ekarbt

New User
Well it time to paint the barn. It was last done about 25 years ago in oil paint so it is a little over due.

It has pine lap board siding. I plan to power wash and then scrape where necessary. Some of it has held up pretty well other parts not so much.

The question is what do I paint it with? I'm leaning toward a latex but nobody gives me the same answer. Some say latex won't work over oil other say it will. Same say new oil paint is junk. Lots of answers but nobody agrees.

So what do you all think?
 
As a former paint salesman: Latex paint will not stick over glossy oil paint. But there are ways to fix this. Scuffing with sandpaper, deglossing (Klean-Strip Easy Liquid Sander, M-1 Paint Deglosser,
etc.), or priming with an oil based primer will all make Latex stick. Latex is much more flexible than oil and moves with the wood in a way that oil cannot. Personally I have had much better luck with
latex on outside structures. Latex does not chalk like oil paints do as they age. It also generally fades less.

If it were me I would scuff or degloss and apply latex paint to a wooden sided barn.

Your building, your money, your time and energy to apply.

Cliff(VA)
 
Wow, has linseed oil gotten expensive! $22-25 a gallon in cent. MN. Makes me think about planting flax.
 
I have painted my big barn twice with red paint over the past 35 years.

I think oil-based is still the best. Unfortunately, oil-based paints seem to be getting hard to get, because the "greenies" think it causes air pollution, and have lobbied the EPA to restrict it. Though how something that you apply maybe once every 10-15 years can be a major source of air pollution is a mystery to me.

In general--you pretty much get what you pay for. The first time I painted the barn was in 1980, with the local farm store paint. Was washing off and peeling after about 5 years.

Repainted the barn in 2003 with Sherwin-Williams oil-based barn paint. Still looking ok today. Unfortunately they don't have the oil-based barn paint in 5 gallon buckets anymore. However I was told by my local Sherwin-Williams store that they can mix five gallon buckets of oil-based and tint it with any color. Including "barn red".

For old weathered wood, I have found a preliminary coat of 25%-50% linseed oil mixed with the oil based paint you are using, followed by a topcoat of straight paint, really works good.

For my 2 cents: 1) oil-based is better 2) prime with a linseed/paint mix 3) a $20/gallon name-brand paint will do better than the $8.50 summer special at the local farm supply store
 
I have a little wood sided shed. Hard to get good paint anymore. Last time I used Sherman Williams not the top of the line but just under it. IIRC it is latex. It has held up the best so far.
One thing for sure DO NOT use oil based tractor paint ! That did not last worth a darn !
 
Latex over oil paint is fine. Oil over latex is an issue because latex paint is flexible and oil paint is not.

I can't think of any reason to use oil-base paint on wood siding. Prep the surface properly and latex will work well and last a long time. You might need two coats, depending on the condition of the siding. And you get what you pay for when you buy paint. I've had good luck with HD "Behr" brand paint.
 
I did this 2 or 3 years ago and my barn still looks good with no paint pealing. I power washed the whole barn, then painted with a latex based primer, then a second coat of latex exterior paint. I used paint from Ace Hardware, their good stuff. Google it. Their paint was rated as good as anyone elses and I have a couple of good Ace stores that are local which was very important and useful to me. The primer coat used 2x the paint I expected it to. The wood got roughed up pretty good when I power washed it and the surface just soaked it up. I actually bought out two stores of all their primer, this is after I ordered in what I thought I needed. The second coat went on just as advertised. I have painted this barn with both oil and now latex paint and I won't go back to oil again. I am very satisfied with how the paint is holding up. My advice, use a primer coat and don't go cheap on the quality of the paint as you will get the results you pay for.

Siefring Red Farmer
 
I am painting mine now, using Behr Premium latex in 5 gallon pails, sprayed on. It was 145.00 per pail, but they had a
40 buck per pail rebate when I bought it, so 105.00 net. It is looking good, 2 coats. I cant speak to longevity yet of
course, but it sticks and covers good . Mine is a color called Red Delicious, a deep red with white trim, looks good. I
am painting over remnants of very old oil based paint. Power washed and scraped the loose stuff off.
 
Works in SD I painted over 30 barns one summer with a friend, They all looked new 20 years later.
 
The question referenced paint and all the responses have addressed that, but I much prefer solid pigment stains. It won't be glossy but will penetrate the wood surface much, much better and so doesn't peal or crack. You might want to consider stain.
 
I just bought new metal for my 42x70 shop.It was the same price as painting contractors wanted to paint it. The new roof should outlast me.
 
Like many of us in New England, our barn and other outbuildings are covered in hundred-year-old white cedar shingles. As an experiment, 15 years ago we did the barn and other outbuildings in (expensive) Olympic solid-color oil-
based stain and the garage in equally-priced Olympic latex stain. The barn desperately needed re-staining last year, while the garage probably still has at least another 5 years before it needs redoing. Of course we used the latex
stain when we re-did the barn.
 
You just can't put latex paint over oil based paint. It won't adhere. If you want to change to latex you need to prime the barn with an exterior oil based primer first. On wood I think latex is better. I have real good luck with Duration from Sherwin Williams.
 
Good acrylic/latex paint is not hard to find. Finding the money to pay for it is. Most brands sell a choice of good - better - and best quality. Expect to get what you pay for. Today's oil paint is not as good as it was in the past. The better quality acrylic/latex paints are better than oil ever was. No matter what, surface prep is vitally important. Linseed oil was used for centuries as a paint vehicle simply because that's all there was to use. There is nothing in it that is intrinsically good for wood and it certainly is not a wood preservative. The beauty oil brings out in bare wood is a surface phenomenon caused by light diffraction. This appearance can be brought on temporarily with water. The purpose of paint is to protect the surface from weathering. High quality acrylic/latex paint does this job very well.
 
You don't say how you intend to apply it, but I believe a brush does a much better job when you're painting wood siding than does either spray or a roller. You'll get more paint on the surface with a brush. A brush can get down into crevices spray or roller can't reach. And the action of brushing out the paint breaks up the surface tension between the paint and surface so the paint adheres better.
 

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