Tag: paint

  • Pete’s Puzzle: Mold on Painted Clapboards is Food for Thought

    Subtitle:  There is mold on the factory-primed, latex top-coated wood clapboards on the south but not the north side of our house Images:  Whenever my wife starts a conversation with, “OK, Mr. Building Scientist,” I know I am in some kind of trouble. That proved to be the case one day when we were out…

  • Pete’s Puzzle: Mold on Painted Clapboards is Food for Thought

    Subtitle:  There is mold on the factory-primed, latex top-coated wood clapboards on the south but not the north side of our house Images:  Whenever my wife starts a conversation with, “OK, Mr. Building Scientist,” I know I am in some kind of trouble. That proved to be the case one day when we were out…

  • The History of Peeling Paint, Insulation, and Vapor Barriers

    Subtitle:  When painters objected to painting insulated houses in the 1930s, building scientists latched onto the wrong solution Images:  Back in the 1930s, a rash of paint-peeling showed up across North America. One thing that most of these homes had in common was insulation in the walls. Painters put two and two together and decided…