Linseed oil paint

[88v8]

Yawn, you may think.
But I am a recent and slightly doubtful adopter, currently waiting for an overenthusiastic coat of Allback to dry on a garage door... it's only been three weeks... well it was cold and I did apply black on black in the dark.
Anyway, moving on.

Came across this site
http://www.linseedpaintcompany.co.uk/

He has some interesting observations. I read the section on mould with some misgivings, seeing how damp it is here.

Any thoughts?

Ivor

 

[Flyfisher]

I've used black linseed paint from this chap to paint external soffits, windows and a door. I've also used the Allback paint. I claim no particular expertise and to be honest didn't notice any difference between them. What I do know is that both have proved more durable than the Sadolin I had previously used on some exterior outbuilding windows and doors, which is quite impressive considering the linseed painted doors are east facing and can get really quite hot in the summer sun (black is not an ideal colour really, but that's a different issue). To be fair, we also have a north facing exterior door that I painted with Dulux black exterior gloss, which is still in very good condition after seven years. I think sun is more of an enemy to paint than the cold and rain.

Where I was painting bare wood, I first applied a coat of raw linseed oil before applying two coats of the black linseed paint. I did that work in the summer and only needed to wait a day between coats. Three weeks to dry seems excessive but I guess that's due to the time of year. Also, it really is best to apply it as thinly as possible.

I've not noticed any mould problems.

 

[wobs]

I've had some experience with Holkham's (Allbacks) and LPC. They are different.
See post here:
http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14118&p=199142&hilit=linseed+paint+wobs#p199142

I don't consider myself an expert, but have used both, and report differences. The claimed longevity of the LPC paint lead me to it, and it seems a bit more forgiving in how thin you have to do it, but not that much more. Up until you have a groove in the frame that you want to paint, then you have to work hard to prevent it from collecting debris and keeping it thin.

I understand that Histcolour is very similar to Allbacks, but haven't tried it.

I've used black Holkam on the barge board on my old house. As it is close to our current house, I may see if its still in good condition, but I can't imagine why it wouldn't be after only ~5years. Although it is south facing. I think I also used black Sadolin on the wooden gutter on that house, so it will be interesting to see how they compare.

 

[Lime]

I used a mixture of paints on my front bay window about 6-8 years ago.
Holkham's linseed oil on the wood frames and a variety of modern paint on the stone columns, lintels and sills because the weather was cold.
The linseed oil has faired extremely well on all vertical surfaces.
There is no flaking or cracking and the colour and coverage is still excellent. (Canary yellow?)
However the paint has picked up dirt readily on horizontal surfaces and some, soot particularly, buried itself into the paint.

The stonework is a completely different story.
The columns I painted with a proprietary gloss paint and it has pealed away in several places.
The sills were painted in a Dulux stone paint and have been an eyesore for the last 4 years.
The paint has done just about everything a good paint should not do.

 

[88v8]

It was the black issue that led me to try linseed. The doors face east, and I dithered about painting them white, but it really didn't go with the old-barn vibe I'm trying to create. On the frames I used my normal favourite, Sikkens AZ Rubbol, but as I was painting I thought 'the sun's going to fry this'.

The primer, 50/50 boiled linseed and turps, goes off easily. But the linseed paint, oh dear. On the plus side, it does say on the Allback website that one can paint in the sun.

Yesterday I put up one of a pair of doors. Oak, but painted in a previous existence as the yard gates of the Clock Inn Bickenhill, one of Birmingham's numerous lost boozers, many of which look to have been lovely buildings at one time
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/nostalgia/birminghams-closed-pubs-memories-citys-8222411
anyway painted as I said, with what looks like one coat of Barn Black. I coated the end grain and newly cut edges with primer, which dried overnight even though it was freezing, both on the bare wood and over the old paint.
Why the linseed paint, which is mainly linseed, struggles to dry to such an extent, I know not. Perhaps it's the absence of solvent.

In the case of your stone and concrete, very annoying, but you know they need an alkali resist primer?

Ivor

 

[malcolm]

The primer dries quickly as most of it seeps into the wood, but it seals the wood a bit so the next coat of paint is slower to dry. Linseed takes a very long time to dry on metal even in high temperatures. It dries by oxidation and doesn't oxidise much when it is cold. They reckon Linseed paint season is July to August, though mine went on in October and November with slightly extended drying time. January is probably pushing it a bit.

I think it is worthwhile even with the difficulty drying in the cold. I painted a big west facing bay window in modern white gloss paint before I knew any better. It has cracked badly and needs stripping and painting again just 2 years later. At least linseed paint should never need to be stripped.

Can't comment on mould. We are in a dip near a river and things do have a habit of turning green, but my paint is still very new.

 

[TimHardusty]

Rather than start a new thread, this one seems vaguely relevant. I hope!

We have had our downstairs sash windows professionally repaired as they were leaking badly and needed a new box for one, and some remedial work elsewhere (resin filler and some new pieces of wood inserted where needed).

It was all a bit of a rush and if I'd had time I might have sat back and agreed differently, but they have all been painted with Zinsser All Coat gloss, with instructions that it needs a top coat soon, but no mega rush.

Upstairs windows and the front door need repainting too.

Two questions:

1) do I stick with Zinsser, or is it worth moving to a Linseed oil paint (or, conversely, is it advisable not to without stripping them back). And...
2)...the trickier question which is "what colour".

This is a 17th century G2 cottage and I doubt gloss white was what would have been used (and probably not sash windows either, but there you go). The CO says we need permission to change to anything that isn't "near" to white. Unhelpfully vague. But I'm struggling to find what colours might have been used.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

 

[livias]

So long as the previous surface was prepared well, just rub down, oil with linseed and put linseed oil paint on top when the weather warms up

I am a fan of black because
- it 'disappears' raher than shrieking at you
- it is not that fashionable green/blue colour which is bound to go out of fashion soon
- Or that fashionable mushroom colour which seems to be the latest thing
- it hides a multitude of sins
- Two out of two houses (in Suffolk and Bedfordshire) have had it in the past so convincing the CO was easy. It is worth carefully scraping back a bit of paint on an old window to see what was there before. If you want to reinstate an old colour then you will have an easier task with bureaucracy

 

[plasticpigeon]

I have a turn of the century book with many paint recipes for different colours. The paints all seem to contain linseed oil, turps, and driers, as well as lead carbonate, lead chromes, cinnabar, arsenic and many other wonderfully healthy and natural chemicals. Modern linseed doesn't seem to have driers in it. You can still buy terebine or whatever was used as dryers, so you could try adding that and seeing if it works. I'm certain the industrious Victorians and Edwardians weren't waiting for July to paint their woodwork.

 

[mims&pip]

Rather than start a new thread, this one seems vaguely relevant. I hope!

We have had our downstairs sash windows professionally repaired as they were leaking badly and needed a new box for one, and some remedial work elsewhere (resin filler and some new pieces of wood inserted where needed).

It was all a bit of a rush and if I'd had time I might have sat back and agreed differently, but they have all been painted with Zinsser All Coat gloss, with instructions that it needs a top coat soon, but no mega rush.

Upstairs windows and the front door need repainting too.

Two questions:

1) do I stick with Zinsser, or is it worth moving to a Linseed oil paint (or, conversely, is it advisable not to without stripping them back). And...
2)...the trickier question which is "what colour".

This is a 17th century G2 cottage and I doubt gloss white was what would have been used (and probably not sash windows either, but there you go). The CO says we need permission to change to anything that isn't "near" to white. Unhelpfully vague. But I'm struggling to find what colours might have been used.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Hi Tim,

Livias won't like me :wink: , but we opted for that 'currently fashionable' blue/green at our last house - a non-listed Georgian thatched stone building - and we thought it looked lovely .......see first pic. Or at least far nicer than every other house/cottage (mostly of a similar vintage, although a few were newer) in our Wiltshire village with white windows! The only exceptions being the two grade 2 listed properties (the village shop and the pub) that both had dark brown windows, although last time we drove through the village the shop appeared to have had its windows repainted in a dark olive green. Black - whilst perhaps more historically correct - looks too dreary for my taste - and that's said as a former goth who still prefers to dress in black, lol!

Anyway, whatever you choose has to be better than our windows here, which are currently a rather hideous shade of yellow (see second pic) :lol:




Mims x

 

[wobs]

1) do I stick with Zinsser, or is it worth moving to a Linseed oil paint (or, conversely, is it advisable not to without stripping them back). And...
2)...the trickier question which is "what colour".

If you go for the linseed paint option, it needs to come into contact with the wood, so I'm afraid you would have to remove said Zinsser.

Linseed Paint Company do make their paint with a drier in it, which brings the drying time to about 8hrs, if I remember correctly (although this is dependent on the ambient temperature still).

Can't comment on the colour, other than if you are going down to the linseed paint route, the white will need more coats than a darker colour.

Linseed paint is a long term solution although more effort to do, whereas gloss is easier, is more likely to attract rot in key places in the future when it fails. Although no paint is immune from this.

 

[malcolm]

Ideally you would remove the waterproof gloss before applying linseed paint, but you can just paint over modern gloss if in reasonable condition. I have done both here and have even painted metal with good results so far.

Removing the modern gloss is ideal as the linseed is an oil that nourishes the wood and eventually dusts rather than cracks in UV light so paint and wood can be rejuvenated with more linseed paint. When painting over modern gloss you lose any benefit to the wood but you still protect the modern gloss from UV light which is what makes modern gloss crack and trap water.

I'm planning to paint black any window frame set against a white background, but where they are set against a darker brick background I will stick with white. That means many of the windows are white outside but black inside and as daft as it sounds it isn't really noticeable from the other side.

 

[TimHardusty]

Thanks for the replies.

Still undecided about colour - my wife likes the idea of a subtle pink (Rose Pink) but I'm not sure!

But, at least I know we can use linseed paint with some advantages.

 

[88v8]

One big advantage of linseed is its flexibility. This should mean - and I say should because mine has yet to go through a summer - but it should mean that dark colours can be used on a south facing without being destroyed by heat gain.
The casement windows of our cottage need painting, currently some sort of modern gloss. I have in mind black frames/sills and white casements. Well, off-white, because the brilliant white to which we have become accustomed is a 20th century construct, and the linseed white will not be the same. Even before the onset of mould.
Another advanrage if one is trying to paint on a south facing, is that linseed can be applied in the sun, as linseed does not form a skin and so there is no possibility of moisture bubbles being trapped.

But, it cannot be applied if the weather is cold/damp, otherwise it could take days, even weeks, to dry. And I don't mean it just stays tacky. Linseed doesn't seem to do tacky. It stays wet, touch it and it comes off on the fingers. And so, it will absorb dust and whatever else is floating around. Didn't matter with my garage door, but if your frontage is on the street, choose your time carefully.

The garage door, incidentally, after weeeeeks of not drying, I eventually hung while it was still not dry. The fingerprints don't really show on the matt surface. With a couple of days of easterly sun, it dried.

Pink. I think your house looks too dignified for pink.

Ivor

 

[livias]

It depends what shade of pink. I'm a fan of Jocasta Innes throry of colours - she said that any colour which you will be living with long term should be complex or (less enticingly put) muddy. Don't use clear colours like cerise or baby pink or barbie pink. Use something midrange with a bit of yellow brown in it and it will be suitably sophisticated and you won't get fed up with looking at it

 

[TimHardusty]

I like that theory 8)

Definitely not Barbie or Baby :roll:

Will continue to peruse colour charts to find a sophisticated and distinguished colour :mrgreen: