Wood Trim & Stucco Paint Cycles in CA

These items cannot possibly be on "one cycle" because they have differing "estimated useful lives." Our condo bldgs. are concrete and have a different est. useful life than the metal trim paint. AND the concrete "crowns" on top of our two towers are a dark paint color and has a shorter useful life than the buildings' paint.

Your reserve study should tell you how often these distinct items need to be repainted based on your local climate and comparisons with similar bldg. finishes in your geographic locale.

What does your reserve study say about this topic??????

These items cannot possibly be on "one cycle" because they have differing "estimated useful lives." Our condo bldgs. are concrete and have a different est. useful life than the metal trim paint. AND the concrete "crowns" on top of our two towers are a dark paint color and has a shorter useful life than the buildings' paint.

Your reserve study should tell you how often these distinct items need to be repainted based on your local climate and comparisons with similar bldg. finishes in your geographic locale.

Your reserves study provider IS the expert on this question, Sue.

Sorry to be confusing, Sue. I din't think my first replies went through. My mistake.

Again, there is no way that different surfaces can all have the same repaint estimated useful life. Our repaint concrete towers have an estimated useful life of 8 years, our crown 6 years. They might be shorter than yours because we are literally on a salt water bay with the ocean just beyond the Bay and we have probably lots more sun than your area.

There are good reasons, including financial ones, to paint or replacing according to the individual components' useful life, not all at once.

Forcing things onto one cycle will result in painting some things before they need it (wasting money) and/or delaying painting things that do need it (the community looks awful, the component deteriorates and may need early replacement as a result).

The single cycle will also result in large expenses in one year followed by none in the following off-years. This is contrary to the goals of reserve funding, where owners contribute smaller amounts regularly rather than a single large payment in one year. Most people find it easier to handle the smaller amounts regularly instead of a large assessment in one year.

This is why many states require reserve funding in the first place: to avoid special assessments. It's especially important in states where owners can limit the size of the special assessment - the association has no choice but to accumulate funds over time or else resort to loans as needed. The latter is a sure fire way to increase the amount being spent, since that interest benefits no one but the banks. It's a dumb way to do business if you're a non-profit whose ability to accumulate funds is limited, unless the non-profit forced into it by circumstances outside of its control.

Thank you, you’re right the reserve projects can be pushed back if the Board can see that the component still has life in it.

Our RSs HAVE factored in things like paint quality and weather conditions, and all certified RSs should factor in those things.

Stucco: 10 years
Wood: 5 years
Metal: 2.5 years

every 10 years you can get a quote for all 3 together
every 5 years the wood and metal can be done

however I find it very odd metal needs painted every 2.5 years. I'd say 5 years would be better.

I've never every painted my stucco house, big mistake to start painting it because then you will to eventually repaint it.

lastly I've tried to replace all wood with pVC or aluminum flashing so it doesn't need painted.