Sunday, January 1, 2012

Investigation into Transit Hub fireproofing

Thursday, December 22, 2011
Web produced by Jennifer Matarese, Eyewitness News



The World Trade Center Transportation Hub is behind schedule and hundreds of millions over budget. 

The dual pressure of time and cost-overruns might help explain why the Port Authority has decided to eliminate the fireproofing of the huge above-ground steel structure that 200,000 people will pass under every day.

"Fireproofing is a critical piece of fire protection, a blanket we put on buildings to insulate the steel from heat of fire and in my estimation it is critical component for any large building particularly a transit facility like this one," said Glenn Corbett, a fire safety expert.

But more than a year ago, Eyewitness News pressed then Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward on whether the $25 million fireproofing had been yanked from the Transit Hub contract.
"Has that been taken out of the project, the fireproofing of the steel columns?" Eyewitness News Investigative reporter Jim Hoffer asked.

"No, complete news to me. The Port Authority has the highest standards for the safety for all of its facilities. We wouldn't compromise a structure like the Transit Hub in terms of fireproofing in the least. I don't know where you are getting that information at all," said Chris Ward, the Former Port Authority Executive Director.

Eyewitness News was getting the information from a well-placed source who also provided a Port Authority document.

It requested that those bidding on the Transit Hub contract "Should exclude the cost of fireproofing or intumescent coating from the structural steel."

At the same time the head of the Port Authority was telling Eyewitness News this:
"So it's going to be fireproofed?" Hoffer asked.
"Of course!" Ward said.

Soon after, the Port Authority hired an engineering firm to conduct a test to see whether the steel structure without fireproofing could hold up under a fire.

It concluded that it could because of "the high volume of the space and robustness of the structure".
The problem according to experts Eyewitness News spoke to is that the test was based on a fire equal to "two-to-three closely spaced passenger cars".

"Given the fact this is such a large building and is a terrorist target, a small fire in this building is not something I'd be planning for, I'd be planning for much larger worst case scenario," Corbett said.
Yet, based on the Port Authority's two-to-three car fire test, a Deputy Commissioner for the Buildings Department signed off on the Agency's decision not to fireproof the Transit Hub concluding it meets required fire resistance ratings.

What about the painful lessons of World Trade Center history where thousands died from two terrorist attacks, one in which inadequate fireproofing hastens the collapse of the twin towers?
"I'm really shocked given what happened on 9/11 including issues of fireproofing where these lessons seemed to be unlearned and unheeded," Corbett said.

The Port Authority says the below ground steel where the retail stores will be located will have fireproofing.

In a statement to Eyewitness News, the agency says, "Our engineers have conducted a thorough review of the fireproofing requirements and found that we will satisfy our high safety standards for the project as well as meet or exceed New York City Building Code requirements."

City of Oceanside Employs Anti-Graffiti Measures

Coating that repels unwanted paint has been applied to parts of the Pier View undercrossing. By Daniel Woolfolk

Taggers striking the Pier View undercrossing in Oceanside might see their spray paint drip before they are finished defacing the concrete walls.



Some pedestrian facility’s surfaces have been treated — as late as this fall — with urethane that doesn’t allow paint to soak into the concrete walls.

Oftentimes, pressurized water or a solvent will remove unwanted paint and marker residue.

“It doesn’t really stick, so it’s a lot easier for us to wipe off,” said Kiel Koger, Oceanside’s public works division manager. “It’s way cheaper than to go wipe it down with a cleaner and a rag.”

The city has already applied it to various walls and signs around Oceanside, but at about $1 a square foot, Koger said, he’s got to be selective. “Tagging and vandalism occurs all the time (at the undercrossing). It’s such a prime spot for taggers."

“It really only makes sense to put it in areas that are constantly getting tagged,” he said, adding that the Pier View undercrossing gets hit almost daily.

Wiping away a tagged area one December day for a demonstration was Spencer Ford, of Infinite Coatings, the company that sold the city the product.

Ford, a long time Oceanside resident, demonstrated the product one December morning.

"I've lived in this area for 30 years," he said as he wiped graffiti with a rubber glove, a rag and some citrus solution. "I feel protective of this area.”

 Video

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Sherwin-Williams acquires UK fire protection coatings firm Leighs Paints

07.07.2011
UK-based industrial fire protection coatings company Leighs Paints has been acquired by US-based paints major Sherwin-Williams. The acquisition significantly enhances the product portfolio of the company’s protective and marine business, the company said.


UK-based industrial fire protection coatings company Leighs Paints has been acquired by US-based paints major Sherwin-Williams. The acquisition significantly enhances the product portfolio of the company’s protective and marine business, the company said.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Leighs Paints manufactures a comprehensive line of intumescent passive fire protection products for the hydrocarbon market. Its FIRETEX brand has been used on more than 400 projects around the world protecting offshore platforms, refineries and chemical plants, officials said.

“Leighs has a reputation for high quality products and expertise which will complement our current product line, making it possible to offer a comprehensive portfolio to our customers globally,” said Narsi Bodapati, vice president of marketing.

“The Leighs brand is an established leader in the protective & marine segments with a broad technology offering including intumescent fireproofing products and high performance protective coatings and linings.

The FIRETEX technology, consisting of epoxy intumescent coatings, helps achieve the fire resistance ratings necessary for a sound passive fire protection system. It is engineered to achieve this with a lower required film thickness than alternatives, Bodapati said.
Intumescent coatings react to fire by rapidly swelling, forming a thick char barrier that protects a steel substrate from structural failure.

With the acquisition, Sherwin-Williams gains a team of structural engineers who specialize in fire science and assist project owners and engineers with specification and compliance in this crucial area - another important asset, according to Bodapati.

“Leighs Paints, only a few years older than we are, has the same type of history, culture and customer focus that we have, which makes our companies coming together even more exciting,” he said.
The two companies combined have nearly three centuries of experience in coatings innovation, he added.

Sherwin-Williams Completes the Acquisition of Leighs Paints

http://www.leighspaints.com/en/News/SW_announcement.htm
On the 6th July 2011 the Sherwin-Williams Company acquired Leighs Paints.
The Sherwin-Williams Company is a global leader in the manufacture, development, distribution, and sale of coatings and related
products to professional, industrial, commercial and retail customers.
With 32,000 associates and $7.7 billion in sales, it is the USA's #1 paint and coatings company; #3 in the world.
Chris Connor, Chairman and CEO of the Sherwin-Williams Company, said,
“We are very pleased to bring Leighs Paints, a well-respected company, and
their employees into the Sherwin-Williams family. Combined, our two
companies have nearly three centuries of experience in coatings innovation.
This is another positive step in our strategy of steady growth and
expansion through quality products and people who provide excellent
customer service. This acquisition reaffirms our strategic commitment to
growing globally.”
Brian Leigh-Bramwell, Chairman of Leighs Paints, said,
“This outstanding
company has been a part of my family for the past 151 years. I am confident this decision will be of great benefit to both companies and our customers well into the future.”
George Heath, President of Sherwin-Williams Global Finishes Group, stated,
“This acquisition is another important step in our efforts
to strengthen our growing global platform. In joining our Protective &
Marine Coatings Division, Leighs Paints FIRETEX brand provides a new opportunity for us to better serve our customers around the world with outstanding technology, people, and assets.”
 http://www.leighspaints.com/en/Fire.aspx


Decade after 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, skyscraper safety improving

http://www.cleveland.com/science/index.ssf/2011/08/a_decade_after_the_911_attacks.html
Published: Sunday, August 14, 2011, 7:07 PM     Updated: Monday, September 12, 2011, 11:50 AM 
By John Mangels, The Plain Dealer 
 In the anguished weeks after terrorists toppled the World Trade Center towers, architects and engineers pondered the unthinkable: the end of the skyscraper era.
From the 1880s, when the first high-rises poked above Chicago and New York  skylines, tall buildings had defined the nation's ingenuity, economic clout and can-do optimism. They were capitalism's exclamation points, steel fingers pointing the way upward.

Now, though, the structural and safety innovations that had made the world's tallest structures possible had failed in catastrophic, unprecedented ways. Skyscrapers suddenly felt like targets, like deathtraps.


On Sept. 10, 2001, New York architect Carl Galioto's firm had just wrapped up the design phase for a new 50-story Stock Exchange building. Two weeks after the attacks, when Galioto was able to return to his Wall Street office, the project was dead.

"I remember those conversations," he said recently, recalling his peers' gloom. "Will tall buildings ever be built again? Will people want to occupy them?"

A decade later, the answer is yes.

Following an exhaustive federal probe of what caused the towers' downfall, and years of debate and strife over how to respond, the building and fire codes that dictate safety features in new high-rises finally are reflecting the disaster's harsh lessons. They call for hardier structural systems, more-reliable fireproofing, and better exit stairs, among other things.


In Asia and the Middle East, skyscrapers are vying for the world's height record. And at lower Manhattan's Ground Zero, new towers bristling with enhancements that go beyond the code requirements are rising from the scarred earth.

Some recommended code changes remain unmade, however. And the standards for existing tall buildings like those in Cleveland are largely unchanged. That means older skyscrapers' components are not substantially safer than before the jet strikes, although evacuation planning and drilling has gotten better.

The post-9/11 enhancements won't make high-rises or other buildings terrorism-proof, experts stress. A determined assailant, armed with enough firepower, can overwhelm the sturdiest structure. The changes are meant to give occupants a greater chance of getting out safely after an attack or other calamity -- particularly a large fire -- and to lessen the odds of a full-scale collapse.

"The [high-rises] that are being built now and in the future, I think we can feel have better resistance to whatever happens," said structural engineer Gene Corley, one of the world's foremost authorities on building collapse. "I'm troubled by our slowness in adopting some of these recommendations, which have extremely low cost and would do a lot of good. But I do think we have made some progress."

An unprecedented collapse

No American high-rise had succumbed to a total collapse before 9/11, although there had been warning signs. Several skyscraper fires, including a raging 19-hour blaze in Philadelphia's 38-story One Meridian Plaza in 1991, had caused significant structural damage and raised serious questions about the adequacy of safety systems and firefighters' ability to cope with the challenges that high-rises posed.

The 44-inch stairwell widths dictated by building codes, which helped determine how many people could evacuate at a time in an emergency, hadn't changed since the early 1900s. They were based on stationary measurements of pre-World War I soldiers and didn't reflect how people move on stairs, much less the jump in body size and obesity rates that had occurred in the following century.

"We've known for decades that the width of stairways is not adequate," said Norman Groner, a John Jay College researcher who studies emergency behavior, and who has pushed for width increases as well as elevator safeguards that would allow occupants and firefighters to use them during emergencies. But "the wider you make the stairwells, the more you subtract from the leasable space and the less the building is worth."

Advances in lightweight construction methods and materials made it possible to build super-tall buildings 100 stories and higher, with huge floor spaces unobstructed by support columns. That meant many more occupants and far more combustibles – 40,000 people in the Trade Center twin towers, and about 60 tons of paper, furniture and other flammable material on each nearly acre-sized floor.

Spray-on fireproofing material had replaced the heavy masonry and concrete encasements that protected the structural steel frames of older buildings. The fluffy insulation was known to flake off when an elevator cab rumbled by, or when ventilation fans kicked on.

Automatic sprinkler systems were helpful, but had capacity limits. In the twin towers, the sprinklers could deliver enough water to snuff a fire covering about one-tenth of a floor's 40,000 square-foot area. Firefighters' hoses could cover at most another one-quarter.

As a result, firefighters in New York and elsewhere reluctantly adopted a "defend-in-place" strategy with large high-rise fires. They were allowed to burn out, while firefighters concentrated on evacuating people from the affected floor and those immediately above and below who were at greatest risk. Other occupants were told to stay put, since stairwells couldn't handle a rapid full-building exodus.

For the strategy to work, though, smoke and fire had to be kept to one floor – a tough prospect, given numerous ventilation ducts and other routes of spread.
Another critical necessity: a high-rise's supports and their fire-proofing had to be able to withstand high temperatures until the fire exhausted its fuel.

Otherwise, the building and its occupants would be at risk from progressive collapse, where a buckling column or slumping floor launched a cascade of structural failures that brought the entire skyscraper crashing down.

The twin towers' fire-proofing was supposed to provide protection for 3/4 of an hour to four hours, depending on the component.
But when Islamic extremists exploded a truck bomb in the Trade Center's underground garage in 1993, forcing a complete evacuation, "it took us five hours to make sure everybody was out," said retired New York City deputy fire chief Vincent Dunn. "And we had floors that were [fire-] rated for two hours. There's a lot of problems with that."

Federal studies lead to recommendations
 
Several government agencies and engineering groups launched investigations in the wake of the twin towers' collapse. The most detailed was a three-year probe by the federal National Institute of Standards and Technology.

NIST researchers determined that, even though the jet impacts caused heavy structural damage on multiple floors, the skyscrapers would have remained standing if the jets hadn't knocked off fire-proofing coating columns and floor trusses.

Without that protection, steel supports weakened under the relentless fires, which burned unchecked because the impacts severed the sprinklers' supply pipes. The jet strikes also destroyed all but one escape route, a single set of stairs in Tower2, trapping those in the upper floors

Still, 87 percent of the twin towers' estimated 17,400 occupants that morning got out', either because they were below the impact zones or, in the case of Tower 2, had begun to leave before the second plane hit. More than 2,700 people, a mix of tenants and rescuers, were still inside when the columns and floors finally gave way and the skyscrapers pancaked to the ground.

Researchers interviewed Trade Center survivors, to learn more about how people behave in emergencies, especially in tall buildings. Although occupants largely didn't panic and helped others, the scientists found that tenants were generally unfamiliar with the towers' design and safety features. Only 10 percent had ever entered a stairwell as part of an emergency drill. After the jets struck, occupants took an average of 6 minutes to begin leaving, spending the time collecting belongings, shutting down computers, making phone calls or waiting for instructions.

"In general, people [in skyscrapers] react in the same way as in other settings," said occupational health researcher Robyn Gershon, who led Columbia University's survivor study. "That's not the right way. In a high-rise, you don't appreciate the scale. You think you're living in the horizontal world." Trade center occupants "had almost no sense of how long it would take to move through that many stairs."

Although the twin towers were disaster investigators' primary focus because of their sheer size and the human toll, engineers were keenly interested in the Trade Center complex's Building 7, which also collapsed on 9/11.

That 47-story skyscraper had a more conventional structural frame than the twin towers, and it wasn't hit by jets or doused with fuel. But when debris from Tower 1 set Building 7 afire – a blaze that burned for 7 hours because the sprinklers were disabled – it fell too. Fortunately, all occupants had evacuated and emergency teams were ordered out. Building 7 was the first total high-rise collapse strictly due to fire, and further highlighted the need for improved fire-resistance.

NIST investigators made 31 recommendations based on their reviews of what happened in the twin towers and Building 7. The proposals called for substantial changes in how new high-rises are designed, built and maintained, and in evacuation and emergency response, though the researchers urged owners of existing buildings to also consider acting on the suggestions.

Turning the NIST recommendations into mandatory building and fire safety codes took several years. The voluminous "model" building and fire safety codes from which state and local governments pattern their own binding standards first had to be updated.

That process involves debate not just about the technical basis for the changes, but their applicability and cost, too. Most tall buildings probably are not terrorism targets. Some developers objected to the requirements, saying they might make skyscrapers prohibitively expensive.

"We're always trying to make a balance between cost and safety," said Shyam Sunder, who led the NIST investigation. "And we're always trying to make a trade-up in how safe is safe enough."
"The question is what I call the bookends," said Robert Solomon of the National Fire Protection Association, a non-profit group whose model fire codes are used by many cities. "Do we say [the Trade Center attack] is such an unusual occurrence that we're not going to do anything? Or do we really up the ante and go with all kinds of redundant systems and features?"

Significant changes in building codes

In the end, the National Fire Protection Association and the International Code Council, whose model building and fire codes are the blueprint for most U.S. communities, followed most of the 9/11 investigators' recommendations. They made significant changes in the 2009 and the upcoming 2012 codes, which apply to new high-rises. Ohio is preparing this fall to adopt its version of the 2009 codes, mirroring the changes.

The national code improvements include glow-in-the-dark exit markings in stairways; a third or fourth stairway depending on the building's height; greater separation between those stairways to lessen the chance of a single calamity disabling all of them; stickier, more robust fire-proofing, with inspections to ensure its proper application; backup water supplies for sprinklers; impact-resistant walls around elevator and stairwell shafts; fortified elevators that firefighters and, in some cases, occupants can use in an emergency; stricter and more consistent fire-resistance standards for skyscrapers' structural components; radio amplifiers that help rescuers better communicate inside buildings; and improved emergency evacuation plans and disaster drills.

Even before the code changes, the designers of the replacement World Trade Center buildings voluntarily were incorporating advanced safety features into the new towers, including some – like blast-hardening and extra backup systems – that went beyond the anticipated requirements.
"We felt we had something to prove," said architect Galioto, whose former firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, designed the new 1 World Trade Center and 7 World Trade Center towers. Galioto is now the managing principal of the New York office of HOK, one of the world's largest architecture firms. "We felt we had to develop a tall building in downtown Manhattan that people would be comfortable coming to work in."

Likewise, newer high-profile federal buildings such as courthouses have protective designs and features that exceed local and state building codes, even though the structures technically are exempt. The heightened security focus pre-dates 9/11, stemming from the 1995 truck bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

The building design details are classified, but "the level of capacity, the redundancy of [safety] systems, the willingness to assume risk, has changed dramatically for our clients," said Cleveland architect Paul Westlake, whose firm works extensively on federal projects.Among its efforts: a prototype perimeter security system of planters, benches and other functional, visually pleasing vehicle barriers that safeguard historic buildings such as the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

While high-rise safety is improving, more changes are needed, according to the Skyscraper Safety Campaign, an advocacy group founded by New Yorker Sally Regenhard, whose son Christian was among the 343 firefighters killed in the twin towers' collapse.

Regenhard and two of the group's advisers, safety expert Jake Pauls and fire protection engineer and John Jay College professor Glenn Corbett, say high-rises should be required to have stairwell video cameras and other monitoring technology to give rescuers better "situation awareness" of fire, smoke, evacuation progress and structural dangers.

That information would help commanders make better decisions about where, how and whether to deploy their personnel. "Had the fire services had situation awareness [in the twin towers], they would have saved a lot of their people by not entering the buildings, because there was no way they could do anything except die," Pauls said.

Cost and privacy concerns so far have stymied attempts to add video monitoring to building or fire codes, Pauls said.

The minimum widths for stairwells in new skyscrapers also remain unchanged.  "This was the frustration," Pauls said. "We couldn't even get that adopted . . . when the needs had obviously grown, with people's larger body size, larger girth and reduced fitness."

High-rise occupants and building managers bear some responsibility for being prepared for emergencies. That includes reacting promptly to alarms, knowing how to get out, and even something as simple as keeping comfortable shoes around for long stair descents.

"When you get on an airplane, the first thing they tell you to do is look around and make sure where the exits are," said Henry Green, president of the National Institute of Building Sciences. "We don't do that when we go into buildings, even now. How many folks have actually looked down the stairwell when they see an exit sign?"


In Ohio's tallest skyscraper, the 57-floor Key Tower in Cleveland, there are yearly evacuation drills where tenants must completely exit the building, even if it means walking down dozens of stair flights. Floor wardens check offices and direct traffic. Tenants get a printed report of how long it took their personnel to get out.


Mega-law firm Squire Sanders occupies eight of the tower's uppermost floors, with 40-mile views and window ledges that double as falcon perches. Managing partner David Goodman remembers the hasty exit on that terrible morning a decade ago. With enhanced evacuation planning and practice, he feels safe.


"We believe we've done the right things, but we know it's easy to become complacent a year or 10 years after some incident that prompted new procedures," Goodman said. "We have strived not to."




Avondale's program to fight graffiti is winning 'war of wills'

by David Madrid - Aug. 19, 2011 09:27 AM
The Arizona Republic
Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic
Joe Bender, with Graffiti Protective Coating, paints over a graffiti in Avondale.

The problem of creeping graffiti in Avondale once threatened to overtake the city.
But the vandalism was attacked in 2008 when a pilot program began using a private contractor to paint over illegal graffiti and restore damaged areas.
The pilot was a success, said Gina Montes, Avondale Neighborhood and Family Services director.
So last week, the Avondale City Council approved a $90,720 contract with Los Angeles-based Graffiti Protective Coatings for graffiti-abatement services for a year beginning Sept. 1 with three possible renewal periods.
Since May 2008, the Neighborhood and Family Services Department has contracted with Graffiti Protective Coatings to remove graffiti at city facilities, rights-of-way and parks.
"We were very happy to find this service," Montes said. "It has resolved what has become a big issue for Avondale, simply because graffiti tends to be a war of wills. The longer graffiti is left up, the longer graffiti offenders are encouraged to continue."
If not addressed, graffiti can attract other forms of crime and street delinquency to a neighborhood, while also decreasing residents' feeling of safety. Graffiti also decreases property values, city officials said.
During 2010-11, the company removed graffiti at 3,007 sites totaling 61,457 square feet.
Since the start of the program in May 2008, Graffiti Protective Coatings has removed graffiti at 10,093 sites for a total of 298,183 square feet.
Joe Bender, 45, and Rene Mercado, 38, work for the graffiti-abatement company.
They drive around in trucks armed with paint, compressors and high-pressure spray to fight graffiti. On Wednesday, they painted a wall at an abandoned facility near Avondale Boulevard and Lower Buckeye Road. Graffiti was visible from the street.
Bender said when the contract first began, employees were painting and restoring about 200 sites a week. That number is now down to 50 per week, which Bender said proves that constantly attacking the graffiti works to reduce the tagging.
"Most of it is just high-school kids running around, writing their names on stuff," Bender said. He added that the tagging is done with spray paint, Sharpies, paint pens and even old-time fire extinguishers that can be filled with paint.
"We've gotten a lot of them (offenders) out of Avondale," Bender said.
Mercado said taggers get discouraged when their graffiti continually disappears.
"It costs them money too," Mercado said.
The contract with the private contractor has enabled the city's Code Enforcement Division to deal with graffiti more efficiently and rapidly, thus freeing up staff time for other priorities, Montes said.
The graffiti-elimination services were procured by Avondale based on a cooperative-purchasing provision in a contract Mesa has with the company.
Avondale graffiti complaints are reported to code enforcement via a graffiti hotline or by iPhone, Droid application or e-mail. Work orders are transmitted by city code staff to Graffiti Protection Coatings via iPhone.
A city code-enforcement officer or resident photographs graffiti and sends the image to the company's database. The image automatically carries the location of the vandalism through the phone's GPS system, creating an electronic work order.
In minutes, a technician can be dispatched with the right color paint to cover the graffiti.
Typically, graffiti is removed in less then 24 hours, but there is a shorter timeframe available for priority work orders.
The company also removes graffiti along designated routes that Bender and Mercado drive regularly in search of graffiti.
"Most people view our city as being very clean in terms of graffiti, and it's because of this service that we're using," Montes said.

Savvy Homeowners Can Save Plenty by Painting, Rather Than Replacing, Vinyl or Aluminum Siding

PHILADELPHIA, Aug 24, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- With the weak economy, few homeowners will be running out to replace their vinyl or aluminum siding. But that's not to say they can't improve its appearance or simply change the color by painting it.
"One of the best-kept remodeling secrets is that it's actually very easy to repaint these materials, especially vinyl siding," says Debbie Zimmer, spokesperson for the Paint Quality Institute. "And, it's a lot less expensive than replacing the siding."
While it can cost up to $20,000 or more to re-side a home, a professional painting contractor might charge $5,000 to paint it. Homeowners who do their own painting can often complete the job for just a few hundred dollars.
That said, do-it-yourself exterior painting isn't for everyone. Since spray-painting is best when painting vinyl or aluminum panels, it's preferable to have a little experience with this equipment. But for some homeowners, doing their own painting is a great way to save a bundle of money.
Zimmer says there are two secrets to painting vinyl or aluminum siding: good surface preparation and use of a top quality 100% acrylic latex exterior paint.
Surface preparation is simple when painting vinyl siding: just remove dirt and mildew from the panels with a commercial cleaner and garden hose, or rent power-washing equipment to speed the work. If any stubborn mildew remains, remove it with a solution of one-part bleach to three-parts water, then rinse the surface clean.
With aluminum siding, follow the same cleaning procedures. If excessive "chalk" is present afterward (run your hand across a panel to check for residue), repeat the procedure. Use bleach solution on any stubborn mildew, and rinse clean.
Keep an eye out for surface oxidation on aluminum. The tip-off is the presence of a white powdery substance on panels that are worn down to the bare metal. If oxidation is present, carefully remove the powdery material with a non-metallic scouring pad, then rinse the surface clean. Apply a quality exterior latex metal primer anywhere bare metal shows through. That will complete your surface preparation.
Choosing the right paint to use on vinyl or aluminum siding is simple, according to Zimmer: "These panels tend to be smooth to the touch, almost slippery, so you must use a paint with great adhesion. The paint that adheres best to these surfaces is top quality 100% acrylic latex exterior paint."
Paints made with 100% acrylic are a great choice on vinyl and aluminum siding for another important reason: They are extremely flexible. When siding panels expand or contract in very warm or very cold weather, these paints will tend to stretch or contract along with them.
Top quality paints also have superior "leveling", which means they will naturally tend to duplicate the original appearance of the siding, whether it is smooth or textured. They also resist fading, fight mildew growth, and are very durable.
When it comes to color choice, Zimmer offers one caution when painting vinyl siding: "It's wise to select a color no darker than the original. Dark shades tend to absorb the heat of the sun and can cause the panels to warp or buckle."
For those who truly desire a darker color, seek out one of the technologically-advanced paints that use reflective pigments to ward off some of the sun's heat. But be sure to ask the paint salesperson whether the color you like can be used on vinyl siding. 

For more information, visit blog.paintquality.com or www.paintquality.com .