# Alligator Cracked Paint, Home Exterior: Must Remove?



## TomBrooklyn (Dec 15, 2008)

How do you prefer to prep alligatored paint on wood home exteriors? 

Remove it all? Other?


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## plainpainter (Nov 6, 2007)

You do what the homeowner wants - personally never been paid enough to remove it other than scraping off the loose stuff.


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## DeanV (Apr 18, 2007)

Plain is correct. You need to talk to the homeowner and find out what their desire and expectations are and make sure you are on the same page.

Best? Remove it all.

Reality? No one has every even wanted that priced (which I could not even guess at since no one has wanted it done yet). 

Tell them that the problem will continue and you will remove what is currently loose. The hard part is that once you start scraping, there will be areas that just keep going and scrape much further than you expected before you hit something relatively sound.


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## daren (Jul 5, 2008)

This is exactly what this primer was designed for but the other guys are right. It's expensive to fix it.

Mad Dog Primer - The Professional Painter's Primer


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## plainpainter (Nov 6, 2007)

Mad Dog primer is an excellent tool! But it's pricey - and you will rarely be able to get coverage with one coat of paint -even if you tint the primer. I use a Mad Dog as a solution - as a marketing tool to help close sales. It's a quality product - yet you can go overboard with it's application - learn to use it as a marketing tool shown in the website videos.


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## DeanV (Apr 18, 2007)

I have been using PeelBond this year for these


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## daren (Jul 5, 2008)

plainpainter said:


> Mad Dog primer is an excellent tool! But it's pricey - and you will rarely be able to get coverage with one coat of paint -even if you tint the primer. I use a Mad Dog as a solution - as a marketing tool to help close sales. It's a quality product - yet you can go overboard with it's application - learn to use it as a marketing tool shown in the website videos.


you are correct. My experience has been two coats of finish paint over it but it does sovle adhesion problems. So to me it is worth the extra time and money which, naturally, is passed on to the customer.


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## aaron61 (Apr 29, 2007)

Just finished a house on Davis Island last month with extensive peeling. Used a build up of Peel Bond and 2 coats of A-100 satin white. Customer loved it and it was much easier than sanding. It was kind of an in between solution for a similar situation. You could do a sample are for the H O. to help sell it!


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## Damon T (Nov 22, 2008)

I think it's important to stress (in writing) that the coating system has failed, and that if you don't remove all of the paint, it will experience peeling / failure again in the future. that way you cover your self. I like to setup a maintenance program with the clients, which they pay for, to keep up the exterior. As easy as coming by every couple years and seeing if there's any failed caulk, paint etc. and touchup.
The flipside is that most people don't want to pay for a total restoration, which is fine, as it's such a messy and time consuming process. I'd be fine if we never did another one! The XIM peel bond is a great way to go for bridging the cracking paint. It is supposed to act as a tie coat in between the old, brittle paint, and the new flexible paint, so that the new paint doesn't just rip off the old paint as it cures (the surface tension of the latex paint increases as the coating cures, pulling at the underlying layers).
good luck.
dt


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## plainpainter (Nov 6, 2007)

Damon T said:


> It is supposed to act as a tie coat in between the old, brittle paint, and the new flexible paint, so that the new paint doesn't just rip off the old paint as it cures (the surface tension of the latex paint increases as the coating cures, pulling at the underlying layers).
> good luck.
> dt


This is very true and something I learned on my own about 5 years ago - amazed that painters in the field 10,20, and sometimes 30 years didn't have this understanding. You have to educate the clients - because they blame you for this! Sometimes you come across a home that's no spring chicken yet doesn't have a century of built up alligatored cracking paint either. In some cases there was a transition from an old 'chaulky' oil paint - to a more modern latex paint. And by the time you have the 3rd to 4th layer of latex - and throw on a coat that has a hybrid alkyd in the mix - then suddenly you have blisters everywhere - where the curing paint is just ripping away from the old 'dusty' layer, 4 layers down. I had one customer tell me - 'isn't scraping suppose to solve that?' At the time I was newbie - and I had no idea it wasn't my fault - and they hated me for it! Now I have it in writing - and they sign!


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## premierpainter (Apr 17, 2007)

Spray PeelBond over tight paint and your on your way. Perfect soulution for this problem.


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