Installed Alcoa accent panels on a job in 1996 . About 3 years ago they started to discolor , almost like it was dirty,so I advised a good cleaning. No change. A year later, 2 pieces out of the whole gable looked worse than the rest! After looking around my area I’ve noticed other houses with the same problem. Has anyone else had this issue and has Alcoa backed it up ? I don’t want homeowner to have to eat it —- he’s my HVAC contractor !!
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Have you contacted alcoa?
I just painted the aluminum that wraps the window casings on my house. I have no idea when they were put on, but they did a good job of it, complete with undercutting the casing and jamb to slide the sill covering underneath. In the It had faded substantially, in some places worse than others. I washed all the chalking off the aluminum and put on latex paint. If you're down to the bare aluminum, you need to prime first. Use 100% acrylic paint. Make sure it has no ammonia in it (as some latex paints still do). If these are large surfaces spraying would be the way to go.
Get the name and number of the Alcoa rep. from your supplier. Give them a call.
Most siding is run in batches just like any other colore product. Alum. siding is color matched pretty close from batch to batch of paint so you never know when they have changed batches. Same for vinyl siding, but what can change with both is the middle of the run where they are changing batches of paint or colorant. QC durring the batch blending is ussually pretty good, however sometimes the durability of the end product suffers a little over the 100 or so feet of the mixing of two batches.
I use to work as a lab tech. in a coil coating paint lab. We developed products for the steel and alum. coil coating process. Watching the actual coating of steel and aluminum coils is fascinating. Not only can the coating be a problem, but just a few seconds to little or to much in the curring ovens can mean the coatings performance can change. This can occur durring coil splices even with the same batch of coating being used. Bottom line is that there are a lot variables in the coil coating process that can cause product performance to change. Never having dealt with the extrusion of vinyl, I would guess that there could be as many factors with it.
Alcoa was always a pretty good company to deal with when I did siding many years ago. Give them a call. They may not know what caused the fade problem, but my bet is they will give you replacement product for your warrenty repair work.
Dave
Thanks for the input everyone. I realized that I neglected to say that these Accent panels were white vinyl, so the color goes completely through. As for contacting Alcoa, I had planned on it but wanted to get some other profesional opinions first. Thanks again! Paul
Can't say what Alcoa's policy is, but Certainteed has a clause about certain dark colors not being covered for fading or discoloring. Best to take a pic of the problem area and contact Alcoa directly.
Hammer,
Please tell if this is aluminum. We have hail damaged aluminum siding and are still going through the process. They apparently offer vinyl siding according to my contractor.
My Pappaw, retired from Alcoa, and deceased for 25 years, makes me want to go there in a sentimental way. But, we have reality now and need to make a decent choice for the house for resale in a few years as we are empty nesters.
Alumininum or vinyl in your case? Thank you.
My first choice would be fiber-cement. Then steel followed by aluminum and vinyl in that order. And remember what has been said here by many, "Friends don't let friends use plastic"
Thank you for the response. The insurance company is getting an adjusted estimate from the contractor. Since we may not be here very long, any significant investment would have to be considered carefully. Vinyl is my last choice too, and could affect resale value, though we are not in a high end development, it might not matter much to some potential buyers. Since we currently have damaged aluminum, I don't expect the estimate will cover the top choice and we will have to consider a cost difference and see if it seems worth it. I will consider carefully before we make a decision. I agree with you - friends don't let friends use plastic!
Thank you!