Staining a structure that used to be painted
rwrussell
| Posted in General Discussion on
Greetings. I have a two story carriage house that is 53′ wide, 16′ deep and 13.5′ high plus the 6′ tall peaks on the sides for a paintable surface of around 2000 sqft. It was last painted a whitewash white at least 50 years ago. Most of three sides have no paint left and in fact parts of the siding have disintegrated (not rotted) due to being bare wood. On the front, you can still tell that it used to be white but you can see a lot of bare wood. Since this side is facing east, the siding is in much better shape. I have brought the entire structure true by fixing rotted posts at the bottoms of two corners and in the center between two sets of double bay swinging doors and will fix the sections of siding with siding from one of my barns that I am taken down.
There is not enough paint remaining to be flaking anywhere and only the front has enough paint left to be able to barely tell it used to be white. Home Depot has Behr oil latex redwood stain for $15/gallon and this would save a lot of money as opposed to priming and then painting the structure even if I have to put on a couple of coats. I also like the idea of using an oil latex stain on the bare wood.
Am I able to stain this as it sits or would I have to remove all the remaining paint from the front?
Replies
While I'm mainly a fine woodworker I'll go ahead and speak out here from experience in what I've observed relevant to the particular oil-latex solid stain to which you are referring.
What appears essential is the preparation in making certain that the wood surface is entirely clear of any prior coverings to include paint, stain and even weathering effects that contain mold or mildew deep in the wood fibers. There are products available to effectively remove all such factors, the absence of doing so before stain application results in what I would characterize as a mottled appearance of the oil-latex stain as a result of variable absorption that apparently cannot be corrected by multiple applications because the mottled effects seem to persist and are unable to be chased out.
So adequate time spent on preparation results in a trouble-free stain application and satisfying outcome regarding the product mentioned and, very frankly, is essential regarding stain and paint products in general.
Thanks for the reply. I figured that was going to be the response. It's not worth the effort; this is a 100 year old building. I will just repaint it white as it was.
---RWR
I would recommend a water based solid color stain. This will soak into the wood instead of sitting on the surface. Sometimes this can be a one coat operation, and to redo in 15 years give it a power wash and skip scraping loose flakey paint.
try to remove the soft, oxidized wood and loose paint. Oil dries more slowly so it penetrates a bit more and makes a good first coat. Water based holds color better and is less messy so it is best for final coats.
Try to get rid of the loose paint and the oxidised, soft wood. Because oil dries more slowly, it makes an excellent initial coat and penetrates a little bit deeper. Best for last coats, water-based paints keep color better and are less messy.