My all wood house was painted 6 years ago and I noticed lots of peeling about 2 years ago.

The new painters said I had major water damage and lots of wood had to be replaced. I asked how did this happen.
They said the old painter did not apply any primer before he painted and that is what caused it. They showed me the old chips confirming this.

It is costing an extra 15k to replace the rotting wood. Since the old painter didn't apply any primer, I feel that he caused this problem and should pay part of this expense.

My question is, what is the responsibility of painters when painting. Are they required to use a coat of primer?

The old painter said it's not his fault and he is certainly not liable.

Since I know nothing about painting, I need to know if there is a law that painters have to use primer on wood houses or not.

The work order that you signed dictates what the scope of the job should be. This is why it is very important to have detailed instructions on the actual signed work order AND to have the labor and materials broken down on the receipt.

If you requested one or two coats of primer then two or more coats of a top quality outdoor paint then depending on where you live that should last between 4 and 15 years.

My wood siding needs to be painted about every 4-6 years here in San Diego, where it gets hammered from the sun in the afternoon and moisture from the ocean breazes in the morning and at night. We have such foul weather here , it's actually sunny and 80 today.

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It sounds like you knew of the problem and failed to address it resulting in damage to your property.

Was the paint job guaranteed for a certain amount of time?

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If I knew about it then, obvioulsy I would have addressed it. I am not dishonest.

I never saw the order because I was out of the country when the work was done. The decorator hired him.

The severe rotting was recently discovered when the new painters started scraping the paint off.

I was just wondering if anyone knew if painters are supposed to follow certain rules regarding using a primer before painting a wood house.

I will check into that further. Thanks for your replies.

My ex-husband owns his own painting company but I don't believe there are any "rules" that painters are required to follow. I think it just comes down to a good, experienced painter vs. one that isn't.

If I hired a painter I wouldn't know that I had to request primer. I would assume they would do it the correct way to begin with. But I also would think that would have increased the price a lot as primer is the same as one coat of paint. I would also think that a decent exterior paint should be able to hold up on its own, but I'm not sure.

Although my husband is not a professional painter, he'd probably know if it would be expected for a painter to use primer. He's at band rehearsal right now but I'll ask him tomorrow.

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I agree. There's no specific "painter" code to follow. That's why it's so important to ask about the detail of each work quote rather than selecting the cheapest deal available. The same rule applies to siding. there are companies that quote putting the siding up but they don't include painting.

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I painted for years and you always need to prime bare wood even if you have to spot prime you dont paint with regular paint over wood. Now yes you probably shoudl have gotten a detailed job description of what he did and then you could have used that against him if you could prove otherwise which looks like you could do now. I ve have seen a lot of painters come in and just take advantage and not even powerwash first, they just come in throw up a coat of paint and they are outta there. thats not the way to do it. Like aything we should always investigate a bit before we make these deciscions. But hey live and learn right?