Masonry paint

[JoeJoe]

We have a small porch in front of the front door to the house. It is under a roof, but open to the elements.

When it rains heavily and the wind blows in the right (wrong...) direction the bottom couple of inches of the wall can get a little wet, but this does not happen often, and the porch stays dry generally.

The wall of the porch are plastered (smooth-ish), and The paint on the walls was badly flaking, so I scraped it as best I could and sanded it as smooth as possible ready for painting. It is not perfect, and I don't expect the finish to be that either, but it will do.

The original paint was pretty rough - felt like quite smoothish sandpaper to the touch - and attracted A LOT of spiders. Possibly because it was not smooth.

Any reason why not to paint it with a smoother paintwhich if nothing else will make it easier to brush the spiders and their webs away? Mid-sheen perhaps (too smooth will likely show the imperfections too much)?

Something like this one for example:

Any suggestions for an alternative will also be most welcome - from Screwfix or Toolstation ranges if possible as there are one each nearby?

[alan_m]

On 15/09/2022 00:12, JoeJoe wrote

"Suitable for interior use on plaster, masonry and wood." whereas your application is more like exterior and open to the elements.

Use and solvent based undercoat and gloss finish

Possibly two applications of undercoat allowing approx 1 day between applications plus the gloss coat. Be prepared to wait 48+ hours for the top coat to fully cure/harden.

Spiders, do you have a porch light on hallway light that is left on? I have a dusk to dawn light in my porch with a very low wattage LED bulb and this attracts lots of spiders, especially this time of year. Actually the light attracts a lot of insects that are caught by the spiders so is an ideal habitat for them.

I have an open porch that is covered and like you gets the rain occasionally on the walls when the wind is in a certain direction. The walls had been plastered with some cement based product in the past but were in a rough condition. I tiled it with a bold coloured abstract (but not garish) patterned tile. Luckily the area to be tiled was almost exactly 2 tile widths

[Colin Bignell]

Why not use a proper masonry paint, which will last much better than an indoor paint used outdoors? Both stores sell Sandtex smooth, which I used on concrete lintels over 20 years ago and which still looks good.

[JoeJoe]

Oops... You are correct of course - got mixed up and chose interior rather than exterior paint.

The original paint (from many years ago) is still on the plaster. What I scraped is the layer above that was applied 7-8 years ago and started to peel.

Do I still need an undercoat then?

Also, the paints you mentioned above are both for wood and metal, not masonry...

No light there. There is one but we never use it.

The very occasional few drops that do manage to reach the wall have caused no damage to it or the paint so far so will propably use paint again.

[JoeJoe]

You are, of course, correct. I linked an interior paint instead of an exterior one by mistake.

Any suggestions/recomendations for a suitable one for the job from the ranges at the 2 retailers please?

[Colin Bignell]

As I said, Sandtex Smooth has proved to be very satisfactory on my house and both stores sell that.

[JoeJoe]

Thanks again. Is it for external use? No mentioned anywhere (unless I missed it...)

[Colin Bignell]

It is. I suspect there are not many people who want to paint masonry indoors.

[JoeJoe]

:-) Thanks

[Brian Gaff]

Perhaps paint it with something that is more waterproof first, but then the world is your oyster, I guess. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Steer clear of acrylic based paints. I made the mistake of using some of this on a window sill and it went kind of sticky when it rained.

Brian

[Rod Speed]

That's bullshit. Plenty have masonry walls indoors.

[alan_m]

My window sills and columns (sandstone?) each side of my front windows were painted with Leyland trade solvent based paint 5+ years ago and haven't been touched since and still look good. My neighbours property was painted the same way a lot longer ago and that still looks good.

One problem I've had is the past with masonry paint is that it works well on bare brick but can form a layer that just peels off after a few years if applied on top of old gloss paint. However, you have said the old paint is like sandpaper which may indicate a textured masonry paint. Again, in my experience, textured masonry paint can get dirty easily and I only will use smooth in future. The existing paint on your porch may/will give a good key as long as you have removed any loose paint. Did the old paint come off easily in large continuous areas indicating that it may not be firmly attached to the wall? Preparation is the key to the longevity of a new paint surface.

[Fredxx]

Most of this country has advanced to having plaster on our walls. I see very few masonry walls apart from brick, which tend to remain unpainted for that brick effect.

[Rod Speed]

Fredxx [e-mail] wrote

Bullshit. In spades with non residential property like police stations etc.

Have a look at Grand Designs sometime.

Plenty don't with INTERNAL walls.

[Theo]

There was a fashion for painted breeze blocks as an interior finish, often in public buildings. I still have the 1980s leisure centre flashbacks...