Exterior paints

[Mike Barnes]

SWMBO is choosing colours for the exterior woodwork and wants to know if "exterior" paints offer any distinct advantages such as durability.

She has her eye on these...

Dulux Weathershield

comes in a limited range of colours, hence the need to justify its choice)

Farrow and Ball exterior eggshell

question is actually off-topic because it won't be a DIY job. FWIW the person who'll be applying it is a skilled and experienced professional who we've used before on many occasions.

[Robin]

FWIW I was in the local Johnstone's Decorating Centre on Saturday morning buying some interior satin which led their guy there to tell me they have just started an exterior satin finish in their Stormshield range. I was not in the market for any so did not ask for details but if exterior satin is what you want you could ask what colours they offer. (It *may* be the 15,000+ they offer for Stormshield gloss. But from a quick look it seems they have yet to get details of the satin on their website.)

[Phil L]

I gather from her choices that she doesn't want traditional gloss finish then? I don't know what satin ends up like but eggy is completely flat after a few weeks of it going on, although it does start off as a semi-sheen. That F&B link shows a door done in a pale green colour- I've just used this on a huge church conversion but it was a dulux colour called overtly olive.

Tell her to pick any colour from any sample card she likes, take it to a proper trade centre (not b&q) and they will mix any colour in any paint you like, undercoat, eggshell (same thing really) emulsion, gloss etc - it's all done by computer so if you run out and need more mixing, it will be exactly the same as the first.

Not sure what you are asking WRT 'exterior', as opposed to what?

[Dave Liquorice]

So why not ask him what he recomends?

A good number of years ago I used Dulux Weathershield gloss on a window frame. Most of it is still in reasonable condition, was gloss black it's now looking just slightly grey on the surface but it is south facing.

[Andrew May]

I used Dulux Weathershield on my bargeboards fifteen years ago and it still looks good.

I used the new VOC2010 formulation on a front door this year. While painting it soon goes claggy but then takes an age to dry so picks up dirt and small flies. Even now still feels soft. I bet it won't last fifteen years. Not terribly impressed.

So, for the sake of a small amount of VOC in the paintg there will be all the pollution in five years time resulting in having to sand it down, drive to the builders merchant to buy more, repaint the door and clean the brushes. Ho hum.

[NT]

DIY might soon mean making your ownpaint again

NT

[eeyore.is.here]

I would consider using a microporous paint. One of the alleged reasons pain= t fails is because it traps moisture behind it. Or, it cracks and lets mois= ture in but then it can't escape. Old paints based on linseed oil were brea= thable. High build modern 'woodstains' like Sadolin are too.=20

I put weathershield exterior gloss on my wooden fascia boards about 7 years= ago. On the west (prevailing weather) side of my house there are visible s= ome peeling areas. On the north and east side, it is sound still. However, = I can't remember now if I used an undercoat everywhere, which might make a = difference.

Oddly enough, given the microporous paint theory, I get a similar life out = of (vertical) Sadolin painted surfaces (on the west side - the other sides = are OK), though Sadolin don't tend to peel back, more like just a general w= ear out in small spots. Then again, I never apply the full three coats thou= gh...

[stuart noble]

All paints fail if the substrate is bad, and that includes most exterior woodwork. Any paint will last for decades on a sheet of glass. Go figure