Wood Siding Painting

Painting real wood siding

Wood siding, from narrow clapboard to wide lap boards and board and batten, takes paint well and can last for generations when it is kept painted. It also moves with heat and moisture, so the prep and the paint have to allow for that.

Safe Choice Painting paints wood siding on older and newer homes as part of our exterior painting work.

For fiber cement, vinyl and aluminum, see our main siding painting page.

Why some boards peel and others do not

The USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Wood Handbook explains a lot of what we see on old houses. Exterior paint is more durable on vertical-grain boards, also called edge-grain, than on flat-grain boards cut from the same species. The handbook also calls end grain the most absorptive surface of wood. That is why peeling so often starts at the butt ends of clapboards, at corner boards and under windows, where cut ends meet water.

So when one wall peels and the next does not, the cause is usually one of three things: grain, water getting in at the ends or from behind, or a lot more sun. Our answer on why exterior paint peels covers the causes in more detail.

How we prepare wood siding

1. Wash. Dirt, chalk and mildew come off, and the wood dries fully before work goes on.
2. Scrape. Loose and peeling paint is removed by hand. Sound paint that is holding tight stays.
3. Sand the edges. The ridge where old paint meets bare wood is feathered so it does not show through.
4. Check the boards. Soft or split boards are marked at the walkthrough and listed in the estimate before painting starts.
5. Prime bare wood. Every bare spot and every exposed end grain gets an exterior wood primer. End grain is where water gets in first.
6. Caulk. Joints at corner boards, windows and trim are sealed. The laps between clapboards stay open so the siding can breathe and drain.
7. Two finish coats. A quality acrylic latex, which stays flexible as the wood moves.

Board and batten, shiplap and wide lap

Each profile paints a little differently. Board and batten has deep inside corners along every batten, and those are brushed so no bare lines are left. Shiplap and tongue and groove have tight joints that are painted but not caulked, since the boards need room to move. Wide lap boards show roller marks on their flat faces, so they are rolled and then brushed out along the grain.

Paint over old oil

Many older houses have layers of oil paint under later latex coats. Latex can fail to grip glossy, chalky oil paint. Where we find oil under the surface, it is cleaned and scuffed and a bonding primer goes on before the latex topcoats.

Older homes with original siding

Wood siding is most common on our older streets. In Gainesville about 68 percent of homes were built before 1980, by Census estimates. In Ardmore, the 2017 McLish Place survey covers 70 homes, mostly Craftsman, and the 2012 Highland Park survey notes that replacement siding only counts against a house's historic character when it was applied wrongly, such as vertically. Keeping the original boards painted avoids that question. See exterior painting in Gainesville and our Highland Park page.

Color and sun on wood siding

Dark colors absorb more heat, and wood that heats and cools a lot moves more, which strains the paint. In North Texas and southern Oklahoma, south and west walls take the most sun and wear first. A mid-tone or lighter body color usually holds up longer on those walls. Trim, doors and shutters are a good place for deeper color. Our trim, fascia and soffit page covers the wood trim that goes with wood siding.

Historic houses

For homes in historic districts, or ones you want to keep true to their era, our historic home exterior painting page covers gentle paint removal and local color rules.

Wood siding and rot

Soft spots at board ends, corners and drip edges are probed at the walkthrough. Those boards get wood rot repair before painting, and new wood is primed before the finish coats.

Nearby

• Exterior painting
• Siding painting
• Exterior painting in Gainesville, TX