Aluminium Siding Staining

[pdatta 0]

I had my house painted in Spring 2016. After a frost and some rains in November, the siding is staining with a brown liquid. It appears to be rusty but easy to clean. How can I fix this? Please help.

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[Les 73]

looks like it is coming from above the stain. got another photo?

[Nolan Kienitz 13]

Are there any A/C condensate drain pipes visible at the higher level or just under the eave?

As Les noted another image up a tad higher might help.

[mjr6550 5]

I'm looking at the photo on my phone, so it is not real clear. The one streak seems to be aligned with an edge of the window. Maybe water penetration is washing out something. Do the streaks align with vertical joints in the siding?

[Marc 75]

I'm looking at the photo on my phone, so it is not real clear. The one streak seems to be aligned with an edge of the window. Maybe water penetration is washing out something. Do the streaks align with vertical joints in the siding?

I see a series of vertical joints that line up directly above a short streak that's between the two longer streaks.

Marc

[ghentjr 0]

The window is leaking. Water follows a joint/seam in the sheathing and exits there.

[Charlie R 4]

I believe you may be getting water behind the siding at some point further up on the wall, possibly even at the roof line, and the stain is where the water is exiting to the outside of the siding. If you can get in the attic, look for any signs of a roof leak at that gable end, possibly water streaks down the inside of the gable wall, etc. Water may be getting in at the side of the top or side of the window and spreading out as it runs down the wall. At the bottom edge of the last piece of siding under that stain is there any additional staining on the foundation wall? I assume you have looked for any water damage on the interior wall, especially over the window.

[hausdok 19]

What is the room where the window is? Small window. Is that a bathroom?

Had house a few years ago where a leaking drain was draining to an exterior wall and then through the wall to the outside and out through the siding. Very weird but in that particular house water found a path from the underside of a tub to the outside wall without ever dripping into the interior below.

[pdatta 0]

That is a bedroom above. This has never happened in the 10 years of owning it. There is a concern of the pressure washing prior to the painting may have loosened the siding joints that the condensation is flowing out.

[kurt 2]

Aluminum siding is a rain screen, meaning the siding itself doesn't keep water out; some large amount of water drives in/on/around the siding joints and laps and gets under the siding. The underlying water resistive barrier (WRB) is what keeps the water out of the house. Most people would recognize a WRB as Tyvek, yours might be fanfold foam, maybe Celotex, maybe even another layer of siding (depending on how old the house is).

Point being, pressure washing isn't going to "loosen the joints" to allow water in. Water is/was already getting in and draining out the bottom. The issue is something else (that I don't know....yet).

[hausdok 19]

Maybe they used black felt as a WRB and there is a tear in it and a piece is lying against the backside of the siding and bleeding asphalt.

[pdatta 0]

My issue is that none of this ever happened prior to the pressure washing and painting. Could the WRB tear off from a pressure wash?

[Tom Raymond 23]

It's possible. Pressure washing is a horrible thing to do to a house.