Replies

1. 
   DanH | Sep 26, 2010 01:11pm | #1

   First off, you should buy it pre-primed, apply one coat of paint before hanging, and then paint again after hanging.  And don't forget to prime/paint all cut edges as you hang it.

   All paint fades, some colors worse than others (generally darker colors will fade worse).  But modern acrylic latex paints, on a composite siding in average weather conditions, should give you 10-12 years of wear before it begins to look shabby.

   Note that there are two modes of "wear" on paint (where we're not talking about paint peeling and other problems usually due more to the substrate and the application):  1) "Fading", due primarily to the pigments being degraded by the sun, and 2) wear-through, due to the paint being washed away from sun degradation and rain.  A good quality paint balances these two -- it contains pigments that degrade slowly, of course, but also is designed such that the surface will shed pigments at about the rate that they degrade.  This keeps the surface "fresh", but means that it won't last as long as a paint would if designed purely to maximize "wear-through" life.

   We're quite satisfied with the MoorGard from Benjamin Moore.  We easily got 12 years out of the first coat, and are well on our way to that on the second.