Painting old external beams

[chippy]

Anyone know whats best for painting oak beams on a timber cottage, had some repairs done but the oak has just been left and we need to paint it the same as the rest of the house which is a matt black, would blackboard paint do the trick?

 

[biffvernon]

No. Use a linseed oil paint, such as Holkhams if you must, though I'd just leave it bare.

 

[KayW]

Sounds like you live near me Chippy where all beams are painted black for that "black and white" look on the outside- especially if your cottage is in one of the villages on the "black and white trail". Its a lot of work to try and clean all the timbers so understand how tempting it is just to paint the repairs black to match the rest if you are planning to keep them exposed. We have made the decision to render ours with lime. The timbers are natural on the inside but are black on the outside. Originally they were exposed on the outside but were rendered in cement 30 years ago.

Is yours listed?

 

[chippy]

Thanks for the suggestions. No the house is not listed, it is very old but has had massive changes so I suppose it is not worthy, the repairs are not huge so we prefer to just touch them up to match the rest of the house and the others along the road. the 'paint' that is on the other timbers looks more like the stuff you scrape off the inside of a very dirty oven rather than paint! tar maybe? someone also suggested using heat proof paint as used on stoves, I'm not sure the linseed oil paint would give a matt enough finish.