Paint? Poly? - how to UV protect epoxy coating on wood gutters?

Stop and think for a minute...automotive finishes stay out in the sun all day in many places. The autobody supply stores have Bondo (fabulous stuff), fillers, primers, and the list goes on. A lot of what you need comes in spray cans if you are compressor and spray gun deprived. A nice metallic topcoat would reflect a lot of incident UV. When the sun warms the gutters any trapped moisture will be driven out. Bottom line, use materials appropriate to the environment. Use the spar varnish on your yacht.

Joe

You can add some epoxy dye to epoxy snd use thst. The color should stop UV penetration.

If the gutters do rot where coated, be sure and let us know. We won't hold our breath waiting, of course.

When I tried tar coatings on my old gutters, they were really rotted a few years later. When I replaced them was when I was told about the shingle oil. The new ones really seem to hold up well with the oil - water beads well on them. They soak a lot in when being re-coated every couple years.

Hopefully, the penetrating epoxy will work better for you than the tar did for me. Good luck.

All that great looking varnish on yachts has to be constantly maintained.

For UV protection, you need something opaque. Any good quality house paint would be superior to spar varnish for this application.

Would "marine" paints be better?

First, you will have to tell me what you mean by "Marine Paint".

Many folks who cruise full time in the tropics coat all the exterior wood (called brightwork) with brown or tan shades of Sears Weatherbeater house paint, or similar, to eliminate the constant maintenance headaches of varnish. They put the Weatherbeater over completely varnished wood, so that the next owner can strip the paint and return to a clear finish if they ever want to do so.

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best way to protect epoxy is with pigmented coatings. Old oil based varnish had/has natural uv protectors. So does auto clear coat (and one or two other products) - most clear coatings do not have much UV protection.

Epoxy is the best primer for most coatings. Best to coat epoxy within a few days of application as epoxies take a week for full cure and coating applied in that window will have a chemical and mechanical bond.

On old wood gutters I would prime/seal with epoxy then topcoat with enamel.

paul oman progessive epoxy polymers inc.

A marine paint should offer some protection, that is, if the wood is not rotting from the inside out. The more opaque the finish, usually the better UV protection.