Exterior shutters are commonly made of vinyl. Often they come originally as pre-colored vinyl. When buying new shutters, If you can find the color you need from the standard color offerings you are in business - if not, you may want to paint the shutters to go with the exterior paint palette you’ve selected for your house. You should know that new vinyl can be difficult to paint and it requires good surface preparation for lasting results. Latex paint tends to take a while to develop adhesion to new vinyl which can lead to paint problems if they are subject to harsh weather during the curing process. Weathered vinyl, is a little different and it holds paint well, once cleaned.
Surface preparation
New shutters.
There can be a problem with new shutters having “mold release” agents on the them from the manufacturing process, which will interfere with paint adhesion. There is also the problem of latex paint taking a long time in some cases to develop adhesion to the substrate.
XIM makes a good primer for vinyl called “Plastic and Vinyl NT Primer”. This primer will eliminate the uncertainties of painting new vinyl. Whether you need to prime depends a bit on the particular set of shutters you are painting. The best way to know if you can do without priming is to clean the surface and then do a few patch adhesion tests to see if the paint pulls off (after a sufficient cure time of about two weeks). This may not be practical for some, in which case priming is the safe thing to do.
Tint the primer, if the finish paint color is dark, to a gray (see Painting with Deep Tone Paints) for better hide.
Weathered shutters
Shutters that have been up on the house for a while usually don’t need to be primed, weathering will usually reduce the sheen, leaving cleaning the only prepaint preparation necessary for painting. Latex paint adheres well to weathered vinyl.
You can clean the weathered shutters by pressure washing or again, hand washing with Krud Kutter. I have painted lots and lots of weathered vinyl shutters directly with Sherwin Williams Superpaint with excellent results.
Note: If weathering hasn't dulled the sheen you should prime before painting. Use either the XIM primer or Zinsser's 123 Bullseye latex primer in the case of weathered vinyl.
A note on color
There is a problem with painting vinyl that you don’t have with other substrates. Vinyl can warp if painted with dark colors, particularly vinyl siding, but I would be cautious with any vinyl. Dark colors absorb heat, and excessive heat can warp vinyl. The general painting rule for vinyl is: Do to not paint the vinyl any darker than its original color Sherwin Williams has developed a line of “vinyl safe” colors to help with this matter.
Painting Technique
Brushing
If you only have a few shutters, or if you can’t remove them from the house for some reason, then brushing the shutters makes sense. Paint the edge first, then louvers should be painted next. Paint the louvers from the outer edge in to the middle from each side. Finish off the shutter by painting the face of the outer framing last.
Spraying
The best way to spray the shutters is to take them off the house and put them on saw horses away from everything to avoid over spry problems. Use an Hvlp sprayer or better yet (in this case because you are applying latex paint), an electric airless cup gun. See Wagner Power Painters. The electric airless cup guns will spray latex paint better then the (more expensive) Hvlp sprayers. The best of the electric cup gun sprayers is the new Wagner sprayers with the Optimus technology. These sprayers have a much better spray pattern and finish than the older versions. Spray the edge of the shutters first, then spray the face.
Mold release agents and other contamination must be cleaned off before painting. The best way to do this is to clean the shutters twice: once with a solvent wipe using a rag dampened with mineral spirits then follow that up with a detergent cleaning (Krud Kutter works well for this). Do the cleaning in that order, solvent wipe first, then detergent cleaning.
Priming. You may not need to prime if you are painting with acrylic latex paint - which is the recommended paint for vinyl, BUT, since new vinyl can be hard for latex paint to grip to, you should consider priming with a bonding primer.
Painting Vinyl Shutters
Search This Site
 | ||||
Custom Search
| ||||
The
Concourse eStore
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
SM
Painting Tips and Advice
| ||||
Painting and Decorating Concourse
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
Our "terms of use" governs your use of our website; by using our website, you accept this disclaimer in full. If you disagree with any part of our "terms of use", do not use our website.
| ||||
Airless Sprayers
Click here
All types Wagner, Graco and more...
The Internet Paint Store
| ||||
