Painting & Prep for Front Porch

I need to know the best way to repaint my front porch. It has been 8 years since I painted it last and the paint is peeling off. I pressure washed it today thinking that it would remove most of the paint but it only removed about 15%. There are still some areas that look flakey. Should I just scrape off what I can and then repaint or do I need to try to strip it with a chemical? Also what is a good paint to use and should I prime and then paint? Thanks for any help you can give. FYI my porch is covered but gets wet when it rains. I am painting the floor and the handrails. Thanks again for your help.

 

AS I just mentioned in another post, those electric pressure washers don't do the trick. Rent a gas driven machine 2,000 psi or higher with a red tip. Be careful with the red tip.

 

Unless the existing paint isn't adhered well it isn't necessary to remove all the paint prior to recoating. Scraping should always follow pressure washing. Is this a concrete slab or wood floor?

The type of paint to use depends a lot on what is currently on there. You always find better coatings at your local paint store as opposed to a big box paint dept. Do you know if the existing paint is latex? or oil base? It's usually best to stick with the same [unless the majority is removed, there are some exceptions]

 

Pulpo, I was using a gas pressure washer. If I got to close the wood would start to splinter. Marksr, the floor is wood. I used latex when I painted it 8 years ago. I think I used Valspar. I noticed in Consumer reports that they rated "California" brand best for exterior.

 

As you know, you don't want to use too much pressure on wood, the PWer can tear the wood to pieces

I'd continue with latex for the top coat. Scrape and sand the flaky areas.... don't forget to remove the dust If the raw wood is good and dry, an oil base primer for those areas is best but a latex primer will do ok and is prefered if your not 100% confident the wood is dry.

Make sure your finish paint is either a solid deck stain or a porch and deck enamel.

 

Im going to try to paint next weekend so it should be dry by then. Is oil based better than latex? If so would it be ok to prime and paint over the old latex? One more question. The floor was painted with and solid deck stain. Would a deck enamel last longer and would it be ok to paint over the deck stain? Thanks again.

 

I'm not fond of applying oil base coatings over latex on exterior applications. Oil base seals better but isn't flexible like latex.

A porch and deck enamel can be applied over the solid stain but I'd stick with solid stain. P&D enamel may wear longer but when it fails, you'll have a lot of scraping to do Any raw wood would need to be primed. Generally when using a solid stain all you have to do prior to recoating is to clean the deck [usually solid stains don't require primer]

 

I got my porch scraped (9 hrs) and then I pressure washed it again. I was planning on priming tomorrow and painting Sat. I have another question. The primer says not to paint if the temp is over 90 and is humid. Well I live in Alabama and it is supposed to be in the mid 90's with high humidity. Should I wait for a cooler less humid weekend? It is always hot and humid in AL but it has been a little extra hot and humid lately. Also it rained this afternoon. How long should I wait for the wood to dry (24 hrs/48 hrs)? Thanks again.

 

What brand/line of primer are you using? latex? or oil base?

There really isn't a generic answer as to how long to wait after PWing or rain. Generally rain water will dry faster than water from a pressure washer. How much sun and/or wind also plays a part along with humidity.

The main reason for not painting over 90 degrees is the primer might dry too fast - lay on top of the wood instead of penetrating and getting a good bond. Moisture in the wood will also affect the bond although latex is more forgiving than oil base.

 

I went ahead and got a latex primer because im just going to prime the whole porch. It was in pretty bad shape. It usually dosn't get sun until 2 pm and wind is usually just a slight breeze. I was going to try to start early in the morning before it gets to hot. Will that help?

 

Yes that should help. You can also add a product like flood's floetrol to the primer. It makes latex paint brush better and will slow the drying time down a little.

 

Started priming this morning. Was about 90% done when it started storming. We were supposed to only have a 20% chance of a late afternoon storm. Anyway I covered what I could with tarps. The rest had about 1-3 hours to dry. Is this going to hurt my prime coat?

 

Hard to say, you'll have to wait until the weather clears up and see how it looks.