[ruud]

I just painted my aluminum siding using barn and fence paint. it looks really good but i noticed when water gets on it water marks appear also tiny water bubbles form when wet and you can wipe the paint right off. the siding was clean before i painted it and was wondering if buying a better quality paint and going over the cheaper paint in the same color would help this? please any advice would help

thanks! Also i did not prime before painting ....Basically what i need to know is if i paint over the cheap paint with a high grade paint will it bond better then the cheap stuff already on there or is it gonna do the same as the cheap paint? also the paint i have on there now is flat latex. maybe i should go over it with satin latex? i noticed satin has a better durability then flat.

 

[Gymschu]

I'll be honest, I have painted for over 35 years and I have NEVER, EVER had paint come off aluminum siding like that. We pressure wash to remove chalkiness, prime spots that have worn down to shiny metal, and apply TWO coats of Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint Satin latex. Some of our jobs are going on 15 years and look almost as good as the day the paint was applied. Did you clean the aluminum before painting? This is critical as aluminum tends to oxidize and produce a lot of chalkiness on the surface. I've never had paint bubble as you describe. Usually when paint bubbles up, that means there is moisture present. Touching up with a higher quality paint may help in the short term, but, I think you're gonna have to strip it all and start over.

 

[poppameth]

The product you used was meant for wood. If you had prepped the surface correctly and use any decent acrylic paint you would have been fine. Poor product selection and possibly improper prep was the killer here. A better top coat would give you more resilient surface but if there any adhesion issues with the current coating then it's still fail and take whatever you put on top with it.

 

[jsheridan]

How long had the paint dried before you noticed the problems? It may be that the finish has not fully cured.

 

[ruud]

I noticed the problem about 2-3 days after it was painted.

 

[jsheridan]

Does it still blemish when it gets wet? A number of paints/colors can be affected/damaged by rain/moisture if exposed before they cure. Paint is paint, mostly, so what it's "meant" for (substrate)shouldn't have any bearing on what you're dealing with. Before you go doing anything drastic, I would give it another week or so, and give it a good testing.

 

[ruud]

very good advice! thank you i will wait a week to see what it does. we did get a pretty bad rain storm here and its holding up pretty well, i did notice when it gets wet it gets kinda foamy but the paint sticks unless you were to take a rag and wipe it a few times then it starts to come off, but when its dry it cant even be scraped off. im gonna give it another week and see how it goes. thanks for the advice!

 

[ruud]

*Update* Jsheridan was right! the paint must not have been cured when it got wet, thats what caused it to fail and bubble up, i had thought 3-4 days of drying time was long enough but i was wrong, i didnt prime the surface and i lightly washed it prior to painting and used an airless sprayer to paint, so to anyone having the same problem after painting aluminum siding, leave it alone for a week or two. even though its a cheaper paint it holds up pretty well, it just needed a little longer drying time im really happy with the results and really glad i didnt take others advice to "strip it down and repaint with a more expensive paint" what a job that would have been! whew!