So I'm planning onpainting the exterior of my house and it;s been about 15 years since the last time, and looking for best practices and latest thinking. the house is a late 19th C one in Northern NJ. the exterior was all replaced before the last paint job, as well as a new addition I've added since. siding is cedar clap, factory primed and with one coat of oil based colored stain. nothing else on it and on the addition it is only the factory prime. trim is mostly wood and also new, with the exception of some of the trim on the addition where I used Azec in some of the more exposed areas. So prep should be minimal starting with a thorough power washing. what would be the recommendation for new paint or stain? I am a big fan of oil based products for their superior performance in general. thank you look forward to the discussion!

 

Can you further explain that statement, normally oil based stain isn't applied over primer.

 

that may have been a mistake, but that is what we did. the cedar clap came factory primed in a medium grey. I believe the primer was oil based. and then yes we applied a Cabot's oil-based colored stain over the primer. I still have a can I believe somewhere and might be able to provide more on that. for what it's worth, it's faded but there was no failure. I can share pics as well if that's helpful.

 

Sounds like you used a solid stain, it's kind of like a thin paint.

If you stick with stain, oil base is fine but if you wish to paint, latex is better.

 

thank you but can you explain why switch to latex? I've always understood that oil is the gold standard but I'm here cause I'm no expert!

 

Exterior oil base paint isn't as good as it used to be while latex house paint is a lot better than it used to be. Latex paint tends to handle the temperature and weather changes better than oil base. Oil base protects a little better but latex will hold up longer.

 

thank you I know the new low voc alkyd products I use for interiors (more experience there) are not what they used to be either. any issues with adherence on the old finish or with the new Azek? does that need a primer?