I bought a meranti stable door for my kitcen, a bugger to hang but got there in the end. I am looking for the best way to paint this particular hard wood from bare wood to white gloss. What do I start off with? Cheers to anyone who knows the answer.
IIRC bare wood ought to be coated with a primer first, in fact if it's particularly oily wood, an aluminium based primer is better. Something to do with sealing the surface.
Andy.
Read the stuff on this website about real linseed oil paint:
given the idea by one of your own posts awhile ago - thanks.
Have you seen the Linseed Wax used on a floor?
Rem
Looking at the pine doors half way down the page, I cannot imagine a worse finish. IMO linseed oil is just not very flattering as a clear finish. Would you want a room full of floorboards looking like that? I'm a bit sceptical about a lot of the stuff on this site e.g.
"Typical problems associated with modern alkyd paints: cracking, flaking and allowing water ingress. Last painted in 1996."
Typical failure of the putty and the substrate being blamed on the paint. Putty dries out and cracks, paint follows suit. Putty will only stay flexible if it's prevented from drying, and a paint which it is claimed allows things to breathe is never going to achieve that.
"Restored with Holkham Linseed oil, putty and Barley White paint."
Not giving us a date for this though. I trust they will update the picture
I am not as keen on the grain of pine as shown, I like the oak floorboards that I have better. I guess we differ on that. :)
I can understand that. The web site does not prove the claims to you, it is basically saying 'we are impressed by what we have seen elsewhere, and are pleased with the results of using it so far'.
What is a shame from my point of view is that there are no comparisons of wood treated the same way subjected to the same conditions.
That is the case for the paint that you are used to do. Allegedly linseed oil paint is not a vulnerable to the waterproof surface being compromised. I will let you know in 7 and 14 years time how it fares. ;)
Looking around the rest of their site they have not been using it long enough to have their own '7 years' and '14 years with one coat of oil at
7 years' pictures. I expect a just repainted window to look good with either approach, the important factor is the durability.Looking around I am sufficiently convinced that linseed oil paint for external woodwork is a good option. Ultimately I am taking people's word for it. I would love to have more concrete evidence (either way).
Rem
There's nothing magical about linseed oil. Artists still prefer it because it's a good medium for grinding traditional pigments but it is no more flexible a coating than modern paints, and the excessive drying times would seem to rule it out for exterior work.
Pretty much any paint will withstand the elements indefinitely on a sound surface (such as glass), and none will last very long at all on the half rotten woodwork shown on their website. The "waterproof surface" you refer to will always be compromised when the substrate moves more than the flexibility of the coating allows. Because water vapour can travel through the paint film, the wood is able to absorb moisture, swell, and break the film.
I wish you luck. Farrow and Ball adopted the brown eggs and bicycles approach to paint and there is no doubt that certain pigments do look better ground in the traditional way i.e. coarser with random particle sizes. What I'm sceptical about is the practicality of using linseed without solvents to paint exterior woodwork. Could take a very long time , and the whole thing will presumably need to be covered between coats.
I've just done some exterior linseed oil painting on my house. Took a couple of days to dry, then I left it a couple more days and wiped the dust/dead flies/general crud off the surface and it looks fine
I did pick the hottest days that I could find (last Tuesday and Wednesday) to do the painting so its not something a professional would make much of a living at, which is probably why linseed oil paint went out of fashion
There is also the point that I live in the countryside where leaving doors and windows wide open for a couple of days is not an issue, but thats not something I'd want to do everywhere
Anna
~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|
It does take longer to dry. In summary 24 hours under ideal conditions (48 hours recommended) and avoid painting in cold or wet weather.
We are talking about 'boiled' linseed oil with improved drying time.
Over the last week drying times have been good. :)
Is there a relationship between the wood getting rotten and the type of paint on it? I understood that the paint being breathable allows the moisture to escape, allegedly avoiding excessive swelling and rot.
Thanks. The third coat of paint is drying, it is not all that hard.
Rem
IME surface coatings on wood are purely cosmetic. New wood doesn't absorb moisture because it's new i.e. it has plenty of resin. Over time and with the action of UV this dries out and the timber becomes gradually more porous. Paint doesn't stop this happening and, once it has, the surface becomes incapable of supporting a paint film. If paint had the magical qualities we attribute to it, we'd be able to weatherproof chipboard for outdoor use. The fact that we can't suggests that all surface coatings breathe, and most of them drink too. Unfortunately this passage of moisture is a 2 way process and with the wood expanding and contracting, what chance the paint? The only way you can make clapped out woodwork worth painting is to impregnate it with something solid to support the paint. 2 part wood hardener works well, or any polyester resin from a car body wholesaler.
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