Are you a painting contractor? I need some advice.

[Paper Roses]

I am a widow and live in an antique house that constantly needs attention. Something new has developed and I have been given several opinions.

I last had the house painted 6 or 7 years ago. Never had the problem I am now facing.
The last 2 winters have raised havoc with the paint. The clapboards are peeling and blistering on the two sides that face the brunt of New England weather. The last paint used was Benjamin Moore. I hope the company I hired then primed the areas they scraped at that time but I was working while they were here and I really don't know if they did the job properly.
It looks awful. Since my funds are short, I am trying to postpone work that I know needs to be done. I have no idea whether this has anything to do with what is now happening.

I will have to take a loan to have the house scraped, primed and painted (with some minor repair). I would like to wait until spring. Some of the people I have spoken with say this would be OK, some say that waiting will damage the clapboards and the job will be worse.

I don't know what to do.I have been given the name of 2 companies that have done work for neighbors. One of them is insured, I'm not sure of the other. I know I need an insured contractor. Not contacted either yet.

My thoughts prior to this were to sell my house and rent something. I looked for a while. Ouch!
The rents in my area are so high that it does not make sense to move. I talked to a real estate lawyer and went over the figures. She said I would be crazy to move. A year in a 4 room apartment in my area is about $2000.00 a month plus utilities. I'm going to stay put.

My main question is: Can I wait until spring without doing some terrible damage?
I don't even know if I can find someone this late in the season.

Any thoughts?

[jeff47]

1. It depends.

(Former general contractor, not officially a painter and hired them for all but the smallest jobs)

It depends on how bad the paint is. If the new paint is blistering and coming off, but the old layers of paint are more-or-less covering the wood, it should be OK.

What you're worried about is bare wood getting soaking wet and not drying quickly. If the paint looks lousy, but it's still keeping most of the water from reaching the wood, you shouldn't see damage from one winter.

If you do have some really exposed areas, you could hire some local unskilled folks and tell them to slap some cheap paint on those areas. It won't look good, and it won't last long, but it'll protect the wood for this winter.

As for "this late in the season", what you need is a couple days without rain to do the work, followed by two or three days above about 40 degrees. So you've still got a good amount of time to get the "full" job done.

[Paper Roses]

2. Some of the peeling is down to bare clapboard.

Other areas are blistering. Some of the larger sections of the peeling paint are coming off in chunks, some as large as about 1 inch by 3 inches. This has been developing during the last 2 years. I'm wondering is either the painter or the paint itself was not up to par. There is an "L" on my house that was not painted last time because it looked fine. It still does, just a little faded.

My concern is damage to the spots that have peeled to the bare wood. I wish I was in a position to have the house resided but that is way out of my budget.
The scraping needed will be extensive.

Been in this house since 1969. Never had this happen before.

[jeff47]

3. If the spots are only 1x3, I would not expect signficant damage

If your fall/winter/spring is utterly drenched with rain, that's more of a concern but probably still OK. Snow isn't a concern.

What year was the house built? And are they the original clapboards? Late 60's clapboards are probably pressure-treated lumber, so they can easily withstand that small exposure. Much earlier than that and pressure-treated wasn't available.

If you want to get an idea of how the wood is right now, go get a flathead screwdriver and poke the wood with the blade aligned with the wood grain - the long direction of the board when you're talking about clapboards. Don't beat on it, just give it a firm shove.

Wood that is in good shape won't let the screwdriver in at all. Utterly rotten wood that must be replaced will disintegrate. Wood that is starting to be damaged will separate a little along the grain lines and let the screwdriver in. How far gives you a hint at how bad the wood is. If the wood is in good shape, one winter won't change that.

[1dogleft]

5. I just had my house painted this week

but it was almost 14 years since the last one. During that time I had bad Ice dams(New England)a lot of peeling paint ect. I did have to replace some fascia and soffit boards. (up by the gutters) but not a big deal($300). My point is you house will not fall down if you have to wait until Spring or longer. My house was built in 1927 and is still standing just fine as Yours will also

[IrishAyes]

4. Bless your heart.

I have an older house too, a Vic bought at auction about an hour before it would've been too far gone for any amount of $ to rescue. So I have at least some idea of what you're going through. I haven't been able to afford to rent either since way back to the stone age almost. While I didn't underestimate what repairs would cost, I did start out with a slightly fanciful time frame. If you possibly can stay put, do so. A less than perfect house of your own beats a rented palace any day of the week, especially an apartment. I don't want to sound cranky, but I detest living where I have to listen to other people's noise. Visits are fun, crowded shopping malls pure heaven - but when I go home, I don't want to look at or listen to anyone else but my 2 sweet dogs.

One thing for sure. Well tended older houses are usually better built than all but the higher end new ones. The way I look at it (and the inspector did too), my old house that after 8 years STILL needs all kinds of cosmetic renovation will be the last one left standing in town. I took care of the practical needs first, then started on exterior cosmetics and last of all am tackling the interior one room at a time. At my age I might hardly live to see it all finished, but that's okay. It's willed to the Make A Wish Foundation anyway.