The outside of my house is cedar siding. Did you know that cedar siding should be stained, not painted? Well, the people who built our house didn’t know that. Consequently our paint peels horribly every couple of years. Where I live the weather fluctuates between hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. The expanding and contracting of the wood takes its toll on the paint and my patience.
Last time we painted our house, one paint contractor said he had stained over paint before with excellent results. I was intrigued. We drove around to see the homes he had stained over paint. They looked great, even after 8 years. He scrapped the loose, peeling paint off and then stained the house. We used a solid stain. It looks just like paint once it is painted on, but it lets the wood breath. The best part is that it soaks into the wood slowly, so you can see when it is time to re-stain, but it never peels!!! This process takes 7 to 10 years too. Much better than the paint. The stain adheres to the old paint and the wood, so it looks great. The best part is, that now I can touch up peeling with stain and it will never peel again. The parts of our home that have not peeled will probably never peel, so hopefully in a short time we can erase the peeling paint problem without the costly expense of sanding off all the paint or residing the house.