On Sunday, July 7, 2013 at 2:40:30 AM UTC-5, Higgs Boson wrote:
Since I was painting the (wood) back porch, thought I'd paint the (Trex) side steps to match. (Yes, the Trex is several years old, so that wasn't a problem).

Terrible idea!

After scrubbing and rinsing the steps and letting them dry, I applied BM acrylic. Or rather TRIED to apply. Never saw such a miserable surface. Streaks and iffy coverage. Used a lot of time and a lot of expensive paint. Second coat helped only a little. Still streaks, etc.

After the fact, went on-line. Trex only approves 2 coverage, both stains..
But other sites don't specifically say don't use paint.

Wish I'd left the Trex alone; it was an unobtrusive pinkish beige-ish color

Was this a unique experience? What, if anything, did I do wrong?

TIA

HB

Hello,

Thanks for your post. I too made a small error with 'cleaning' my Trex. I did the first cleansing with zero soap in the pressure washer 2000 psi. It looked great, black dirt was gone, sable brown again. Then 5 days later, after finishing the back patio, steps, etc. I was back on the front deck, and had added 'Purple Power' (vs Simple Green) b/c I had 2 bottles at home.. I began soaping, and white suds was coming out, stopped immediately, and check my soap bin, had run low on water, so added up to full to dilute the purple I had added to minimal water. Then diluted the already sprayed deck with lots of water to reduce the strength.---After 3 hours, found that the PP does take off paint - yikes, so my sable brown is now somewhat deep beige, a lot lighter color than the original dirt black, but now I am praying to get out of the trouble I caused by not using Simple Green. Had I just used water and not soap as I did on the first portion, I would be much happier today