/comn/whtsnew/wintergrade.htm