Hun-Yue Wong wrote:
At the end of September, we repainted our house which was newly
constructed 9 1/2 years ago. We are in Northern California in the Bay
Area. The weather when it was painted was sunny but cool and dry. We
used Benjamin Moore Low Lustre acrylic Paint for the wood siding and
the Benjamin Moore Semi Gloss acrylic for the trim. The painter power
washed the house and waited about 1 day to dry before painting.

A little over a week after the painting was completed, there was a
big storm and the rains came down quite hard for the whole day. The
next morning, we saw thousands of bubbles clustered around the lower
part of the window trims (especially the sills), on the recaulked
seams, bases of our columns and doors. Bubbles also appeared at the
seams of the sidings and edges of windows that were recaulked and
painted over. The next day after the rains dissipated, the bubbles
disappeared except for a few spots.

Here are pictures of some of the problem areas at
http://picasaweb.google.com/sheepgirl888/PaintProblem#
Most of these pictures were taken when the bubbles first appeared.
Pictures of a column with a quarter taped to the column was taken
after we tried to recreate the problem.

I am asking the painter to come back to look at the problem. The
weather has been nice and dry since. We have tried to recreate the
bubbling by running water over the multiple problem areas for at least
15-20 minutes, but can only recreate the bubbles in a smaller size on
the columns. Is there another way to recreate this scenario so that we
can show the painter what happened?

My questions a
1. What would have caused that? Inappropriate preparation before
the painting?
2. Somebody suggested that because it usually takes a few weeks
for the paint to completely dry, that bubbling occurred because the
paint job had only a week to dry? Is this true?
3. Under the bubbles which formed and now have dried out, is there
still moisture trapped in there. Will this keep reoccuring with every
rain? And if it does, will this eventually cause damage to the wood
trim and siding?
4. What should we ask the painter to do to fix the problem
correctly and prevent future problems?

Thanks in advance for all of your suggestions.

K

I had not looked at your photos prior to posting last time. The
captions of your photos give inportant clues....leads me to believe more
that the main issue is that the wood did not dry sufficiently after
being pressure washed. Most important clue leading to that conclusion
is that blisters appear to occur more at seams and end grain....water or
solvent absorbs more quickly into the end grain than into rest of
surface. One day between pressure washing and painting is not enough,
whether wood or masonry surface. Needs at least two days of dry
weather, preferably longer. Given that important error, I would expect
that the painter took other shortcuts. Painting too soon over caulking
may also be an issue. Do you have a written contract? Painter is
licensed? Painting in hot sun may also be a factor, as the paint skin
forms too quickly and traps solvent/water (depends on type of paint)
before it escapes via normal curing.

It's my belief that any contracted work that is unsatisfactory should be
addressed in writing to the contractor...write a nice business letter,
clearly list your concerns and the date on which the problem became
evident, and send letter certified mail to the contractor.

With so much blistering, and blisters so close together, I would expect
the paint to peel in those areas.