# Damaged siding prep after pressure wash?



## HorizonPainting (Apr 1, 2011)

I just finished a walk-around on a repaint. The HO had a "family member" start painting and replacing boards. The problem is that they used a pressure washer and just about destroyed the siding. It looks like a fuzzy board now. I was hoping I could get it knocked down with an orbit sander. Has anyone else delt with this?


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## NCPaint1 (Aug 6, 2009)

Oops. 50 grit and a quick buzz. Gonna take some time, and hopefully the customer knows it won't be perfect. Well it could be, but its gonna take more than a quick orbital sand.


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## ReNt A PaInTeR (Dec 28, 2008)

That is going to be expensive even if you use the magical festool sanders. Make sure you put in your contract that it won't look perfect. 

You can also use Peelbond but you need a stainblocker due to the condition of the siding.


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## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

Sand sand sand sand. Sand some more and it will look better.


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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

Wow! It never ceases to amaze me the messes a HO can make with a pressure washer.

Dewalt has a new orbital sander out.Iinstead of being a random orbital, it spins all the time like a DA sander. It is the; DWE6407DS 5inch disc sander with dust shroud. It is at least three times faster than a regular orbital. I found them last year and they have saved me a ton of time on lots of stuff, from decks to siding like in the pic. The dust shroud is nice too for extraction. 
No good for finer work as it leaves swirlies like crazy. But then you can sand the out with a random orbit anyway.


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## Delta Painting (Apr 27, 2010)

I have seen a lot worse bone head amateur's thinking a washer is a scraper... 

Lots of sandpaper and elbow grease...


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## mattvpaint (Jan 30, 2013)

Yea I see it all the time people think pressure washing is hold it close and let her rip there is know how behind it.


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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

The way the grain in that lumber looks, it's gonna be a pain to circular sand. The raised/flaked up areas can grab your sanding disc and rip it easily. Especially at high speeds. 
That looks like a good example of 'raised grain' failure that I was reading about in the forest service lab article posted in the 'will bleach remove mill glaze?' Thread


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## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

I saw this about 12 yrs ago, my old boss oil primed the house, we then used orbital sanders and went over the entire house, we then oil primed it again. That did the trick. We did try sanding before priming the first time but some of the boards were so bad the sander would grab it and just tear the wood up, after priming it made the fibers stiff and made it easier to sand the fibers off.

Good luck that don't look like fun.


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## Gough (Nov 24, 2010)

cdpainting said:


> I saw this about 12 yrs ago, my old boss oil primed the house, we then used orbital sanders and went over the entire house, we then oil primed it again. That did the trick. We did try sanding before priming the first time but some of the boards were so bad the sander would grab it and just tear the wood up, after priming it made the fibers stiff and made it easier to sand the fibers off.
> 
> Good luck that don't look like fun.


This seems to be the best solution. Not much fun, but that should do the trick.

I can't tell from the photos, but if there are exposed nails, those should be punched down first. We've seen a lot of guys sand off all of the zinc coating on the galvanized nails, and then get a rust spot at each one.

Another thing is to use the widest disc possible. That will minimize the "waviness" in the final result.


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## mudbone (Dec 26, 2011)

cdpainting said:


> I saw this about 12 yrs ago, my old boss oil primed the house, we then used orbital sanders and went over the entire house, we then oil primed it again. That did the trick. We did try sanding before priming the first time but some of the boards were so bad the sander would grab it and just tear the wood up, after priming it made the fibers stiff and made it easier to sand the fibers off.
> 
> Good luck that don't look like fun.


 Great answer:thumbsup:.


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## mudbone (Dec 26, 2011)

Gough said:


> This seems to be the best solution. Not much fun, but that should do the trick.
> 
> I can't tell from the photos, but if there are exposed nails, those should be punched down first. We've seen a lot of guys sand off all of the zinc coating on the galvanized nails, and then get a rust spot at each one.
> 
> Another thing is to use the widest disc possible. That will minimize the "waviness" in the final result.


 :thumbup::notworthy:


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## 1camper (Feb 17, 2013)

Trying to sand out h.o. gouges will leave a wavy mess.

It looks like there is very little paint left on the siding from the pics. I think I would agree with priming it first,.. well first brush/blow off any sawdust from the hard wash, feather edge the peeling paint, then prime and see what you got. Could be filling some of the gouges will be easier than sanding down the board to the depth of the gouge. If it's really ripped up, an angle grinder with some #80, then and orbital would be my choice.


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## Tonyg (Dec 9, 2007)

Prime, sand, Peel Bond, Paint


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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

Sometimes I will hard wash on purpose when I have to remove layers of wood anyway. Then sand it out. In some cases, its easier than sanding through multiple layers of material and the top layers of wood too. (I'm not a fan of chemical strippers) 
That photo looks strange to me, almost like its a composite or something. 
Or at least the wood is cut on an unusual angle to the grain


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## Gough (Nov 24, 2010)

joshmays1976 said:


> Sometimes I will hard wash on purpose when I have to remove layers of wood anyway. Then sand it out. In some cases, its easier than sanding through multiple layers of material and the top layers of wood too. (I'm not a fan of chemical strippers)
> That photo looks strange to me, almost like its a composite or something.
> Or at least the wood is cut on an unusual angle to the grain


It's flat-sawn instead of quarter-sawn or vertical grain. That means it's not going to hold paint very well in any case. It's much less expensive...and worth every penny.

When VG siding prices skyrocketed, I started recommending fiber-cement siding instead of wood for clients unless they had extremely deep pockets.


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## HorizonPainting (Apr 1, 2011)

Thanks for the help guys. I'm not looking forward to starting this one, just finishing it. I'll post some pics when I get it done.


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## HorizonPainting (Apr 1, 2011)

joshmays1976 said:


> Wow! It never ceases to amaze me the messes a HO can make with a pressure washer.
> 
> Dewalt has a new orbital sander out.Iinstead of being a random orbital, it spins all the time like a DA sander. It is the; DWE6407DS 5inch disc sander with dust shroud. It is at least three times faster than a regular orbital. I found them last year and they have saved me a ton of time on lots of stuff, from decks to siding like in the pic. The dust shroud is nice too for extraction.
> No good for finer work as it leaves swirlies like crazy. But then you can sand the out with a random orbit anyway.


 
Well, I went out and purchased the Dewalt you described. It was $89 at Lowes and worth every penny. It made short work of the "fuzz" on the siding. I went though about 10 sanding disks, which wasn't much. The HO was very impressed on how well the siding turned out. I went over it with PPG Speedhide primer. I'm wondering if the PPG Sealgrip wood permanizer would have been a better choice... maybe next time. Thanks for the tip on the sander!


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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

Cool, I'm glad it worked out. I used mine today on a little deck. They are awesome on certain things. 
The only trouble I had was getting replacement pads that hold the paper. They only list for about $20, but they were on back order for 3 months or something crazy. Ended up using the repair kit that you glue on.


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## Delta Painting (Apr 27, 2010)

HorizonPainting said:


> Well, I went out and purchased the Dewalt you described. It was $89 at Lowes and worth every penny. It made short work of the "fuzz" on the siding. I went though about 10 sanding disks, which wasn't much. The HO was very impressed on how well the siding turned out. I went over it with PPG Speedhide primer. I'm wondering if the PPG Sealgrip wood permanizer would have been a better choice... maybe next time. Thanks for the tip on the sander!



Got any finish pic's?


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## HorizonPainting (Apr 1, 2011)

The first pic is after sanding. Second is after final coats. It was a rough and messy job, but the HO was very happy. I could have spent a week on it, but they wanted it done ASAP.


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## HorizonPainting (Apr 1, 2011)

The siding was still green from the solid color stain they tried to use to cover up the damage.


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## KD PAINTING (Nov 8, 2012)

Sanding would help here, it will take some time...Good Luck!


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## Pete Martin the Painter (Nov 8, 2012)

cdpainting said:


> after priming it made the fibers stiff and made it easier to sand the fibers off.
> 
> Good luck that don't look like fun.



I have never dealt with anything on this scale, but I have found that this works. When I have dealt with "fuzzy" clapboards that seemed to take forever to get smooth with a sander, I just prime and then sand. The stiff fibers come off much easier.


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## moser22 (Aug 1, 2014)

*Pressure wash eched into cedar*

We (HO) have a similar situation where you can see where he went back and forth with the washer sprayer. We have put one coat of primer and one coat of paint and you can still see the lines...its horrible looking. Would the above 'fix' work for this as well?


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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

moser22 said:


> We (HO) have a similar situation where you can see where he went back and forth with the washer sprayer. We have put one coat of primer and one coat of paint and you can still see the lines...its horrible looking. Would the above 'fix' work for this as well?



Now that it's painted, sanding isn't going to be very effective unless you sand all the paint off. 

If this thread gets shut down, come on over to the DIY section of the forums.


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## moser22 (Aug 1, 2014)

Thanks for replying! Are there any alternatives? Like a thicker primer and more paint?


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## Bender (Aug 10, 2008)

moser22 said:


> Thanks for replying! Are there any alternatives? Like a thicker primer and more paint?


Behr
siding, paint and primer in one:jester:


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## bmoorecl (May 29, 2013)

Bet,they used a turbo nozzle.most of them does.for fast removal,That nozzle just grits.away wood.at high pressure.


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## Krittterkare (Jul 12, 2013)

Delta Painting said:


> I have seen a lot worse bone head amateur's thinking a washer is a scraper...
> 
> Thank You! A pressure washer is used to clean a house and a paint scraper is used to scrape paint, rarely is a washer a shortcut to scraping, so many times I get to a job and paintchips everywhere and more prep and a worse looking surface then before and they failed to wash concrete that meets siding that has a pile of dusty crud left behind that could have been easily masked off.


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