Painting a new shed

[davelees215]

I've just got a new summerhouse in the garden that was put up and is looking good but I'm a bit confused about when/ how/ if to paint/ preserve it.
It's tanalised wood and when the guy came to put it up he said to paint or put some sort of preservative on (can't remember exactly what he said) in the next few weeks. However on their website it says don't paint until it's weathered (not sure how long that takes).
I went out straight after and bought some cuprinol for painting it but it says it's waterbased and someone told me that's not much good so do i need something else?
Also the paint I bought says only use if it's dry and above 5C and at this time of year it's usually either raining, damp or freezing cold and as I'm usually working daylight hours I'm so not sure when I'll get a chance to do it.
Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

 

[ladylola]

If it's tanilised then you won't need to worry about it rotting in the near future. I've used water based finishes like the one you've got on tanilised wood many times in the past and really on that sort of wood it's pretty much a cosmetic tratment. Or you could go for the whole prime , undercoat and gloss paint method but to be honest it's a lot more work. Equally I've done that method too and have used oil based paints succesfully.
I wouldn't try to do anything to it this time of year, just leave it a few months in which time it will have weathered and the climate will have warmed up.

 

[kbdiy]

Agreed. I wouldn't consider trying to paint or treat this until the weather is much warmer and the timber has dried out.