# Why Paint Peels - Link: https://www.oldhouseguy.com/why-paint-peels/ - Published: 2023-08-24T15:58:54-04:00 - Author: Ken Roginski Many people have expressed concern about the cost and short lifespan of paint. Most contractors try steal business from a painter and persuade homeowners to use their services and install vinyl siding instead of painting. **Contractors intimidate homeowners** and make them nervous by saying that fresh paint on an old 1900 house might only last for 5 years. This can be a tricky sales tactic that homeowners might get caught up in. Some people also question that instead of painting again, to use a solid body stain on top of the current paint to provide a longer lifespan. This is not true. Let us explain how all this works. [⌊why paint peels⌉⌊why paint peels⌉[ ## **What Paint Does** Paint is made of three things: solvent, binder, and pigment. * Solvent is like a thin liquid that dries up when it’s exposed to air – similar to paint thinner. * Binder is a thicker liquid that holds the paint together. * Pigments are what give the paint its color and sun-blocking ability. When you put paint on a surface, the solvent evaporates, and the binder sticks the pigments to the surface. The dry paint will expand and contract with the wood. ## **Traditional Paint** For the last 300 years, oil paint was mostly made from linseed oil and a pigment called lead oxide. Over time this paint would wear from the weather. It would either wear off on the surface or sometimes crack because the stuff holding it together shrank as it got older. Fixing this paint was pretty easy. When it got really worn, they would brush off the loose bits and put on a new coat. This new layer of paint soaked into surfaces well, so it helped fill in cracks in the old paint. **They had to do this every 20 to 40 years**. Sometimes, they only redid the parts that were really weathered, like towers, porches, and the south side of the house. This way, the paint layers didn’t build up too much. Also, this type of paint kept buildings looking clean because dirt would go away with the worn-out paint. The lead pigment in the paint also stopped mold and algae from growing. [⌊historic painters⌉⌊historic painters⌉[ ## **Construction Boom after WWII** After the 1940s, the way they made paint changed. Even though they kept calling it “oil-based” paint, it behaved very differently from the old type. The new, “improved” paint had stuff called alkyd binders, which made it more flexible and better at resisting the effects of weather. It was **great for new houses made of bare wood, but not so good for older buildings**. So why was it not good for older buildings? Although this new paint was tougher against weathering, **when people added more layers of this paint to their houses, it built up and became thicker**. Additionally, this new paint didn’t go into cracks very well, so any faults or cracks in the surface were still there under the paint. **The outside layers of the new paint were stronger than the inside layers of the old-style paint. As this new paint aged, it shrank a bit more than the old paint underneath.** This caused the paint to crack, peel, and break making a new paint job necessary. Then, they removed a material called lead pigment from the new paint. We are all familiar with the issues with lead paint. However, the removal of this lead allowed mold and algae to grow on the surface of buildings. Also, dust from cars sticking to the paint made buildings look dirtier than before. As a result, buildings needed more frequent repainting, rather than just touching up where the paint was worn. The result of this change was not good. People then started repainting their buildings about every 15 years, and this caused a problem. The paint layers became really thick, and this thick paint didn’t bend well. So, it cracked. Water got into these cracks and reached the wood underneath. When this water tried to escape along with **normal moisture escaping from the interior of the house, it couldn’t get through the thick paint, so it pushed the paint off the wood.** The outer layers of the paint also shrank, which made the paint peel away from the wood. This all happened where the paint was weakest, right next to the wood. As a result, the paint ended up peeling off and exposing the bare wood underneath. This in turn allowed the wood to be vulnerable to rot.[⌊peeling paint window⌉](https://www.oldhouseguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/window.jpg) ## **Paint Today** The more layers of paint people put on their houses, the quicker it starts peeling off. Back in the 1960s and 70s, the paint job would last around 10 to 15 years before it started looking bad because of peeling. In the 80s, it only lasted 5 to 10 years. By the 90s, it could look bad in just 4 to 6 years. So, now you know about the peeling paint problem, and I’ll explain why it’s happening. **Here’s the main reason:** The kind of stuff they use in paint changed, but the way people take care of the paint didn’t change. They kept painting the whole building with new coats more and more often. This was good for the companies that make and sell paint, but not great for older buildings. Sometimes, they’ve used stains on the outside of buildings to help, but even those can cause a buildup of paint. Especially the ones called “solid stains” that are kind of like paint. We’ve come up with two ways to fix this problem. Usually, we use both of them on different parts of the same building. ## **Spot Painting** This method is all about letting the paint peel off naturally, at its own pace. Instead of applying a full new coat of paint, which would make the peeling happen sooner, we work with the peeling process. The appearance might change over time, but it usually doesn’t look really bad. Every three to five years, we clean the surfaces, get rid of the loose paint, and paint over the exposed wood in those spots. We don’t try to make the thick, built-up paint edges smooth, because it wouldn’t really make things last longer. We use somewhat weaker primers and paints that are based on oil. It’s important to match the color and shine of the paint around it. This is a less expensive way to fix the problem, but you have to keep doing it as long as the thick peeling paint is an issue. If there’s paint with lead in it, we have to follow rules to handle it safely. In the long run, this method might end up costing more than completely removing the paint. ## **Paint Removal** **The best option is to take off all the old paint until we reach the bare wood**. Then, we get the wood ready and apply a coat of linseed oil with paint thinner if it’s necessary. After that, we apply an oil primer and two top-coats of acrylic latex or acrylic elastomeric paint, which work really well. Paint removal plus painting is a more expensive process – sometimes almost double a paint job price, but it’s only done one time. Since it gets rid of the main reason for the problem (having too much old paint), you won’t need to spend as much money on maintenance compared to the other method of fixing spots. I personally got 11 years out of my last paint job. I wanted my paint job to last longer than 11 years so several years ago I had the paint on my shingles removed with a Paint Shaver. So far so good! [⌊exterior paint removal paint shaver⌉⌊exterior paint removal paint shaver⌉[ Paint is shaved off with a paint shaver. A paint shaver is used on both clapboard and shingles. It is followed by a quick sanding. The dust is sucked up in a vacuum with a HEPA filter. There are a number of Paint Shavers available for purchase or rental. A house painter will do this so you just need to make some phone calls to find the right painter. As with every project, good luck getting someone to return your call!! ## Is Rotting Wood the Problem or the Paint That is Supposed to Protect it?