Painting tanalised fence. Pros & cons?

[Tim+]

We have a new fence between ourselves and our neighbours. I was going to paint it like the previous one was but I'm wondering if I'm just making unnecessary work for myself.

Thoughts?

Tim

[Chris Green]

My experience generally is that unpainted lasts longer than painted.

I have quit a lot of 'test' poles too! These are horse jump poles and such. All have been sat outside for 20 years or more. All of the painted ones are disintegrated or about to, some of the unpainted ones are still OK.

As an aside Lleylandii poles are *very* long lasting, even totally untreated.

[alan_m]

+1 Especially with the tend for "safe" water based which will start flaking off within a couple of years.

[Tim Lamb]

Would a stain such as Sadolin Classic do the job?

[The Natural Philosopher]

yeah. that takes 3 years before it starts flaking off.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You could use a coloured stain rather than paint?

[Dave Plowman (News]

And rather easy to just slap some more on - unlike traditional paint.

[harry]

Tanalith was once extremely effective when it had arsenic in it. (Now banned)

The substitutute is virtually useless. Stuff rots in a very few years.

[alan_m]

Stain is possibly more expensive as you will need more of it if it soaks well into the wood. It is more likely to fade with age rather than appearing unsightly when flaking off as with other products.

[Robin]

Yep, thems the thing for now! It needs to weather well before you apply anything so no action for the next few months leaving time for lots of thinking about what you _might_ do. (By the way, I'm very experienced at that if you need any tips.)

[Jim K..]

Unnecessary.

Once you do it you'll be doing it every X years as it will otherwise look s*1t if you don't keep up to it.

Left alone it will silver gracefully over 2/3 years and still last easily as long as if you repeatedly painted it.

[Jim K..]

Spose it depends what they're painted with ;-)

Horribly sticky resinous sap probably helping there.