Saturday, July 29, 2006

Paint + Rust = Crap

Posted by Peter at Saturday, July 29, 2006
Well yesterday I was doing some caulking of exposed nail holes on my exterior siding. After I was done I saw that the front of the house where I had previously primed(which by the way is still unpainted because we can't decide on colors) has small little dots of rust coming through the primer from the nails behind them. At first I thought it was only a couple then that became a few, to some, then it seemed like all of them. Now should I resad those areas and then caulk them and prime them with oil primer instead? I used just regular water based Zinnser Bullseye or something from the HD. If that is not a good primer, than what should I have gotten. I'm afraid that everything I have done will be for nothing. AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! (Now turning green and my clothes are ripping from my body.... it would work, but I'm asian so back to my normal self). dang

5 comments on "Paint + Rust = Crap"

Gary on 12:06 PM said...

In future, for exterior work, use galvanized nails. I did the same thing once....

Anonymous said...

Peter,

I started writing a response and then erased it--I tend to go way overboard on my prep work before painting, and I thought my post sounded too preachy. Instead, I thought I'd post a "How we painted our House" on my blog, and you can use what you want...

One thing I would mention here, is that I am not a fan of using caulk to fill in nail holes--caulk tends to expand and contract differently than the wood and will telegraph through the wood. It can also fall out. I would look at using an epoxy filler (we used Smith and Company's Fill-it)--it sands well, takes paint well, and may help with the bleed through of the rust...Speaking of which, I would, at a minimum, use an oil base primer over the nail holes (actually the whole house) and hope for the best...if you don't want to go all out crazy like I did.

Look for a future post, and I'll try to go into detail...

I wish you the best.

Peter on 12:21 AM said...

Hi, thanks for the replies. I wish I knew this stuff before I had primed it. I just primed one side today with oil primer, so I hope that holds up. I already used some kind of polyurethane caulk on the nail heads. I guess I will have to see if that works. I wish I had galvanized nails, but these are the original nails and siding, so I decided to just keep them there, since the siding was in pretty good shape. Now I am thinking if I should have paid the bum to renail my siding.

Bonk at Home on 11:34 AM said...

The primer is there to help the paint stick. The paint provides the protection from the elements the primer only helps the paint. I learned this on the importance of painting one of those pre-primed steel doors. Also it's worth spending the extra on DD-galvanized or SS 304

Patrick on 12:28 PM said...

OK, as promised my long-winded explanation of how we "painted" our house is now on my blog....

 

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