Need House Painting Tips

[Mike]

I'm hoping to scrap and paint one side of my house this summer. My insurance company was going to drop me if I didn't, they have now dropped that from the table, but it is needed and I thought I should appease them so they don't change their mind.

I'm going to try to buy a used pump jack scaffolding to make scraping/painting easier and safer.

We already have all the paints picked out, we did that two summers ago. We tested colors with SW, not sure though if I will try to get it matched with BM (since everyone says its the best) or PPG (only because I could get it for a little over cost).

My plan of attack is to start at the eaves and completely strip to bare wood, treat with linseed oil/turp, prime (oil) and paint (2 coats flat latex). The same with the window trim and sill (sashes will be done at a future point in time).

I don't think the body of the house has more than one layer of paint. It was repainted in the last 25yrs and the PO told me they burned off the old paint. Some areas where it is flaking I see one layer and then bare wood.

Can I just strip the bad areas on the body and leave everything else as is before priming or is that a bad idea? If so, do I need to scuff before priming?

Many advocate the use of LO and Turp to help treat the wood before painting to prolong the life of the paint. Can this only be done if its barewood? How much would you need for 400sf...the sweedish stuff I bought on Jade's recommendation is pricey but fine for my sashes...a whole house would cost a fortune.

This will be my first time painting a house. I would love any advice from others on what I should and shouldn't do. Thanks much.

[HB2]

Jade knows her stuff, for sure - but I wonder if she could shed some light on issues that I've been told about the linseed oil treatment prior to painting causing mold/mildew issues for the new paint. The theory that I heard was that the linseed oil provides food for the mildew.

I was advised to paint quickly after treating with BLO and to use a mildew inhibitor additive in the paint.

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

HB

[heartwood]

i appreciate that you trust my experience...

boiled linseed oil on its own as a finish exposed to the elements will attract mold because the protiens in the oil are a 'food' substance that keeps mold 'full in the belly'...

turpentine counteracts the issue by acting as a mildewcide and insecticide...in days of yore, it was a staple in medicine cabinets and used as an antiseptic...

once a coat of primer and two coats of finish are applied over the blopentine will continue to keep the wood 'conditioned' without fear of mold appearing...of course, you must make sure to remove any existing mold prior to applying any coating to a surface...

i prefer to use products that are in their most natural state and, from my research, the swedish products i purchase here: http://www.tarsmell.com/products.html are the best that i have found...

it is a 'best practice' to apply what we call 'blopentine' to bare wood...if there are small amounts of paint that are oil based, you can get the blop on them but i wouldn't saturate them...the rule of thumb is that latex products can be used over previously applied oil products but oil products should not be applied over latex/acrylic (water based) products...it is important to apply only enough blop to the surface that will be absorbed in a few minutes--wipe off excess that remains on the surface...

typically, a gallon of paint covers 400 square feet...since the 50/50 blend of blopentine penetrates more than paint, i would estimate that a gallon of it would cover 250-300 square feet...a gallon of swedish blop costs about $28ish...the turps and blo are sold in 5 liter containers which is about one and a third gallon...

adding a mildewcide to paint only ensures that mildew will not grow on the surface of the paint...exterior paints contain a mildewcide but our friends at the epa limit the amount...if you don't have a mildew issue, there is really no reason to apply mildewcide...i get some mildew on only the north side of my house so i wash it down once a year with bleach and water...

hope that helps.....
....jade

[HB2]

Thanks for the clarifications Jade.

I thought that there was some info a while back on john leek's site regarding a mold issue with the swedish LO paints that were new to the US market at that time.

As far as your experience goes - anyone that does window restoration for a living must know a thing or two about paint and paint prep if they are to stay in busines for long.

Thanks again.

HB

[heartwood]

you remember correctly about swedish linseed oil paint on john leeke's forum...allback's boiled linseed oil and paint are treated to remove the proteins from the oil which is supposed to eliminate the issue of mold growth...thing is, the paint has no mildewcide in it...in some of the cases cited on john's forum, there is a possibility that the allback paint was applied over wood that already contained mold...the jury is still out but i have heard many stories about mold and allback paints...the blo and turpentine we use are not allback products...can't recall the name of the manufacture at the moment...since i'm in my jammies and it's ZERO degrees outside, i won't be running out to the shop right now to check out the container...
...jade

[Mike]

How about any general advice on the best plan of attack for painting a house?
1. Strip, treat, prime, paint eaves
2. Strip/prep and prime and first coat of paint for sections of main body until reaching window or other break
3. Strip, treat, prime, paint windows
Repeat on next sections until main body complete
4. Final coat of paint on body
5. Final coat of paint on window trim

Admire work

My thought is that I know it will take awhile so I will tackle sections of the main body allowing me to get them primed and a coat of paint on so that the primer isn't exposed to the elements too long. Then once it's all done put on the final coat without breaks for even color.

Btw. Main body will be dark green. Trim lighter brown. Shutters darker brown. Sashes dark red. Column white with black accents and front door black. Will be a big change from the white and grey. Also would like to get some louvered shutters with working hardware.

[Casey]

I'll add this from my experience:
Keep a moisture meter handy, esp. if you use any water or if an unexpected rain dampens the wood before you got to prime it.
Never prep more area than you can prime the same day. When you scrape and feather/sand into the unscraped areas, that transition from paint to bare wood is where the next round of peeling can begin, it's important to get the wood primed in the same day.
Whenever I adulterate (love that word) oil paint by adding more oil, I always add a small measure of Japan Drier to compensate.
If you encounter any yellow pine boards with wide grain, it's important to sand that wood across the grain with really coarse sandpaper to open it up; and definitely add turpentine to any primer going over pine; it's homeopathic.
Casey

[heartwood]

sounds like a good plan to me....may i suggest you call the paint manufacturer and ask how long primer can remain prior to painting before it becomes compromised?...speak with a chemist/tech person rather than a salesperson--answers could be miles apart......

i prefer to get the most difficult parts done first...appears that you do too--after the eaves, everything else will seem like a piece of cake...

what a difference your color scheme will make! i like dark colors for the body...they appear warm and inviting to me.....

...jade

[phil]

I use danish oil a lot for inside trim, and sometimes mix that with turpentine to get better penetration. if it were used in place of BLO ( under the paint) would the results be detrimental? The danish oil dries fairly quickly by comparison so must have some driers in it. It does a good job of drying on the can and gluing the cap on. I use it a lot as an initial wood prep, then sometimes topcoat with another product like polyurathane ( indoors) This is the first I have heard of BLO causing mold so I found the above posts really interesting. I live Near Vancouver where it rains a LOT so we do get a fair bit of green stuff on the north side of buildings. - so this is a concern for me.

My house was painted twice and a lot of it is rough original cedar shingles. I can't see being able to scrape all the paint off, the surface is too rough for a scraper to really work I think, thankfully it really isn't cracking/ peeling too much.
Phil

[Mike]

Found this article about old house painting tips. What do you guys think of the bleach/TSP mix being applied to the bare wood to remove any lingering mold? Could you still put blopturp on after that?

A Pro Confides His Best Tips for Painting Exteriors