"bensandi" wrote in message
news:567d4$4285e6a3$455da0d2$19802@allthenewsgroup s.com...
Hi! We recently hired a company to paint our house. It was built in
the early 1990s and is brick and wood. My neighbor told me that it is
currently a solid color stain and I shouldn't have them paint over it
because it will just peel! I never asked the company if the house is
stained or painted. How can I tell solid color stain from paint? Is
it okay to paint over solid color stain? The company is going to
powerwash, caulk, spray zinc oxide on the some nail heads, two coats
of Sherwin Williams and a hardener. Any advice? Thanks!


As long as the substrate is clean and any bare wood has been primed -
topcoating a solid stain (oil or latex) with a quality acrylic latex isn't a
problem. If the siding is cedar, knots can be problematic - bleeding through
to the finish coat, especially if you're going with a light color. Make sure
the knots are primed with a stain killing primer first. Kilz and BIN dry
fast but IME, don't adhere all that well. I prefer an alkyd, overnight dry
primer for this app. Also, if I had my druthers I'd use Moore instead of
SWP, but maybe that's just me.

What the heck is a hardener, and how, when and why do they apply it?