Is this a floor or railings?

It's the exterior wall.

Everything is peeling, including the two coats of primer I put on. This is the second time in a year.

It's only peeling towards the bottom. It's not really exposed to a lot of rain. That's what I don't understand.

If it is peeling down to the bare wood, then you have moisture getting into the wood. You need to check the caulking to be sure moisture is not geting in that way. The best way will be to remove all the paint down to the wood siding and start over. You will then want to prime with an exterior latex primer (not kilz2) and finish with an exterior acrylic house paint.

my husband and I have done extensive remodelling on our 1949 little bungalow. Everything has turned out really nicely, with only a few minor issues - but now we are working on the windows. We begin by removing the entire window and frame, remove the hardware, strip to bare wood, fill, sand etc. The wood is not water damaged, just old. It was covered with many layers of paint (never stripped before, just repainted for 55 years) then I've been painting the 1st 2 coats with kilz 2 primer. Then I paint 2 coats of Benjamin Moore exterior oil based paint. I felt this paint was good quality, it certainly is expensive anyway. Now, after less than 1 year, we are already experiencing some cracking and peeling on the outside exposed part of the 2 windows that we have finished, esp. on the sill - starting from the side. My husband suspected it was the paint, not the primer.....so I decided to go online to try to figure it out and found this post, so maybe the kilz 2 is our problem? I verified the kilz 2 can says you can use it with oil based paints and is ok for exterior, but apparently this is not the best choice?

My question is, what type of primer should I use with my paint? and is my oil based Benjamin Moore exterior paint ok? or should we try another brand? and is oil based a good choice? I have always been under the impression oil based is much better for wood and wood trim, but we do not have any real experience. This is our first house and we are learning as we go. I dont' want to paint anymore windows until I get this figured out!

thanks

you did not indicate which kilz primer you used there have it for for indoor and outdoor oil based and latex, just wondering also how long did you wait for drying before you applied 2nd coat of primer?

In my opinion you have several of things going against you.

You want to use a primer from the company that made the finish paint. You want a primer made just for exterior use not one that is for both interior and exterior. You don't use a latex primer under an oil based exterior paint as it more flexible than the harder oil based paint and causes it to crack. YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE USED OIL BASED PAINT AS THEY DO NOT HOLD UP AS WELL AS A 100% ACRYLIC EXTERIOR HOUSE PAINT.

Short of removing all the paint and starting over you are stuck with what you have now.

we did use Kilz 2 for interior/exterior applications. It DID say it was ok to use with oil based paints....but obviously, not for best results!

I do appreciate the info, even if it is a dreary outlook for the windows we have completed....but at least, from here, we can go forward and do the remaining windows correctly...

I probably was not very consistent about allowing the full hour for the primer to dry (can states it dries in 1 hour) - while at other times I allowed the primer to dry several days, or even weeks...just depending when I had time to paint.

also, my husband is under the impression that oil based paint is better for wood trim? we have used it for interior trim/moldings with great success...no peeling or problems at all. Just wondered why or what your thoughts might be. Thanks again!