I have some a porch floor and stairs that I built out of t & g yellow pine about 2 years ago that has some paint issues. I primed the wood with oil based primer and painted with an oil/alkyd polyurethane floor enamel (interior/exterior) with a gloss finish. One year later I had to do it all over again. The floor was peeling down to bare wood. I figured the primer had failed so I scraped and sanded the floor and applied a higher quality primer and floor paint. It is peeling again. Though its much worse on the stairs that get the most sun and rain, it is still peeling from the protected area too. What’s going wrong? How can I get paint to stick to this floor?
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Replies
Did you paint all sides of that flooring?
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If you were going to use yellow pine it should have been pressure treated.
Its like this porch and steps now have termimal cancer. It will continue to go down.
Anyway yellow pine never held paint very well unless it was very seasoned and the lumber that is sold now is closer to green. Back in the old days we used linseed oil mixed in the oil paint that was also lead based. With that mixture it actually allowed for movement so it in fact held much better . Oil paints now are brittle minus the additives. Moisture mixed below the surface and above along with wood movement of curing make oil paint a poor choice on weather exposed yellow pine except in plywood siding variety where the subject is stable . Even then there are failures.
What you should do now is kinda up in the air . If you want to keep what you built as long as you can then I would strip it and apply solid stain at this point . Even the semi transparents and the solid wood stains under conditions like you describe only last a couple of years so its constant recoating . The main excetion to your porch is stain doesnt need scraping for it doesnt really peel. Every 2 years just coat over it much like waxing a floor. Redwood is even easiar to maintain.
Probably the main reason the sytnthedic wood look alike products have done so well is they can be painted "white" and the structure doesnt move with the weather. It remains stable and unaffected by moisture changes.
Tim
Edited 6/1/2006 9:38 pm by Mooney
After building a few porches and doing everthing right including painting the tounges and grooves I've come to the conclusion that paint won't hold up no matter what you do. I now use stains.
When using stains, do you backprime and edgeprime with the stain, or do you use an oil-base primer? I'll soon be installing a wood porch floor for a client. Probably southern yellow pine, and probably a large percentage of it will be flat-sawn crap. I hadn't considered stains ... maybe I should?
My own porch floor was installed five years ago (5/4 southern yellow pine). I "painted" the tongues, grooves and ends with a copper napthanate preservative. Didn't backprime at all. Two coats of oil-alkyd floor enamel on the top surface.
I had some minimal paint failure within a couple years. Two years ago I had a contractor paint my house. Porch floors were included in his price (though he doesn't warrantee porch floors). He used a lighter gray than I had.
There is some paint peeling; some just the newer paint, and some to bare wood. Still, I think that's fairly reasonable performance. I wonder if backpriming would have made much difference. Attached photos show the worst of the paint failure.
Allen
When I use a solid color stain on the top surface I still back prime and prime the T&G's and ends. I use Zinnser 123 as a primer.
Edited 6/2/2006 3:48 pm ET by McCarty12
Thanks for info. Is that Zinnser 123 a white-pigmented product? Do you have to be careful not to get it on the face of the floorboards? Is the stain opaque enough to not worry about it, anyway?
Sorry if these are stupid questions.
Allen
The primer is white pigmented but you could get it colored to whatever color you want. I don't worry about splashing it on the face of the boards. Usually I sand a little with my orbital sander right before I stain, so any primer left on comes offquite easily.
I reread your post and just wanted to say that no questions are stupid ,especially in construction where most knowledge is self taught. I admire people who take the time to learn and do it right. I've seen some houses built that were just terrible. The builders must have never read a book or asked a question.
Thanks.
It's white pigmented shellac.
good stuff.
Also can use a 50/50 mix of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits firts on raw wood the the 1.2.3.
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Ah, yes. I've used white pigmented shellac, maybe even the same brand, to seal water stains before repainting ceilings. Also have used thinned boiled linseed oil on weathered wood before painting. Still not sure how we'll handle the upcoming porch floor. Got a week or so to decide.
Allen
This type of flooring should be preprimed on all surfaces before installation, and should have adequate ventilation under it.
is it open and at least 18" off the ground?
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