Over the weekend I had a call to go out and look at painting the exterior of a newer home and the fence along the property line.  The woman on the phone said it had been painted several times, but the paint was still peeling off.  UH-OH I thought to myself. 

New paint honestly sticks really well so over wood siding there is one main reason that exterior paint fails and that is lack of a good primer. So I show up to look the place over and sure enough, the paint is failing everywhere to a greater or lesser degree.  Paint usually fails where it takes the most abuse and that is South side, but the paint on all sides of the house and fence was peeling and failing.

The unfortunate part about this is that there is no easy fix.  Any paint that goes on over the top is only going to mask the underlying issue.  I can scrape loose what is peeling, primer and paint over those portions, but in all likelyhood the other areas will eventually fail as well. 

The root problem is the original paint job was done incorrectly and from what all I can see, they used cheap paint and either used a very crappy primer or no primer at all. A good primer bonds to the wood and gives the paint something stable to stick to.  As with most things in life, having a good base to work up from is essential to having a good paint job.

To fix a problem like this there is really only one real solution and as you can imagine it involves power tools, time and a whole lot of headache!  In case you haven't learned contractor speak, those three words all equate directly to money, especially when all three are combined together! 

Now it is time for me to give her a call and give her the bad news...