What is the right paint for barn? (Construction)

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Hi good country folks,

We just built a horse barn and have OSB wood sheets on the sides on the outside. Any idea what kind of paint I need to weatherproof it and to make it last for many years to come?

Thanks so much.

-- Bernd in NC (Bernd001@aol.com), June 26, 2001

Answers

I'm assuming you're talking about pressed wood chips. Almost all of the products are factory primed. Do they need another prime coat??? If not they do need at least two coats of paint. Either in the form of one coat primer, one coat topcoat; or two coats topcoat. Use top- quality latex flat or satin exterior house paint. If you decide to prime, use top-quality latex primer. If you want to go the extra mile. A three coat system consisting of one coat primer, and two coats topcoat is great. It really doesn't matter whether you brush or roll, as long as you watch your spread rate. In other words, a gallon will cover about 400 square feet on smooth hardboard and about 325 square feet on textured hardboard. Do not overspread!

-- TomK (tjk@cac.net), June 26, 2001.

How about stain instead. Instead of peeling, aligatoring, chipping etc. which makes for high maintence, how about stain, that just fades? No chipping, scraping.............you just restain! Can you tell I hate to paint? Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), June 26, 2001.

Do not forget to paint the edges and ends, that stuff allways starts to unravel at the corners.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), June 26, 2001.

I just used white stain on my new picket fence .You can't tell it's not paint !

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), June 26, 2001.

If you ARE talking about OSB, the 4x8 sheets of pressed wood chips, I strongly suggest using an oil based primer, and then top coated with a high quality exterior latex. Work hard on sealing the edges, as mentioned previously. OSB is easily damaged by water, and will begin to disentegrate in a few years if not properly sealed. This is why you rarely see OSB used as siding material.

On another note, concerning paint, use a high quality paint if you want the finnish to last. The basic rule, you get what you pay for, applies to paint. Great paint is expensive, due in part to the ingredients used in the manufacture of the product. If you want an outstanding paint, try Sherwin Williams exterior latex 'Superpaint', which is the absolute best paint I have ever used.

Another trick to painting is with the use of expensive brushes, which will deliver excellent coverage and will hold alot of paint (without dripping too much) in comparison to a cheap 1.99 brush. I like Wooster brushes, but expect to pay $12 or more, depending on what brush you buy. If you clean and maintain your Wooster brush, it should last a lifetime.

I use throw away cheap rollers for oil based use, and good reusable rollers for latex. Good roller covers spread the paint evenly.

Just my two cents.

-- clove (clovis97@Yahoo.com), June 26, 2001.



I sincerely hope you didn't use standard OSB panels for exterior. Those are not designed for exterior use as they are wood chips glued together with a NON-weatherproof adhesive. OSB is used as exterior sheathing in some instances but only when that surface is to be covered with another (wood or vinyl siding, for example).

That all said, and assuming it is standard OSB and you don't want to replace it now (only really worth doing if you have another use for the OSB now), I'd make absolutely certain I used an oil base primer and be especially careful to cover all of the edges and ends thoroughly, ESPECIALLY the bottoms. Moisture will wick up that kind of wood with a vengeance.

Good luck. I hope this helps.

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), June 26, 2001.


I would definitely use oil paint. My husband who painted for years sometimes thins oil paint as the primer and then applies a real coat. Latex on top of oil peels off/scratches off pretty easily. Hey, I am painting our house and I am buying from our ag center the 5 gallon buckets of oil high gloss barn read. the gloss lasts longer, and I figured it must wear well, since farmers don't want to be repainting those huge barns all the time. It's about $55 a bucket. We don't want to buy expensive paint because we plan on burning the house in a few years, but being practical I think "what if something happens and we don't?" and want to protect what we have.

-- marcee king (thathope@mwt.net), June 29, 2001.

More important than the type of paint is to make sure moisture has no easy access to penetrate. Ideally you should have primed and painted all 6 surfaces of the siding before application. Also, make sure there is no path for moisture to wick up from the ground into the siding. This means absolutely no contact of the OSB with the ground around the bottom edge and a large enough overhang to keep rain from splashing up on it. Also make sure that any vegetation aroungd the barn doesn't come in contact and try to keep snow from piling against the structure.

-- ray s (mmoetc@yahoo.com), June 29, 2001.

Thanks to all of you for your kind advice.

I will apply what I learned here. It is correct that OSB is not an exterior siding like Vinyl or so but after we finished the OSB 4x8 sheets on the side I could not picture that the barn would look good with Vinyl siding on it.

The roof has overhang on all sides and the OSB therefore does not have much contact with water. We also left enough room on the bottom to ensure that water cannot get into the wood from there.

I will give the primer and exterior latex paint a try.

Thanks again

-- Bernd in NC (Bernd001@aol.com), June 29, 2001.


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