Service
Aluminum & Vinyl Siding Painting in Ottawa & Gatineau
Refresh tired siding with the right primer and coating instead of paying for a full replacement.
Aluminum siding painting in Ottawa costs a fraction of replacing the siding, and on aluminum it usually works, because the panels outlast their factory finish by decades. The job is won on preparation, not paint: chalked metal washed back to a sound surface, bare spots primed with something made to grip it, and the topcoat applied inside the short window Ottawa weather allows. Vinyl is the same job with one extra rule, and that rule is colour.
Siding is rarely the only surface due. Every repaint opens with power washing, light carpentry and wood repairs handles the soffit, fascia and trim that fail before the panels do, and exterior painting in Ottawa covers the whole elevation in one weather window.
Ottawa gives you five months to do this
Ottawa's exterior season is genuinely short, and the numbers say so. Environment and Climate Change Canada's 1981-2010 normals for Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport put the mean daily temperature above 10 C in only five months: May 13.3, June 18.5, July 21.0, August 19.8, September 15.0. April sits at 6.3 and October at 8.0, under what most exterior coatings want on the surface. Wash, dry, prime, coat and cure all have to fit that window, once a year. The same swing is why panels chalk: a surface running from a January mean of -10.3 C to full August sun loses its resin binder to UV, and the powder on your hand is the pigment it used to hold. The City of Ottawa's Property Standards By-law No. 2013-416 separately requires exterior walls to be maintained against deterioration from weather, and names painting as one of the ways it is done.
What is included
The chalk test, before anything else
Run a hand down an aluminum panel. If it comes away powdery, the factory finish has lost its binder to UV. That check sets the washing and whether a bonding primer is needed.
Washing, not rinsing
Chalk, mildew and road film stop a coating bonding. We wash at a pressure the material takes and let it dry fully. Coating over chalk is why most siding repaints fail early.
Failed coating, dents and loose trim
Lifting paint scraped back to a sound edge and feathered. Dents can often be worked and filled rather than replaced. Loose J-channel, split trim and soft fascia fixed before coating.
Primer matched to the material
Bare or corroded aluminum needs a primer made to bond to metal and slow oxidation. Vinyl needs one formulated for rigid PVC. Spot primed, or fully primed on a chalky panel.
Our process
Assess and quote
We identify the material, run the chalk test, see how the finish is failing, and check the age of the house. The scope names the prep, not just the paint.
Wash and let it dry
Washed at a pressure the siding takes, then left to dry properly. Scheduled, not squeezed: a damp or chalky panel is what failed repaints share.
Repair, mask and prime
Scraping and feathering where the coating let go, dents and trim dealt with, caulking renewed, windows and planting masked, then primer where it is needed.
Coat, cure and walk it
The topcoat goes on inside a window that lets it cure. We clean down and walk the finished elevations with you before anyone calls it done.
What does aluminum & vinyl siding painting cost in Ottawa?
No square-foot number is worth quoting before someone has stood in front of the house, because the prep is the variable and the paint is not. What drives it up: siding area and the number of elevations; height and access, since a second storey, tight lot lines or planting a ladder cannot stand in all cost time; how far the finish has gone, because heavy chalking or a peeling previous repaint means far more washing and scraping than a sound factory enamel; repairs found underneath, such as dented panels or soft fascia; and how much of the surround is in scope, from soffit and fascia to shutters and downspouts. What pulls it down: a single storey with clean access, siding chalked but intact, and booking early rather than chasing the last dry week of October. Your estimate itemises the prep separately, so quotes compare on the same basis.
A wash suited to the material and any mildew, a primer that bonds to chalky or bare metal on aluminum and one formulated for rigid PVC on vinyl, and a flexible exterior acrylic topcoat that moves with the panel through an Ottawa year. On vinyl one constraint does not bend: no darker than the panel you have, because a dark surface absorbs more heat than the siding was made to take and warping is not reversible.
Want a real number for your aluminum & vinyl siding painting project in Ottawa or Gatineau?
Aluminum vs vinyl: what actually changes
| Consideration | Aluminum siding | Vinyl siding |
|---|---|---|
| Why the finish looks tired | Factory enamel loses its binder to UV and chalks off as powder; the metal under it is usually sound | Colour fades and the surface turns chalky, but the panel keeps its shape unless it has cracked |
| Colour freedom | Any colour, light or dark, since metal does not distort in the heat | No darker than the original panel, inside the range the coating is rated for on vinyl |
| Physical damage | Dents can often be worked out or filled and painted | Cracked panels get replaced, because paint does not bridge a split |
| When replacement is honest | Panels perforated, or the wall behind holding moisture | Panels cracked or warped across an elevation, or the wall behind holding moisture |
Aluminum & Vinyl Siding Painting: common questions
Usually yes, and age alone is not what rules it out. The panels routinely outlast their factory finish, so chalky siding is a coating problem rather than a cladding one, and repainting costs a fraction of replacement. What rules it out is perforated panels or moisture behind the wall, which we check before quoting.
A flexible exterior acrylic over the right primer. The adhesion problem is the chalk, not the metal, so the surface has to be washed back to something sound first, and bare or corroded spots need a primer made to grip metal. Paint over chalk lets go in sheets whatever it cost.
It turns on the prep far more than the brand on the tin, which is why we treat the wash and the primer as the job rather than the preamble. Exposure matters too: a south or west elevation takes more UV than a shaded north wall and fades first.
Yes, with a product formulated for it and one colour rule. Vinyl moves more with temperature than metal does, and a dark colour absorbs heat the panel was never engineered to take, which can warp it permanently. So the colour stays no darker than the panel you already have.
Worth asking, because the exterior is where it lingers. Health Canada's guidance is that a home built before 1960 probably contains lead-based paint, and one built between 1960 and 1990 may contain it on the exterior. Health Canada also says not to use sanders, heat guns or blowlamps on it. Where age puts it in question we recommend testing, and we prep using lead-safe practices.
Realistically May through September. Environment and Climate Change Canada's 1981-2010 normals for the Ottawa airport put the mean daily temperature above 10 C in only those five months, with April at 6.3 C and October at 8.0 C below it. Asking in February is not too early; it is how you get a spring slot.