I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay? I read somewhere that you are not supposed to go from a light color ot a dark one. Something about it building too much heat and causing the paint to peel??

wrote in message
...

I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My
wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay?

It would be simpler to buy new shutters in the colour she prefers.
No paint will adhere to vinyl permanently.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

On Monday, May 5, 2014 9:27:40 AM UTC-5, Don Phillipson wrote:
wrote in message

...



I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My

wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay?



It would be simpler to buy new shutters in the colour she prefers.

No paint will adhere to vinyl permanently.



--

Don Phillipson

Carlsbad Springs

(Ottawa, Canada)

That is an expensive proposition considering I need 12 of them. My only other thought was to make some myself out of pine and prime/paint them.

(My current ones are plastic of some sort. Not sure if vinyle fiberglass or what.)

On Monday, May 5, 2014 10:54:31 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Monday, May 5, 2014 9:27:40 AM UTC-5, Don Phillipson wrote:

wrote in message



...







I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My



wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay?







It would be simpler to buy new shutters in the colour she prefers.



No paint will adhere to vinyl permanently.







--



Don Phillipson



Carlsbad Springs



(Ottawa, Canada)



That is an expensive proposition considering I need 12 of them. My only other thought was to make some myself out of pine and prime/paint them.



(My current ones are plastic of some sort. Not sure if vinyle fiberglass or what.)

I'm not so sure there is a big difference in the heat absorbed by
green versus black, at least not enough that it's going to make a
difference. Modern paints perform across a wide temperature range.
If it were me, I'd spray them with a good quality paint.

On Monday, May 5, 2014 11:13:36 AM UTC-4, trader_4 wrote:
On Monday, May 5, 2014 10:54:31 AM UTC-4, wrote:

On Monday, May 5, 2014 9:27:40 AM UTC-5, Don Phillipson wrote:



wrote in message







...















I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My







wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay?















It would be simpler to buy new shutters in the colour she prefers.







No paint will adhere to vinyl permanently.















--







Don Phillipson







Carlsbad Springs







(Ottawa, Canada)







That is an expensive proposition considering I need 12 of them. My only other thought was to make some myself out of pine and prime/paint them.







(My current ones are plastic of some sort. Not sure if vinyle fiberglass or what.)



I'm not so sure there is a big difference in the heat absorbed by

green versus black, at least not enough that it's going to make a

difference. Modern paints perform across a wide temperature range.

If it were me, I'd spray them with a good quality paint.

rust oleum makes paint specially designed for use on plastic

On Monday, May 5, 2014 10:13:36 AM UTC-5, trader_4 wrote:
On Monday, May 5, 2014 10:54:31 AM UTC-4, wrote:

On Monday, May 5, 2014 9:27:40 AM UTC-5, Don Phillipson wrote:



wrote in message







...















I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My







wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay?















It would be simpler to buy new shutters in the colour she prefers.







No paint will adhere to vinyl permanently.















--







Don Phillipson







Carlsbad Springs







(Ottawa, Canada)







That is an expensive proposition considering I need 12 of them. My only other thought was to make some myself out of pine and prime/paint them.







(My current ones are plastic of some sort. Not sure if vinyle fiberglass or what.)



I'm not so sure there is a big difference in the heat absorbed by

green versus black, at least not enough that it's going to make a

difference. Modern paints perform across a wide temperature range.

If it were me, I'd spray them with a good quality paint.

Would you use spray paint or an oil based enamel brushed on? Actually, now that I think about it, I have a large air compressor and a spray gun. Could I use that to spray enamel out of a a gallon paint can from Lowes?

Stryped1:

Yes you can paint vinyl. People paint vinyl siding to change the colour of their house all the time. Vinyl siding manufacturers recommend that the homeowner not paint the vinyl siding a darker colour than the original vinyl.

Window manufacturers recommend that you do not paint their windows, but the reason is not because paint won't adhere to vinyl. It's because their windows are normally made of WHITE vinyl to keep the vinyl as cool as possible. Any other colour would result in the vinyl absorbing more light and becoming warmer. Vinyl has a wide "glass transition temperature", which means that it goes from a hard brittle cold plastic to a soft easily distorted warm plastic over a wide temperature range, and so even a small change in the temperature of the plastic can result in a large decrease in it's stiffness and hardness. The manufacturers know that keeping the vinyl cool will minimize damage to the window from the vinyl stretching and distorting under it's own weight.

The spray paint that's made for plastic is called "Fusion", but I'm not sure who makes it. Any home center should sell it.

So, tell your better half that there's no problem painting the shutters, but she has to pick a colour that's no darker than the Hunter Green the shutters were originally. And, I would use an exterior latex paint to paint them, OR the Fusion paint that comes in a rattle can.

On 5/5/2014 10:27 AM, Don Phillipson wrote:
wrote in message
...

I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My
wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay?

It would be simpler to buy new shutters in the colour she prefers.
No paint will adhere to vinyl permanently.


The shutters on my house are 36 years old. They wre first painted when
about 6 years and have been painted a few more times. They are holding
the paint well and will get painted again, probably next year.

As for the heat, I don't think it will make much difference on a
shutter, but a door behind a full glass storm door can get het enough to
burn you.

On 5/5/2014 9:27 AM, Don Phillipson wrote:
wrote in message
...

I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My
wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay?

It would be simpler to buy new shutters in the colour she prefers.
No paint will adhere to vinyl permanently.


Your paint may not adhere but I painted two vinyl shutters on the front
of our office in 1995 and because of them fading I repainted them back
in 2011. I think that 16 years without pealing is pretty good. I didn't
use special paint for plastic, just plain ole spray paint in a rattle can.

trader_4 wrote:
On Monday, May 5, 2014 10:54:31 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Monday, May 5, 2014 9:27:40 AM UTC-5, Don Phillipson wrote:

wrote in message



...







I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My



wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay?







It would be simpler to buy new shutters in the colour she prefers.



No paint will adhere to vinyl permanently.







--



Don Phillipson



Carlsbad Springs



(Ottawa, Canada)



That is an expensive proposition considering I need 12 of them. My only other thought was to make some myself out of pine and prime/paint them.



(My current ones are plastic of some sort. Not sure if vinyle fiberglass or what.)

I'm not so sure there is a big difference in the heat absorbed by
green versus black, at least not enough that it's going to make a
difference. Modern paints perform across a wide temperature range.
If it were me, I'd spray them with a good quality paint.

Hi,
My last house had them which was detachable. I removed them all and
washed clean dried lightly sanded, spray painted. Worked well. It was
not made of wood.

nestork wrote in
:


Stryped1:

Yes you can paint vinyl. People paint vinyl siding to change the
colour of their house all the time. Vinyl siding manufacturers
recommend that the homeowner not paint the vinyl siding a darker
colour than the original vinyl.

Window manufacturers recommend that you do not paint their windows,
but the reason is not because paint won't adhere to vinyl. It's
because their windows are normally made of WHITE vinyl to keep the
vinyl as cool as possible. Any other colour would result in the vinyl
absorbing more light and becoming warmer. Vinyl has a wide "glass
transition temperature", which means that it goes from a hard brittle
cold plastic to a soft easily distorted warm plastic over a wide
temperature range, and so even a small change in the temperature of
the plastic can result in a large decrease in it's stiffness and
hardness. The manufacturers know that keeping the vinyl cool will
minimize damage to the window from the vinyl stretching and distorting
under it's own weight.

The spray paint that's made for plastic is called "Fusion", but I'm
not sure who makes it. Any home center should sell it.

So, tell your better half that there's no problem painting the
shutters, but she has to pick a colour that's no darker than the
Hunter Green the shutters were originally. And, I would use an
exterior latex paint to paint them, OR the Fusion paint that comes in
a rattle can.





And, I would use an exterior latex paint to
paint them, OR the Fusion paint that comes in a rattle can.


100% acrylic latex to be more precise. Most flexability. Plastic expands
& contracts A LOT.

wrote:
I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My
wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay? I read
somewhere that you are not supposed to go from a light color ot a dark
one. Something about it building too much heat and causing the paint to peel??

I have heard this but haven't tried it...

Armor All can bring new life to faded, chalky vinyl shutters. If you got a
couple that are easy to reach, it might be worth trying a small spot to
see.

On Tue, 6 May 2014 00:37:01 +0000 (UTC), DerbyDad03
wrote:

wrote:
I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My
wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay? I read
somewhere that you are not supposed to go from a light color ot a dark
one. Something about it building too much heat and causing the paint to peel??

I have heard this but haven't tried it...

Armor All can bring new life to faded, chalky vinyl shutters. If you got a
couple that are easy to reach, it might be worth trying a small spot to
see.
If you arbour all them, forget about painting them for another 10
years.
And do NOT paint vinyl shutters black They WILL warp and twist and
dance in the sun.

wrote:
On Tue, 6 May 2014 00:37:01 +0000 (UTC), DerbyDad03
wrote:

wrote:
I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My
wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay? I read
somewhere that you are not supposed to go from a light color ot a dark
one. Something about it building too much heat and causing the paint to peel??

I have heard this but haven't tried it...

Armor All can bring new life to faded, chalky vinyl shutters. If you got a
couple that are easy to reach, it might be worth trying a small spot to
see.
If you arbour all them, forget about painting them for another 10
years.
And do NOT paint vinyl shutters black They WILL warp and twist and
dance in the sun.

There are ways to remove Armor All. Diluted Woolite (8:1) and a micro fiber
cloth should work as does diluted Simple Green, really diluted...

Red Green:

About "100% Acrylic" paint.

Most people that throw that term around don't really know what it means, but presume it's a measure of quality in some respect or another. The paint manufacturers that slap "100% Acrylic" on their paint cans are exploiting that lack of public understanding to help sell their paint.

In North America, over 90 percent of the latex paint that's made is made from one of two different kinds of plastics.

1. Polymethyl methacrylate - which you probably know better as "Plexiglas" or "Lucite" or "Perspex", depending on which chemical company made it. In the paint industry, latex paints and primers that consist of gazillions of tiny hard spheres of this kind of plastic suspended in a solution that is mostly water are referred to as "100% Acrylic" paints, or paints with "100% Acrylic" resins.

2. Polyvinyl Acetate - which you probably know better as "PVA" or white wood glue. In the paint industry, paints and primers that consist of gazillions of tiny hard spheres of this kind of plastic suspended in a solution that is mostly water are referred to as "Vinyl Acrylic" paints, or paints with "Vinyl Acrylic" resins.

3. Some interior high gloss paints are made from a styrenated acrylic plastic, but styrenated acrylic paints are more popular in Europe than they are in North America, and I don't know why.

Note that there is no such thing as a "50% Acrylic" paint or a "75% Acrylic" paint or even a 99.9% Acrylic paint. It's either "100% Acrylic" or "Vinyl Acrylic" or "Styrenated Acrylic". There is no benefit to be had in in mixing different kinds of plastic resins in the same can of paint, and doing so would only make formulating the paint more complicated because each different kind of plastic resin require different kinds of coalescing solvents, additives and rheology modifiers.

The problem with this naming system is that people presume that if a paint is 100% Acrylic, there's no point spending more on a higher priced paint because you can never get higher than 100%, right? Really, the wording "100% Acrylic" on a can of paint means about as much as the wording "100% Cow" does on a package of meat. It tells you the kind of plastic the paint is made of, but that's all. You don't know if you're getting prime rib or dog food.

Generally, "100% Acrylic" latex paints are more expensive than "Vinyl Acrylic" paints, and they:
a) have better resistance to acidic and alkaline substrates like fresh concrete
b) have better UV resistance
c) dry to harder and more marr resistant films that stand up better to hard scrubbing,
d) stick better to damp or moist surfaces, and
e) don't exhibit any "blocking" which is when a paint remains slightly sticky after it's fully dry.

Essentially ALL exterior latex paints will be made from polymethyl methacrylate because of it's better UV resistance and the fact that the film doesn't soften up and lose it's adhesion if it gets wet like polyvinyl acetate paints and primers.

The problem with polyvinyl acetate paints and primers is that they have lousy Alkaline resistance, lousy UV resistance and they lose their hardness and start cracking and peeling if they're used in a wet or highly humid environment. Also, they have poor "blocking" resistance in that an apparantly dry paint film will still retain some residual stickiness.

If you ever look in someone's bathroom and see that the paint is cracking and peeling on the ceiling above the shower, the problem is almost always attributed to poor surface preparation prior to painting, but that's a misdiagnosis of the problem. It's the fact that a PVA paint was used on that bathroom ceiling, and probably on the bathroom walls too.

Also, if you've ever had doors and windows that tend to "stick" when they're closed, the usual cause of that is a PVA paint being used on them. When a door painted with a PVA paint closes and presses gently against a frame painted with a PVA paint, the two will stick to one another. Again, the fix is to paint over the "vinyl acrylic" paint with a "100% Acrylic" paint to prevent the door from sticking to the frame. It's the same thing if you've ever rested your head against a painted wall and found that your hair ended up "sticking" to the paint. In that case you have the poor blocking resistance of a PVA paint combined with it's poor moisture resistance. The result is a slightly sticky paint softening up due to the moisture from your scalp and causing your hair to become embedded in the soft sticky paint.

There are literally hundreds of different "100% Acrylic" resins used to make primers, paints, floor finishes, grout sealers, water based "varnishes" and nail polishes for the ladies. And, there are hundreds more "vinyl acrylic" resins used to make mostly primers, budget priced interior latex paints and of course, wood glues. So, specifying a "100% Acrylic" paint is no more precise than specifying "cow" when you order a hamburger. Every paint or primer made from tiny spheres of polymethyl methacrylate is a "100% Acrylic" product, but 100% Acrylic resins vary quite considerably in their properties and their price. That's why it's been said: You get what you pay for when buying paint.

On Monday, May 5, 2014 7:07:18 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay? I read somewhere that you are not supposed to go from a light color ot a dark one. Something about it building too much heat and causing the paint to peel??

So the consensus is that a latex is better than an enamel to repaint a vinyle shutter? Mine are really chalky and have been on the house since 1998. I wonder what a pressure washer would do for them?

On Monday, May 5, 2014 9:41:10 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Tue, 6 May 2014 00:37:01 +0000 (UTC), DerbyDad03

wrote:



wrote:

I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My

wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay? I read

somewhere that you are not supposed to go from a light color ot a dark

one. Something about it building too much heat and causing the paint to peel??



I have heard this but haven't tried it...



Armor All can bring new life to faded, chalky vinyl shutters. If you got a

couple that are easy to reach, it might be worth trying a small spot to

see.

If you arbour all them, forget about painting them for another 10

years.

And do NOT paint vinyl shutters black They WILL warp and twist and

dance in the sun.

If black is going to cause vinyl shutters to warp, twist and dance,
then why is one of the most popular colors for vinyl shutters black?
You can buy them in that color right at the store. Good grief.

On Tuesday, May 6, 2014 9:09:04 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Monday, May 5, 2014 7:07:18 AM UTC-5, wrote:

I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay? I read somewhere that you are not supposed to go from a light color ot a dark one.. Something about it building too much heat and causing the paint to peel??



So the consensus is that a latex is better than an enamel to repaint a vinyle shutter? Mine are really chalky and have been on the house since 1998. I wonder what a pressure washer would do for them?

You could try it and find out. They should be washed thoroughly before
painting anyway. Also, if you want to spray paint them with
a can, I think Bob Haller pointed out that there are spray cans of paint
available specifically for plastic. What any difference in formulation
might be, IDK. But HD, etc carries them and they are only like $3 a can.
You could try that on one and if it works, you have a reasonable, easy
solution.

Most people would use an exterior latex paint on your outdoor vinyl shutters, but any paint will work.

A pressure washer will remove any existing loose paint from your shutters, but won't do anything for chaulked plastic. Plastics are coloured by adding tiny coloured particles (called "pigments") to the plastic before it is molded into the final product, so plastics don't just have a colour on their surface but are coloured all the way through the plastic. That is, the plastic gets it's colour from the tiny coloured particles that are distributed inside it very much like the raisins in raisin bread, not just on it's surface (like a paint). If your plastic has a "white-ish" discolouration to it, it's because the surface of the plastic is rough, and is scattering light. Your eye sees scattered light as the colour "white", and that's where the whitish discolouration of your shutters comes from. This is precisely the reason why clowds, water falls, snow banks and the head on a beer are all white in colour even though nothing inside any of these things is actually white in colour. It's also the reason why when you scratch something, the scratch itself will be WHITE in colour.

A pressure washer won't make the surface of your shutters smooth again, and therefore won't remove the white discolouration that's on them.

Hope this helps.

Stryped:

If the white discolouration of your shutters is due to their rough surface (due to deterioration from UV light), then it occurs to me that you may be able to eliminate that white discolouration by eliminating the rough surface of your vinyl.

Try this:

Take a wet sponge and wipe down your worst shutter to see if the white discolouration disappears as long as the surface of the shutter is wet (and therefore smooth).

If so, you should be able to give your shutters a permanent "wet look" by painting them with a clear coat (like Minwax's "Polycrylic") instead of repainting them a different colour.

I just don't know if Minwax's Polycrylic latex "varnish" is suitable for use outdoors or not.

But, this at least gives you another alternative to repainting the shutters another colour.

PS: Those infomercials you see on TV for getting rid of scratches on cars and restoring the white discoloured plastic on cars are based entirely on getting rid of the rough surface and replacing it with a smooth one. Fresnel's law says that the amount of light reflected off a surface is proportional to the ration of the refractive indices on each side of an interface squared. So, by covering a rough surface with a clear solid material, MOST of the light reflected is reflected off the air/smooth solid interface and only a tiny amount is reflected off the smooth solid/rough solid interface. Since very much more light is reflected from the air/smooth solid iterface, the light you see behaves very much like it would if the rough solid were smooth. And, this is how these infomercial products get rid of scratches and restore the appearance of roughened plastic. Those products wouldn't work if the scratch were deep enough to go right through the coloured coat into the primer below.

wrote:
On Monday, May 5, 2014 7:07:18 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My
wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay? I
read somewhere that you are not supposed to go from a light color ot a
dark one. Something about it building too much heat and causing the paint to peel??

So the consensus is that a latex is better than an enamel to repaint a
vinyle shutter? Mine are really chalky and have been on the house since
1998. I wonder what a pressure washer would do for them?

Did you see my suggestion to try Armor All to "remove" the chalkiness?

On Tue, 6 May 2014 06:09:04 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Monday, May 5, 2014 7:07:18 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay? I read somewhere that you are not supposed to go from a light color ot a dark one. Something about it building too much heat and causing the paint to peel??

So the consensus is that a latex is better than an enamel to repaint a vinyle shutter? Mine are really chalky and have been on the house since 1998. I wonder what a pressure washer would do for them?
My preference is an "alkyd modified Acrylic Latex" for chalky
substrates. Benjamin Moore has always made one, but it keeps changing
names so I'm not sure what it is currently sold as.

nestork wrote in
:


Red Green;3231975 Wrote:

100% acrylic latex to be more precise. Most flexability. Plastic
expands

& contracts A LOT.

Red Green:

About "100% Acrylic" paint.

Most people that throw that term around don't really know what it
means.

In North America, over 90 percent of the latex paint that's made is
made from one of two different kinds of plastics.

1. Polymethyl methacrylate - which you probably know better as
"Plexiglas" or "Lucite" or "Perspex", depending on which chemical
company made it. In the paint industry, latex paints and primers that
consist of gazillions of tiny hard spheres of this kind of plastic
suspended in a solution that is mostly water are referred to as "100%
Acrylic" paints, or paints with "100% Acrylic" resins.

2. Polyvinyl Acetate - which you probably know better as "PVA" or
white wood glue. In the paint industry, paints and primers that
consist of gazillions of tiny hard spheres of this kind of plastic
suspended in a solution that is mostly water are referred to as "Vinyl
Acrylic" paints, or paints with "Vinyl Acrylic" resins.

Note that there is no such thing as a "50% Acrylic" paint or a "75%
Acrylic" paint. It's either "100% Acrylic" or "Vinyl Acrylic" or
"Styrenated Acrylic".

The problem with this naming system is that people presume that if a
paint is 100% Acrylic, there's no point spending more on a higher
priced paint because you can never get higher than 100%, right?
Really, the wording "100% Acrylic" on a can of paint means about as
much as the wording "100% Cow" does on a package of meat. It tells
you the kind of plastic the paint is made of, but that's all. You
don't know if you're getting prime rib or dog food.

Generally, "100% Acrylic" latex paints are more expensive than "Vinyl
Acrylic" paints, and they:
a) have better resistance to acidic and alkaline substrates like fresh
concrete
b) have better UV resistance
c) dry to harder and marr resistant films,
d) stick better to damp or moist surfaces, and
e) don't exhibit any "blocking" which is when a paint remains slightly
sticky after it's fully dry.

Essentially ALL exterior latex paints will be made from polymethyl
methacrylate because of it's better UV resistance and the fact that
the film doesn't soften up and lose it's adhesion if it gets wet like
polyvinyl acetate paints and primers.

The problem with polyvinyl acetate paints and primers is that they
have lousy Alkaline resistance, lousy UV resistance and they lose
their hardness and start cracking and peeling if they get wet. Also,
they have poor "blocking" resistance in that an apparantly dry paint
film will still retain some residual stickiness.

If you ever look in someone's bathroom and see that the paint is
cracking and peeling above the shower, the problem is almost always
attributed to poor surface preparation prior to painting, but that's a
misdiagnosis of the problem. It's the fact that a cheap PVA paint was
used in the bathroom.

Also, if you've ever had doors and windows that tend to "stick" when
they're closed, the usual cause of that is a PVA paint being used on
them. When a door painted with a PVA paint closes and presses gently
againts a frame painted with PVA paint too, the two will stick to one
another causing problems. Again, the fix is to paint over the "vinyl
acrylic" paint with a "100% Acrylic" paint.

There are literally hundreds of different "100% Acrylic" resins used
to make primers, paints, floor finishes, nail polish for the ladies,
grout sealers and water based "varnishes". And, there are hundreds
more "vinyl acrylic" resins used to make mostly primers and budget
priced interior latex paints. So, specifying a "100% Acrylic" paint
is no more precise than specifying "cow" when you order a hamburger.





Sounds good. That should clear things up for the OP!

On 5/5/2014 8:07 AM, wrote:
I have vinyle shutters that are a hunter green color and badly faded. My wife wants to paint them black. Can this be done and it last okay? I read somewhere that you are not supposed to go from a light color ot a dark one. Something about it building too much heat and causing the paint to peel??



An exterior enamel (water based) paint will last until she finally
admits that black shutters look hideous. Then you can prime and
re-paint them in a color that will actually improve the curb appeal of
your home --- been there done that in my younger years

Take them down, clean well and spray is the easiest solution. A cheapo
Wagner sprayer will do if you put up a large spray booth from roll
plastic in your garage. Those suckers, despite what the TV adds
indicate, spray everything within a mile of the disaster site. Two
thinned coats work best to keep down the drips.

HTH,
John