Better than linseed paint?

[malcolm]

I’d be very interested to hear of some real experiences please on how long linseed paint finishes are really lasting for people before they need recoating? ...

I have just been to Gothenburg for the first time and I couldn’t help noticing that the paint on all their external woodwork was in excellent condition. Both on window frames and on boarded exteriors I only saw a handful of bits of flaking paint anywhere and so I assumed they must all be using Allback linseed or similar.

I know it is an old post but it has been in my mind to ask the Swedish what they do. Finally I have some sense of the Swedish scene after lunch out there last week with a few people who are working on their houses. A guy from work said he wants to paint his windows in "Lin Oil". Turns out that if you ask an older person over there they will say the right way to do things is with Linseed so perhaps they were late entering into the disposable society, but like here linseed is becoming more rare and many people use modern water based gloss unless they have something old to protect and then they always use Linseed. Oddly many coats were mentioned - 8 coats on a 1800s window!

I have no idea how the waterbased paints get on. I've not used them. I have observed the old modern oil based paints were not UV resistant and cracked after a few years necessitating time consuming removal before repaint, while the linseed just gets dusty after a few years and requires another splash.

 

[Feltwell]

About 2 years after I put it on, and I'm not at all impressed with the Linseed Paint Company paint I bought, after about 6 months it started to go like this in areas. Maybe I put it on too thickly - but it's not faired well in other areas either, it's weathered badly. To be rubbed down and repainted........

 

[malcolm]

Yours has gone horrid! Mine are all good. Got mine from Ingleby Traditional and very thin coats summer only.

 

[urowho]

That's interesting as it looks like the failure pattern of lead paint. Did you over paint any lead or stripped back to ward.

 

[Feltwell]

No, it new bare softwood that was painted on to - primed with hot linseed oil. The paint has gone bad elsewhere in a different way, an exposed gable end has gone very chalky. I know linseed paint will do that eventually but it should take longer than 2-3 years.

I've used Holkham linseed paint (which is Allback) elsewhere without these issues, although I've found it to be not very durable on horizontal surfaces. New softwood gates that I painted didn't last long at all.

 

[wobs]

I had a similar issue with LPC on one piece of wood I had splice in. I had put it down to it been an exotic hardwood that was oily, as the company who made it for me said to treat with some spirit to remove the surface oil before painting (they assumed I would use modern paint).

However, I have used the same paint on the rest of the windows so far, and its been fine. This includes softwood sash windows (100 years old), a large casement with a wide variety of wood spliced in (poor quality pine, oak, other hardwood, and probably pine in the main sections higher up), a new front door, a new pine window and door frame, and a small pine old casement window.

So far, all have fared well, and the issue with the cracking is in the first window done in 2013, and occurred soon after painting. It hasn't deteriorated since, and doesn't really need any work.

 

[88v8]

Having said that I would only use black linseed, last summer I used an offwhite on a south-facing window.
I now notice that the sill is starting to moulder.

I've begun linseeding some new accoya windows with offwhite. As before, the drying time is a pain, and the job is running very late so I will still be painting at the end of this month and by then the drying will be even worse. Perhaps this is not such a good idea.

On some new feather edge I used Bedec Barnblack. Three coats in a day, the first thinned with water. Three coats!! I wonder if I could use Bedec on accoya, over linseed!!! Perhaps I'll ask Bedec.

I tried Demidekk. Horrible to apply. A year on it's still OK but I won't use it again.

Like FF, I would love to have all oak windows here. But all the windows are painted softwood, it would just look 'wrong'.

Ivor

 

[Me!]

I tried Demidekk. Horrible to apply.

Apologies if I remember this incorrectly, but weren't you one of the people who had struggled using Demidekk on a natural bristle brush?
Did you ever try it using a synthetic brush? It really does flow much better and go on much more evenly than with natural bristle.

 

[wobs]

Having said that I would only use black linseed, last summer I used an offwhite on a south-facing window.
I now notice that the sill is starting to moulder.

I've begun linseeding some new accoya windows with offwhite. As before, the drying time is a pain, and the job is running very late so I will still be painting at the end of this month and by then the drying will be even worse. Perhaps this is not such a good idea.

On some new feather edge I used Bedec Barnblack. Three coats in a day, the first thinned with water. Three coats!! I wonder if I could use Bedec on accoya, over linseed!!! Perhaps I'll ask Bedec.

I tried Demidekk. Horrible to apply. A year on it's still OK but I won't use it again.

Like FF, I would love to have all oak windows here. But all the windows are painted softwood, it would just look 'wrong'.

Ivor

I wouldn't use white linseed paint unless someone gave me some white wash to put in it, to reduce the number of coats required.

I use green, as its a compromise between it being light (so not so affected by the sun heating it up, but takes more coats), and dark (gets hot quicker, so degrades quicker, but takes less coats).

On a previous house, I had a white door (gloss), on a south facing facade, and was painful on sunny days.

Had it been a black door, the paint wouldn't have lasted as long.

I am currently doing two sash windows in green, and as the window is boarded up, I don't have to worry about the weather.

 

[88v8]

Apologies if I remember this incorrectly, but weren't you one of the people who had struggled using Demidekk on a natural bristle brush?
Did you ever try it using a synthetic brush? It really does flow much better and go on much more evenly than with natural bristle.

You remember aright! But I only had the one window to do at the time.
My next painting was a metal frame window which I did with two-pack, as it's only accessible with £1,000 of scaffolding. The colour is not really the same, but it's on a different wall.

I have a couple of synthetic fitches now, so I'm tooled up. But the Bedec goes on so easily, unless the Demidekk were significantly better I don't feel inclined to switch back.
Trouble is, with paint, it takes so long to find out what works and by then what's left in the tin is unusable and they've changed the formulation.

Btw, the 2016 black linseed on the east-facing garage doors is fine, so far.

I wouldn't use white linseed paint unless someone gave me some white wash to put in it, to reduce the number of coats required.

Yes, and each coat takes longer to dry than the previous.
Primer - 50/50 boiled linseed and turps - one day in the sun.
First top, 2/3 days. Second top, 3/4 days.
So far, I've not applied a third top.
The other thing with linseed, there's no point applying a long-lasting paint over dodgy woodwork. If the joints are moving, the paint won't miraculously bridge over them.

It's all a pain.

Ivor

 

[skier-hughes]

Our south facing windows have managed 9 years before needing repainting. I did that this year with the lovely warm summer, whereas drying time was great, so were the number of flies around!!!!