I’d like your theories on why the paint on our exterior doors and sills is peeling and blistering. One of the doors needed replacing because it had rotted to mush. All our neighbors’s houses had the same problem shortly after the houses were built in 1993. They said it was rain damage, even though southern California doesn’t get much rain!
After reading the Fine Homebuilding article on paint failure, I decided to
1: scrape off the loose paint
2: apply a water-repellant sealer to the bare wood
3. Use oil-based primer
4. Use acrylic paint
My neighbor asked, “Why are you going to all that trouble? All I did was scrape off the loose paint and repaint it. It’s held up fine ever since.”
Does this mean that weather was *not* the cause of the paint problems? That could mean that the builder used defective paint–or perhaps decided to save money by not preparing the surface properly.
Replies
Rot is clearly due to moisture.
On things like trim, you should see if the tops of the windows and doors have flashing to direct moisture out and away from the trim. Caulking is not flashing.
A good prep and paint sequence like you described will help, but you can't easily go in an back prime all the trim so the flashing is important because it is the moisture that finds with way inside that is important.
Finish failure on exterior doors is frequently caused by uneven temperature and relative humidity on outside and inside of the door. To combat this, you need to be sure that both sides and all four edges are completely and equally sealed with finish.
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