Thread: Opinions please - best exterior paint for old house
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dpb dpb is offline
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Default Opinions please - best exterior paint for old house

wrote:
This group is always so helpful with suggestions I thought I'd get your
recommendations on exterior paint. My house is about 200 years old and
I have a mixture of old, scraped wood, and large sections of brand new
(raw wood) clapboards. Fifteen years ago I painted the house with one
coat of oil-based primer, and one coat of VERY expensive oil-based
paint. Although expensive, it went on great, covered like a dream, and
lasted for ten years. Unfortunately, I can't remember the brand name,
and the only store in town which sold it has closed.

Then how do you know it was the only one??? (Sorry, couldn't help
myself... )

....

So, what do you recommend? I've seen some research touting "California"
paint, and one report saying it's the worst. Some old reports recommend
Sherwin Williams, but new reports say no. I really wish I could
remember the name of the oil-based stuff I used, ...

IMO, as you've alluded to, the prep is far more significant than the
paint itself, given a good quality paint and imo there's not a
tremendous difference between manufacturers' as long as you're
comparing similarly priced products.

One thing is quite different since 10-15 years ago, and that is that it
is quite difficult to actually find oil-based topcoat paints these days
owing to (apparently) EPA rules. I'd go w/ an oil-based primer and a
good latex enamel topcoat.

Put the "lifetime" Sherwin-Williams on the church a few years ago after
the big hail--it's certainly holding up so far, but is also quite
pricey. I didn't go quite so expensive on the barn restoration project
and used the top-line Behr oil-based primer and latex topcoat since the
local S-W folks (the only independent paint dealer in town) didn't seem
to want to come off straight retail even for 80 gal primer and 120 gal
topcoat. Although owing the size we sprayed rather than brushed,
it went on and covered well and is holding up well (again, after three
years so is only beginning).

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