STAINS AND PAINTS PART 2

PAINTS AND STAINS - PART 2

This is part 2 of a 2 part series of articles on paints and stains.

Problem Solved - Finally, Interior Paints Coatings for Each Job

Did you ever wonder about the difference between interior and exterior paints? I once used exterior paint on an inside ceiling, reasoning that it could last longer. It could endure longer, but as I found out when I was required to touch up the ceiling only two years later, exterior paints will discolor on an interior surface. Exterior paints contain special additives designed to withstand the outside. Interior paints have additives that help the paint dry to a durable, uniform finish.

Most of the advances in painting technology have been with latex. Actually, latex has overtaken oil-based paint in several areas: strength and elasticity, as well as ease of use, clean-up, and disposal. Latexes have fewer VOCs than oil-based paints. Some, like the Pristine line made by Benjamin Moore, are created with no VOCs whatsoever. Today's latexes are made with higher quality pigments and binders that give them more body, so each goes on thicker.

Latexes enjoy quite a lttle bit of level of popularity for interior applications, especially for walls and ceilings. Alkyds remain the professionals' choice for trim work because oil based paints are better to paint on detailed areas like molding and trim. However, that traditional school of thought is slowly changing as better latexes, including Pratt & Lambert's Accolade Interior Acrylic Semi Gloss, are introduced to the market.

Take The Headache Out of Finding Exterior Paint Coatings

Moisture can be an important concern for exterior paint selection. Every day a family of four will create several gallons of vaporized water inside a house.

Coupled with naturally occurring humidity, this can mean a lot of moisture moving through the wall surfaces and siding. Wetness is highest in the baths and kitchen. If these rooms aren't sufficiently ventilated, water will migrate through the surfaces. Vapor barriers help contain wetness, but vapor always seeks to escape. The structure of a house, the sort of vapor barrier they have, ventilation, and moisture all make choosing the right paint critical.

In wetter climates you need a paint that will let moisture go through the wood, so water doesn't get trapped under the paint and cause blistering and peeling. Latexes are porous and let moisture pass through, unlike alkyd paints, which form a waterproof seal. Alkyds also don't flex with floors that expand and contract, as wood will, especially in colder climates. Latex paints have significantly more elasticity, allowing better adhesion.

I favor using latex on most exterior areas, including wood siding, stucco, and concrete. Latexes avoid fading much better than most oil-based paints, and they'll cover either oil-based or latex primer (most oils have to go on top of an alkyd primer).

Latexes do a great job of covering cement. Despite its hardness, concrete is very porous, and oil-based paints don't always stay well. For greatest durability, I would recommend latex enamel.

In general, if I know of a latex product that will provide superior performance, I will choose it over an oil-based product that has to be cleaned with a thinner.

Latex only requires water. Thinners add one more expense, are hard to get rid of, and usually finish up spattered on my skin or clothes, regardless of how careful I am.

Solution For Staining Inside

You could spend a life time learning about stains and sealers, but there is nothing mysterious about them. The bottom line in determining which stain to utilize is to familiarize yourself with the products available. Read the label, along with any product information you can get, and speak to the staff at a professional paint shop.

Exterior stains come in oil based, varnish, polyurethane, and water-borne solvents. Stains have less colorant than paint plus more solvents, giving them increased wood penetration. Waterproofing is a priority with exterior stains. Most include built-in sealants to increase strength and help preserve the wood. The coloring in stains can be pigments, dyes, or both. A semi-transparent stain has more dye for grain penetration. A solid stain has more pigment for surface coating. Pigment is a finely ground coloring that doesn't penetrate the grain as deeply as a dye. That is why a pigmented stain is actually used along with a sealer such as urethane or varnish.

Some high quality interior stains have dyes to penetrate and pigments to bring out the richness of the grain. Others contain only pigments, which are easier to apply, blend, and touch up. Pigmented stains are lighter in color and bring out more of the wood grain. If you're looking for darker results, a dyed stain provides what you would like in one coating (be sure to use a conditioner on porous wood, such as pine and birch wood, to avoid splotching). Dyed stains are extremely difficult to touch up. Every coating eventually will require touching up, so make sure to consider the ease of maintenance in your use of stains. You'll get the best results by using better stains such as Minwax, Pratt & Lambert's Tonetic, Pittsburgh's Rez, or Wood-Kote.

If you wish to avoid the watery nature of stains, get a gel stain, which had the majority of the water solvent removed. Gels are simple to use. They wipe on, dry out fast, and cover evenly. Because they're colored with pigment, gel stains don't penetrate that well. They're a great choice for porous woods that are difficult to cover evenly with out a toner. Gel stains do a great job of showing off the grain on embossed metal or composite surfaces. I don't recommend working with them for hardwoods, which need a good dye stain to emphasize the depth and beauty of the grain.

Sanding Sealers Are an Exciting Paint Product

Sanding sealers are interior primers that both penetrate and seal wood. You can use them under clear coats or over stains as sealers. Sanding sealers are different from a sealer like polyurethane, which is not made to prime. They're similar to varnish, but diluted with solvents to permit better penetration for priming. The hardness of varnishes and lacquers helps prevent them from soaking in to the wood pores. Sanding sealer can provide a better bond for clear coats.

Shellacs are often put into sanding sealers to fortify the resin and offer an instant drying agent. They also add an amber tone, so if you are using a sanding sealer with shellac, make sure it won't affect the stain. Shellacs tend to yellow aver time and contain toluene, which has a very high VOC content. Shellacs are slowly supplying ways to new sanding sealer formulas with lower VOCs and better performance.

Alkyd resin sanding sealers also have high VOCs, although significantly less than their shellac based cousins. Pittsburgh Paints makes a slow drying out alkyd resin sanding sealer without shellac known as Rez 77-1. This specific primer/sealer is good for both interiors and exteriors. Pratt & Lambert's Latex Sanding Sealer has very low VOCs, but is purely for interior wood and shouldn't be used under a water borne polyurethane.

Oil-based sanding sealers also can be utilized to seal outdoor wood, especially decking, which is constantly exposed to sun and water. For color uniformity in areas like decks, it's best to completely coat, or back prime, the lumber before it is in place, using the same sealer or stain. Olympic Water Guard, Messmer's UV Plus, Behr's, and most top quality deck stains are great water repellent sealers that also can be utilized for priming outdoor wood.

Method for Wood and Stain Sealers on Interior Wood

Sealers, including varnishes, lacquers, urethanes, and shellacs, are added to the stain itself, applied as a top coat over a stain, or used as a clear coating on unstained wood trim. They can be used for just about any type of trim, including windows, entrance doors, and the casing around them. Although you can purchase stain/sealer combinations, they tend to yellow, are difficult to keep up, and don't endure as long as separately applied stain and sealers.

Varnishes contain oils such as Tung oil, a very hard, durable sealant that may be brushed on and dries slowly. Varnishes are easy to completely clean and keep maintaining with soap and water followed by a wiped on varnish, which often keeps a wood surface looking ideal for years. Make sure there is no wax in your cleaner, because wax clogs wood pores. I prefer using Hope's Tung Oil varnish for a wipe-on maintenance overcoat. Lacquer is a quick dry sealer that almost always must be sprayed, since it becomes tacky almost immediately.

Polyurethanes do almost everything shellac does, but they're simpler to maintain. While shellacs act like paint, polyurethanes act more like a clear coat that permeates the wood instead of sitting on it. Polyurethanes brush on and dry quickly, with little odor and VOCs. They have more or less replaced shellacs as a clear sealer. Another reason urethanes have become such popular sealers is the fact that they don't require sanding sealers.

The smells associated numerous paints and stains can be more than simply offensive, they can be toxic. Solvent based varnishes, lacquers, and shellacs give a super hard covering but contain very high VOC levels. Water based sealers, like the stains, match the performance of several solvent based sealers, with fewer VOCs. The VOC content of water borne sealers such as Sherwin Williams Kern Aqua Lacquer average about 250 grams per liter, or 2 pounds per gallon, half the usual VOCs of oil-based lacquers. The ethers in water based sealers aren't combustible, another advantage, but they still have sufficient VOCs to warrant a respirator.

Although they resist yellowing, water borne sealers such as acrylic latex polyurethanes do have a tendency to raise the grain. They will also set up or "flash off" quickly at temps higher than 60°F. The best working temperature for most water borne acrylic latex polyurethanes is between 50°F and 60°F, which lets them flash a bit more slowly. In cases like this, flashing-off simply means that the solvent evaporates and leaves the resins to finish the drying process. A contractor I knew once used water borne latex polyurethane sealer that flashed off so fast he could only apply it between 5 A.M. and 9 A.M. Anything later than that was too warm.

Minwax makes very good water based polyurethane, as do Pittsburgh, Pratt & Lambert, Benjamin Moore, and others.

Stains and Sealers for Exterior Applications

Because of their better penetration and sealing ability, most exterior stains sold today are oil-based. However, oil-based solid stains peel as they get older, making them more difficult to maintain. A solid stain is like paint: It coats more than it penetrates. A latex solid stain peels less which is easier to maintain as it ages. However, I favor oil-based products for semi-transparent stains. Added oil solvents let them penetrate deeper. A number of the better stains on the marketplace include Pittsburgh Solid Color Latex Stain, Messmer's U.V Plus, Moorwood Solid Color Exterior Stain, Sherwin Williams Woodscape stains, Pittsburgh Semi-transparent Exterior Stain, Rez Deck Stain by Pittsburgh, and the Sikkens Cetol system.

Deck stains will often have more solids than a typical exterior stain, which will make them stronger. I recommend buying a high-end stain that is semi-transparent or what is called a trans-oxide. Until lately, the significant problem with outdoor stains was their low UV resistance, but newer trans-oxides have finely ground metal mixed in for better protection. A high end deck stain won't need a different sealer coating, although you can add one (such as Olympic Water Guard) if you believe extra protection is needed to fight moisture content and sun exposure. Better deck stains retail for about $35 a gallon and cover 300 to 400 sq. ft.

Avoid using deck stains that contain silicone. Despite their low price, they are not a good deal. Advertisements for silicone stains and deck sealers often show beaded up water on a deck, and many people are fooled into thinking that this is the indication of a successful coating. However, silicone breaks down quickly, usually in a matter of months, leaving a discolored, waxy coat that is a pain to eliminate. The broken down silicone also stops repelling water.

"High build" coatings such as Sikkens and Messmers work remarkably well on exterior siding, nevertheless they are too soft to be utilized on your deck. Eliminating these coatings takes gallons of wood cleaner and a significant amount of work.

Water borne exterior stains, such as Sherwin Williams Woodscapes, incorporate the advantages of oil-based and latex coatings. They run and drip less than oil based stain, and dry faster, allowing for two coatings the same day. Water borne stains have the resilience and flexibility of the latex stain, which gives them lasting strength. They're a great choice for most applications. But bear in mind that clearing up water based stains requires work. You can find a couple of oil components in the solvent that have to be cleaned. First use soap and water, then alcohol. Ask your dealer for specific cleaning directions for water borne stains, and scan the label.

When In Doubt, Ask

In the event that you still have questions about which paint or stain to utilize, don't hesitate to ask people in the know. An experienced, competent salesperson can answer any questions it's likely you have. Look for a paint store with staff having at least 10 years of experience in the business. Ask them what has worked best for your particular application and ask to read a spec sheet on the product in question.

The answers you get will depend on whom you ask. A paint store will attempt to market you one their own products, after all, that is why they're in business. Painting contractors may not be impartial, either. They have to sell their experience. I get lots of cell phone calls from people seeking help with their painting problems. Most painters, including myself, don't mind giving an hour of time, but if you need in depth answers, consider finding a contractor for a professional examination. Rates vary, but I usually charge about $60 for a written and oral analysis, with consideration to the traveling time involved. A paid examination will let you know whether you should paint, stain, or re-side, as well as which finish might be best for your project. Each painting job has unique conditions that require specific answers.

Sound Quality Painting

824 90th Dr SE suite B

Lake Stevens WA 98258

(425) 512-7400

Sound Quality Painting