# Forum Home Renovation Painting  Painting old colorbond

## Blocklayer

I pressure cleaned a test area of my old colorbond roof and rolled on a coat of solagard yesterday afternoon. 
This morning half it has washed off with the overnight dew. It was very chalky, and the pressure wash took all the colour out, so it looks like just the galvanized metal surface after cleaning.
 I also broomed it with detergent and thoroughly rinsed, as the solagard site recommends. Can I paint COLORBOND® steel? | COLORBOND® steel  
So, did the paint come off because it won't stick to the metal after the chalky colour was washed off? Or maybe the detergent?

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## chalkyt

FYI we had our "colorbond" roof repainted about 5 years ago. Apparently about 20 or so years ago there was a "crook batch" or "imported imitation" used by a lot of builders around here... believe whichever folklore you like! 
Anyhow a number of nearby roofs have started to go chalky and wash off... ours was actually showing the zinc through whatever paint was left. 
We had the roof redone by a reputable professional painter, and so for what it is worth this is the process he went through: 
Waterblast the roof (fairly rigorously)
Coat with Dulux Weathershield (I think it might have been called Roofshield) with EB (Emulsabond) added. 
So far so good, although the colour has faded a bit.

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## Blocklayer

Turns out I must have painted too late in the day and it hadn't dried enough when the dew hit.
Put another coat on in the morning and it stuck good. Walked on it for a final coat and all good.
The day I first painted was very hot, so I started at 4pm, thinking the metal would be too hot to paint earlier. 
All the houses round here built at the same time also have chalky colorbond - maybe because we're only 100 metres from the beach?  
A couple of things I've worked out if anyone's thinking about painting their roof: 
The corrugated rollers fall apart with the old cyclone assembly roof screws and are pretty much useless. Cyclone-plated fasteners | Architecture And Design
A big brush is pretty fast. I'm going to finish the roof with the big new brush I bought. (Test area is 24 m2, so good enough to get an idea of time for whole roof)
After walking on the off white new paint to re-coat, and walking off it and onto the old cleaned colorbond, it's amazing how much hotter it is. 
And I'm in big trouble because the paint that washed off fell all over the missuses garden, stepping stones and gravel (no gutters on the roof).

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