Exterior paintwork

[tim.....]

Hi,

I'm about to move into (buy) a recent build (2009) flat and the exterior wooden paintwork is in flipping appalling condition, in some places having completely weathered away back to bare wood.

Where there is still a "good" finish on the paintwork it is not very glossy so I'm guessing that it was a water based paint.

Is this standard for exteriors nowadays or was that a mistake (aka cost cutting) by the builder? If it is standard is there any way to improve on it?

It is due for re-painting next year and I want to be pro-active in making sure that whatever mistake that the original builder made is not repeated by the management committee when they specify the re-paint, in the aim of further cost cutting. The fixed costs of scaffolding etc are going to make the costs of using better paint irrelevant and as there are 100 flats in total the waiting time between coats is not going to be an issue either.

Any advice appreciated as I want to be prepared for this discussion when it occurs at the next MC meeting.

TIA

tim

[harryagain]

All the paint these days is shit. Water based. Get rid of all the wood and use uPVC. Stainless steel nails etc Fit and forget.

[tim.....]

not within my gift!

tim

[Bill]

In message , harryagain writes

Trouble is, having used my daughter's uPVC front door every day since she needed to have a cat fed, and used other similar doors and windows, for me it would be fit and remember.

[Lobster]

I think in the case of the builder (?) who did our extension some years ago (and went bust before completion) the standard was 1 coat of gloss on top of bare wood. Lasted several weeks in fact IIRC

[stuart noble]

The original paint was probably some form of microporous stuff and this is often what happens to it after a couple of years. If the exposed wood is now silver grey, ultra violet will have taken its toll and it will never take a coat of paint properly again. The solution on a small scale is to use a two part wood hardener, after which any paint should last for 20 years. How feasible that is on a large project I'm not sure

[Peter Johnson]

At the very least specify the use of exterior paint, something like Sandtex or Sadolin, which are guaranteed to last for 10 years. I should add that my Sadolin-painted fascias only lasted five years - now replaced with uPVC - but I know someone who found it very satisfactory. (I reckon there's a lot of external decorating done with internal paints.)

[Andrew Gabriel]

I started doing the facias over 10 years ago, and only finished

2 years ago. (Tackled each run when I had time or needed to get to that area for some other reason). I fitted new timber in the process (couldn't be bothered with trying to fix and prepare what was already there). Bought the timber and left it to dry for many weeks before use (and discarded over half of it which warped).

Cut to size and temporarily fix in place, to test the fit. Take down again, and fully coat with rot proofer. Aluminium primer all over. Dulux Weathershield undercoat all over. Dulux Weathershield topcoat all over except the board backs.

I forget know how many coats, but I think it was at least two undercoat and two topcoat.

When I finally finished the last part (high level at the front which I did from scaffolding), I took down the first facias I had done some 8+ years before to clean them. They only needed a wipe with a wet cloth to look as good as new again - no aging of the paint finish could be seen.

However, it was not just a question of doing the facias. I had also replaced the bottom layer of felt, some cracked tiles, and fitted felt support trays and new guttering, thus fixing some areas where water had been running down the facias.