Painting aluminum siding? (vinyl, paint, sand, color)

[golfgal]

Has anyone done this, what did you use, how did it hold up? We have a rental property and we have talked about painting the ugly yellow aluminum siding but we were not sure if this was a good idea or not.

[lionandlamb]

Greetings,
I painted siding before. Look for holes, loose siding, make sure there is no caulking to do. Once all that is pass you - your ready. If it is the old metal type siding. I cleaned the house really well. When it was dry I looked for darker stains. Sand the house lightly, on the darker stains I used kilz paint. When it was dry, I made sure there was no touch ups. Do another job of lighly sanding the house. Paint your color on. If you choose to paint two coats of your permanent paint on make sure you give a light sanding again. All of this sanding for the paint to have a surface it can stick to.
My hubby was very impressed with my job. I know lowes and Home Depot sells the paint for siding.
This can take work, it does save alot of monies when you do it yourself. Really looks nice.
BE Blessed

[Uconn97]

We did this 6 years ago with excellent results. We went with white.

First, have the house powerwashed
Next, I looked for any dents in the siding and filled them with bondo, the sanded and primed those areas.
Next we hired painters who applied a coat of primer to the whole house. We used BM primer
Then we did 1 coat of white paint over it - also BM.

Its been 6 years and aside from needing a really good wash it still looks pretty good!

[hotkarl]

I did this around 8 years ago to my previous house.
Cleaned it real well, let it dry for a few days and started painting it.
No primer, one coat of paint. Benny Moore. I painted over that mustard yellow color with a medium tan, which I believe is the reason I got away with only 1 coat, they are a similar shade.
I used foam brushes and rollers for this job, it came out amazing, you'd never know it was painted. And it still looks like it was done yesterday.
Use an exterior paint in a satin finish. It'll look like you just had the house resided.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by hotkarl

I did this around 8 years ago to my previous house.
Cleaned it real well, let it dry for a few days and started painting it.
No primer, one coat of paint. Benny Moore. I painted over that mustard yellow color with a medium tan, which I believe is the reason I got away with only 1 coat, they are a similar shade.
I used foam brushes and rollers for this job, it came out amazing, you'd never know it was painted. And it still looks like it was done yesterday.
Use an exterior paint in a satin finish. It'll look like you just had the house resided.

That is the exact color we are trying to cover up . So just regular exterior paint works .

[fallingwater]

are you handy? Several years ago we had a house with the metal siding. We looked into painting it and the cost was a lot more expensive than we thought. We looked into vinyl siding and it actually turned out to be only a 100 bucks more! We took the aluminum to the scrap yard and it helped off set the cost of the vinyl.

[hotkarl]

Originally Posted by golfgal

That is the exact color we are trying to cover up . So just regular exterior paint works .

Use a good quality exterior paint, like Ben Moore. Satin finish.
The most important part is to thoroughly clean the surface.
I did not powerwash, it's not the best thing for your home, water gets in and behind the siding. I used a regular wood handled scrub brush and Castrol Super Clean(Purple Power is the generic brand). I scrubbed it up real good and just rinsed it off with the garden hose. Done.
Waited a few days and painted.
Oh, in order for this to be worth it, you gotta do the job yourself! ha!
Like somebody else mentioned, hiring a painter to do the job will come pretty darn close to just having the house re-sided.

[K'ledgeBldr]

Clean the aluminum siding. Whatever cleaner is used, a good rinsing is important to remove all detergent residue.
Use a green nylon scrubbing pad as a sandpaper and spray on detergent and scrub.
A pressure washer speeds up cleaning.If you pressure wash, you still may need to scrub some stains out of old paint.

If you have chalking paint, a pressure washing is the best method for removal of chalking.
Rinse very well, until you see no more chalk coloration in the rinse water.
Use a good oil based exterior primer, thinned by the addition of 1 pint per gallon of paint thinner.

The use of an oil-based primer (depending on final color- have primer tinted to match) is a must over a latex primer because the latter generally contains ammonia, which reacts over time with aluminum to form microscopic gas bubbles,
leading to premature failure of the primer (and hence, paint) surface.
Remember that a light sanding is helpful before applying the final finish coat.

Add the finish coat of acrylic latex (you should be able to avoid two coats with the tinted primer).
For a real smooth job, use an airless sprayer with a .017 gun tip. If you want to brush and roll, use a foam roller which gives a fairly smooth finish.

[fleck]

Run your hand and check for chalking on the surface.

If it chalks it needs power washed, and probably anyway.

Consider using cushioned ladder mitts to protect the siding, may not leaning anything against it.

[texdav]

If you want the metal finish to last along time closer to the original;there are paints that are a epoxy type specifically for metal used on metal biuldings.Normally they will need to be applied by a airless sprayer tho.They are available in a egg shells type finisih for looks and durabilty.