Painting Composite Fence

15 years ago

Last year Lowes had a clearance on composite dog ear fence pickets. I needed to build t 4.5 foot high by 8 foot long section of fence to hide my garbage cans and such. I thought these cedar tone planks would be perfect. No rot. No need to paint or stain. No fading. Well, the color just looks awefull alongside the grey siding on the house. As fate would have it, I have 3 gallons of exterior grey Lucite paint. I got this paint years ago when Triangle Lumber (remember that one!) went out of business. I can attest to the paint as we used it to repaint our aluminim siding in our prior home. It still looks good to this day when we drive by. I took the extra paint with me when we moved figuring the shed at the new home would need repainting at somepoint and this paint matched the house.

So, I have this 10+ (?) year old paint which stirred up nicely. I have the composite fence. Do you think the paint is still good for use? Can you just paint right over the composite fence. I actually tried it on a half picket I had left and have its sitting outside to see if it starts to peel or crack. After a week it still looks good. What do you think? Would I need to prime? Ideas/Thoughts....

Comments (4)

terrence67
15 years ago
Well, it really depends what the composite fence is made of. If it is a plastic material you need to determine which plastic. There are some primers that will allow you to paint polypropylene, most primers work with vinyl. If the material is made from polyethylene you are screwed since polyethylene contains a lot of recycled content including waxes. Just painting the fence without priming probably won't work because of short and long term adhesion issues.
richardkittyhawk
15 years ago
You might want to look at the Cabot Composite Deck Care Products or Superdeck Products. Both companies make products for composite decking that might work. The more information you have about the product you are painting, the more the companies can tell you about their products.
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andrelaplume2
Original Author
15 years ago
The company is timberwolf. Here are a few blurbs from the wensite. I looked around and could not find anything specific as to what it was made out of.

TimberWolfÂ® Fencing is a wood-plastic composite material engineered using proprietary technology to combine wood fiber with polyethylene. The result is a wood composite board superior in aesthetics and performance to any other.

While TimberWolfÂ® Fencing can be painted with high quality exterior primer and top coat paint, it is not recommended since painting will require regular maintenance thereby defeating a major benefit, as well as invalidating the warranty. The beauty of TimberWolfÂ® Fencing is that it requires NO painting or staining to retain its natural beauty for the life of the fence.

http://www.timberwolfcomposites.com/About.htm

Again my fence section is 8 foot long and about 4 foot high.
terryfish_integritypowerwash_biz
12 years ago
You may want to check out the class action lawsuit aginst most of the companys that make the the so called Maintance Free composit wood .. They are being forced to replace the matrial ... Google trek deck ....