External wood paint

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Has anyone got some recommendations on a good long lasting exterior wood paint that i can use on window sills fascias, doors etc....basically all the external wood work needs a repaint.
All surfaces are currently painted but a bit flaky in places so in need of a rub down and repaint
 
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Linseed Paint. Takes longer to dry, but never cracks or flakes, and lasts a long, long long time. Plastic paint (I assume Dulux Weathershield is a plastic paint) will crack, flake, and cause your timber to rot. Avoid at all costs.
 
Aluminium Wood Primer (oil based) forms a very durable base for your paint system. It is grey, not silver. It withstands weather well and also seals knots.

IMO oil-based gloss is more durable than water-based paints

Don't use black or dark colours facing the sun as it gets hot and this shortens life.
 
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Linseed Paint. Takes longer to dry, but never cracks or flakes, and lasts a long, long long time. Plastic paint (I assume Dulux Weathershield is a plastic paint) will crack, flake, and cause your timber to rot. Avoid at all costs.
I don't disapprove of "natural" products in principle, but I don't think you'll find many professional decorators using linseed oil paint.

Proper preparation and used of an appropriate sequence of coats is the key. As has been suggested, use a good primer and undercoat.
 
I don't disapprove of "natural" products in principle, but I don't think you'll find many professional decorators using linseed oil paint.

Proper preparation and used of an appropriate sequence of coats is the key. As has been suggested, use a good primer and undercoat.

Acrylic paint will always crack on exterior wooden joinery. Always. Then water soaks into the cracks, and the wood cannot dry out because the acrylic paint is not water permeable. The lower parts of the window - the cills, the bottom rails etc, will rot.

Just because professionals use a product, that doesn't mean it's the right product. Often it means that it's the quickest and easiest product to use. I've paid professionals to paint windows in the past, and within 5 years, the paint was peeling and failing everywhere. Plastic paints should never, ever be used on external joinery.
 
Linseed Paint. Takes longer to dry, but never cracks or flakes

You may never have seen it, but I have. And crazed/crocodiled especially on external ironwork
 
You may never have seen it, but I have. And crazed/crocodiled especially on external ironwork

Fair enough - but yeah, it's not something I've ever seen, and the performance of the linseed paint I've used in the past is in a different league to the plastic paints I've now stopped using.
 
Sadolin Superdec is good stuff, remember when they painted a rubber glove with it and it didn't crack or flake.
 
Yes, this "traditional" approach is fine, but telling people never to use modern paints is like telling them never to use gypsum plaster, or cement mortar. It's fine in a conservation context, but I wouldn't want the OP to get the impression it's a mainstream way of doing things.
 
Yes, this "traditional" approach is fine, but telling people never to use modern paints is like telling them never to use gypsum plaster, or cement mortar. It's fine in a conservation context, but I wouldn't want the OP to get the impression it's a mainstream way of doing things.

The mainstream way of doing things leads to peeling paint and rotten windows. I'm fine with using mainstream modern paints on interior joinery, but they are simply not right for external joinery. Unless you are a tradesman who just wants to get the job done fast and for it to look ok for a couple of years.
 
Well, I re-paint my own windows every seven years or so. No rotten windows yet :)

Even old-time linseed oil-based paints need refinishing. You prefer to use them, and that's your choice, but it's not correct to say that modern trade paints are "simply not right".
 
Acrylic paint will always crack on exterior wooden joinery. Always. Then water soaks into the cracks, and the wood cannot dry out because the acrylic paint is not water permeable. The lower parts of the window - the cills, the bottom rails etc, will rot.

Just because professionals use a product, that doesn't mean it's the right product. Often it means that it's the quickest and easiest product to use. I've paid professionals to paint windows in the past, and within 5 years, the paint was peeling and failing everywhere. Plastic paints should never, ever be used on external joinery.

I have never used linseed oil paints before and decided to look in to them. As a professional decorator, I try to keep an open mind and I am always on the look out for superior products.

I am not convinced that linseed oil paints are quite as good as you claim.

None of the first handful of sites that I looked at mentioned any of the cons of using linseed.

The following article seems to be fairly balanced.

http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/linseed-oil-paints/linseed-oil-paints.htm

"Linseed oil finishes are less effective than paints based on synthetic resins at preventing the uptake of moisture, in either liquid or vapour form, into the joinery."

"they are more difficult to apply on account of their lower viscosity. Application is also labour-intensive due to the attention required to avoid runs and a propensity of the finish to incorporate dust and surface imperfections (nibs) because it tends to ‘creep’ over them."

"Linseed oil paints must also be applied very thinly to avoid wrinkling on drying and have a tendency to skin in the can. Once cured they are softer and may have inferior resistance to surface abrasion"

"Arguably the greatest disadvantage of linseed oil paints is their tendency to disfigure on account of the growth of surface moulds and yeasts."


As I said, I have never used them but as someone that has spent the last two days just prepping a stone window sill, I take exception to the suggestion that all professionals will follow the path of least resistance.
 
I have never used linseed oil paints before and decided to look in to them. As a professional decorator, I try to keep an open mind and I am always on the look out for superior products.

I am not convinced that linseed oil paints are quite as good as you claim.

None of the first handful of sites that I looked at mentioned any of the cons of using linseed.

The following article seems to be fairly balanced.

http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/linseed-oil-paints/linseed-oil-paints.htm

"Linseed oil finishes are less effective than paints based on synthetic resins at preventing the uptake of moisture, in either liquid or vapour form, into the joinery."

"they are more difficult to apply on account of their lower viscosity. Application is also labour-intensive due to the attention required to avoid runs and a propensity of the finish to incorporate dust and surface imperfections (nibs) because it tends to ‘creep’ over them."

"Linseed oil paints must also be applied very thinly to avoid wrinkling on drying and have a tendency to skin in the can. Once cured they are softer and may have inferior resistance to surface abrasion"

"Arguably the greatest disadvantage of linseed oil paints is their tendency to disfigure on account of the growth of surface moulds and yeasts."


As I said, I have never used them but as someone that has spent the last two days just prepping a stone window sill, I take exception to the suggestion that all professionals will follow the path of least resistance.

I never suggested that.
 
Well, I re-paint my own windows every seven years or so. No rotten windows yet :)

Even old-time linseed oil-based paints need refinishing. You prefer to use them, and that's your choice, but it's not correct to say that modern trade paints are "simply not right".

I stand by my belief that petroleum derived (plastic) paints are not right for exterior joinery. This is not out of some ideological stance - I don't mind using them in other contexts. And in honestly, I would prefer to use them if they worked - they are easier to apply, and dry quicker.
 

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