Morning All,

I'm in the process of fixing up our home for resale and I think re-painting our siding would go a long way. We have aluminum siding all around and it's began to wear and become powdery.

I have a couple ideas of my own right now to clean the aluminum to remove as much of the powder as I can but I was hoping for any tips or other ideas that you may have?

Right now the ideas I have are to either pressure wash the siding and try to move the powder that way or the old fashioned way of mixing up some TSP/Water and cleaning it all by hand. I thought that maybe I could use elbow grease first with the TSP mixture and then pressure wash it afterwards to get the "best of both worlds".

If anyone would have any tips or suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thank you

 

Go with the TSP then rinsing with a pressure washer. Be sure to use care when pressure washing so you don't force water where it doesn't belong. The more chalk you remove the better as latex paint will not adhere long term to chalk. I normally clean the aluminum siding the best I can and if there is any left, add the appropriate amount of Flood's EmulsaBond to the 1st coat of paint. I usually just spray 1 coat of a quality latex house paint on the siding. You could also brush or roll the paint on [will likely take 2 coats] If using the latter method I'd add emulsabond to latex primer for the first coat.