Painting or staining your home is a maintenance activity that you must keep up.
Wood siding is constantly facing environmental factors that challenge the life of the material. Rain, snow and ice pelt the siding and then the sun comes out and the temperature on the siding rises well above 100 degrees. The wind dries it, pulls at it and tries to work its way through whatever cracks and openings that it can find. If you want your house to last, protecting the siding by painting or staining it is a must. Does this Spark an idea?
House Paint
Paint is a film finish. This means that it does not penetrate into the siding. Instead, it forms a protective skin as it sits on top of the material, sealing it from the environment. Paint will stick to your exterior surfaces for a period of time but will eventually begin to lose its adhesiveness and peel away from the house. Paint is a high maintenance finish that must be renewed every few years.
Benefits of House Paint
Besides the beauty of a freshly painted house, painting your home will put a good, protective shield on all the surfaces. It will seal the siding and keep out the damaging environmental forces such as water and wind. The siding will not dry out as quickly and it will resist the encroachment of mold and mildew.
Stain
Stain is a penetrating finish that soaks into the surfaces it is applied to. It is not appropriate for all kinds of surfaces, mainly being used for wood siding. Stain that is used for external use is usually combined with some kind of a sealer to provide both the coloring and the protection desired in a protective coating. Stain finishes will eventually wear out but without the peeling of a paint finish.
Benefits of Stain
Stains do not require a primer before application, so there is one less step to coating your house. If a stain is opaque, the condition of the siding is not as important as it is when it is a clear stain that will show the siding through the finish is used. A penetrating stain will not peel off when it wears out and it will not need to be scraped when you prepare to refinish the house.
Choosing House Paint or Stain
Choosing to paint or stain your home is not optional if it has wood, stucco, or metal surfaces that must be protected from the environment. Some protective coating is required to maintain the appearance and life of your house. Your home may determine which coating you are going to use because the siding is already painted or stained. Scraping and sanding away paint to switch to stain may be a much bigger task than a homeowner wants to take on.
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