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Tim W Tim W is offline
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Default Best wood primer of old, unpainted dried out external wooden window sills?


"AL_n" wrote in message
...

Some of the windows in the South side of my house have wooden frames and
sills, and on the outside of the house, most of the paint has flaked off,
leaving bare wood that is severely sun-baked and weather-beaten, yet
thankfully, with almost no rot. I have recently bought this house and I
now
want to paint the external side of these frames to prolong their life as
much as possible. What is a good primer to use? What soaks into dry wood
well, and stays put, even over the duration of a long hot summer or three?

I'm under the impression that aluminium primer is good. I guess it must
soak into dry wood well, because it is very runny, compared to other wood
primers, some of which have the consistency of cheese spread! It seems to
cost more than other primers, which also suggests to me that it might be
particularly good for some applications.

Anyone got any strong opinions on this?



You could do worse than going to a big paint manufacturer and buying their
best quality exterior paint. They do actually carry out research and
development and test and improve their paints. Dulux (ICI) Weathershield for
instance is a good paint system. You must _not_ buy your paint from a
retail/diy outlet because even if it is labelled Dulux Weathershield (for
instance) it is water based and a totally different paint to the oil based
trade paint from the trade supplier. The quality of diy paint is always
compromised in order to give it 'marketable' qualities like easy brush
washing or non drip consistency.

Alternatively you can stick with more traditional oil paints and get a good
result. Metallic primers have been used for years as yacht paints, with
instructions to start with thinned primer then apply several more coats of
primer before undercoating. Gloss, gloss, gloss is another method I have
seen used on historic buildings with traditional paints, whereby you just
use gloss from first to last coat and keep going till you have the finish
you want.

I would treat the bare wood with cuprinol and let it dry well before you
paint.

Tim W