How to paint the house outside: choose the right paint

Gusevsky Andrey Anatolyevich

How to paint a plastered house outside

Finishing the facade by painting, from a financial point of view, is always more profitable than the same type of decoration used for interior decoration. The thing is that in addition to the external walls, the house also has partitions, which doubles the area of ​​the painted surface. Therefore, even if the price of facade paint turns out to be slightly higher, less money will still be spent on the exterior decoration.

However, before painting the house outside, you need to choose the right paint and prepare the surface, because the quality of the finish as a whole depends on these two nuances. In this article we will talk about the types and compatibility of facade coatings, their protective and decorative properties. We hope that our instruction will be the best assistant for those who can not decide on a choice.

What should be the paint for the facade

By and large, the standards make demands not so much on the paints themselves as on the decorative films they form.

What is the most important thing for them? The main indicator of good facade paint is the ability of the coating to maintain its integrity and original color for a long time under atmospheric conditions.

Main characteristics

For facade paints such indicators as vapor permeability and resistance to moisture are very important, and in fact, to get them from one material is quite problematic. And without this combination, the coating will not work resistant, since moisture attacks it not only from the outside, but also leaves in the form of steam from the wall.

Note! When the steam has nowhere to go, it condenses and moisturizes the inner surface of the paint film. In winter, this moisture freezes, and when thawing expands and flakes paint. Keep in mind: the higher the vapor permeability of the structural material of the walls and their interior decoration, the higher this indicator should be for facade paint.

So:

• Paints with good vapor permeability are called "breathable", and achieve an improvement in this characteristic by introducing pore-forming additives into the composition of coatings. But in order for the coating to be resistant to ultraviolet, manufacturers have to use light-resistant film formers and pigments.

How to paint a log house outside: tinting primer

• Peeling paint from the base occurs not only through the fault of its poor vapor permeability. The quality of the coating is largely determined by the properties of the primer, which should also be correctly selected. Here the main rule is that the soil composition was made on the basis of the same components as the paint.

To a question like: “How to paint a timber house outside?”, We can safely answer that the best option is self-priming paint, which is both soil and paint.

Simply, when applying the first layer, it is diluted with a solvent to a more liquid state, and the surface is primed. The second coat is applied as usual.

Color selection

When choosing paint for the facade, it is also necessary to take into account such indicators as hiding power and consumption per 1 m2. In fact, these are two related concepts - the better the paint covers the base, the fewer layers will have to be applied, and accordingly, its consumption will be lower.

Advice! Before judging which paint is more cost-effective, do not look at the price tags, but compare the expense indicators.If a more expensive paint is more economical in terms of consumption, then most likely, its use will prove to be the most profitable from a financial point of view.

Lime based paints

The most environmentally friendly paints are lime and silicate options. It would seem that with the advent of new-fashioned paints and tinting impregnations, no one is already using lime whitewash. But, nevertheless, the facades of old buildings that are undergoing restoration are painted with them.

What is the reason for this preference:

• But the fact is that lime paint does not contain polymers, and does not form a film, which, in fact, is alien to the walls. She spends the best steam, and even is a kind of antiseptic - remember at least the trees whose trunks are still treated with lime to this day. But, of course, this does not mean that the composition based on lime can be used to paint wooden walls.

Colored whitewash of a plastered house

Note! Substrates suitable for applying calcareous paints include lime-containing plasters and base substrates, as well as walls made of natural stone and concrete. The list of contraindications for them is as follows: all bases on the basis of gypsum (plaster, panel, gypsum board and gypsum board), ceramic bricks, as well as old paint coatings that are not classified as calcareous.

• The only negative of lime paints is that they are not very tinted (seeHow to paint: choose an option), and when painting it is almost impossible to achieve a uniform shade of the surface. In addition, over time, it crumbles, and the facade quite often has to be repainted. Therefore, when it comes not to a modest country house, but to a city residential building with a facade claim for design, you will have to choose something else for exterior painting.
• If you are going to paint the newly plastered house for the first time, or if you want to repaint the facade, previously painted with lime or cement paint, you can give preference to silicate compositions. They also have lime, but along with it there are also 13-15% of organic compounds, due to which the durability of the coating increases.

Silicate paints for exterior walls

• Indications and contraindications for the use of silicate paints are exactly the same as for lime - we have already drawn your attention to this. This type of paint is produced either in the form of a powder, which must be mixed with liquid glass, or, as shown in the photo above, in finished form.
• This is usually just white paint. Before use, it is tinted as desired, but tones are obtained mainly pastel. Silicate compositions are quite caustic, and when applying such paint with your own hands, you must be especially careful to use protective agents.

For the same reason, as well as due to sufficiently quick hardening, it is applied with a roller (seePaint rollers: consider in detail), not a spray gun. You will obtain more detailed information on the implementation of this work by watching the video in this article.

Water dispersions

Everyone knows that for painting interiors they mainly use water based paints. But imagine that for facades in many cases they should also be preferred. For example, on cement plaster, which is usually used for outdoor work, it is generally not recommended to use alkyd and oil compositions.

• The reason for this is the presence in these paints of fatty acids in the ether state, which when plaster enters the alkaline environment begin to break down. So here is the palm of the paint for the dispersion type.

Note! To the question: “What is the best way to paint a house from a bar outside?”, We will answer this way. If you want to get a color that matches the wood scale, it is better to give preference to tinted antiseptics, or as they are also called, color impregnations.They are both bioprotection and tinting for wood. Well, for any other color, we recommend all the same dispersion paints.

Frame house design with acrylic paint

• Given such a wide range of applications, we dwell on water-soluble paints in more detail. Many do not understand how the concepts of “water-emulsion” and “water-dispersion” differ. And this is one and the same. An emulsion is a mixture of water and substances that do not dissolve in it.
• And dispersion is a suspension of the smallest solid particles that are present in the same emulsion. Typically, its role is played by cellulose, chalk or talcum powder, which are included in the composition of the paint in order to obtain the desired density. Water-dispersible paints are also called water-soluble, since in the liquid state they are diluted with water.
• Paints of the old generation, made mainly on the basis of butadiene styrene or polyvinyl acetate, were not only easily diluted, but also easily removed from the surface. Naturally, they were not used for facades. In contrast, the coatings of modern paints made on the basis of acrylic resins, latex, silicone, have ideal mechanical strength.

Multi-colored painted facade of an apartment building

When they dry, the film polymerizes, which is akin to setting cement, which is first diluted with water without problems, and then forms a stone, which becomes impermeable to it. These compounds are sold in white, but a color as juicy as in the picture is obtained using concentrated tinting pastes added to the paint before application.

Synthetic paints and their compatibility

For painting facades, especially in large volumes, synthetic paints are often used, since they are much cheaper than others. They include oil formulations, although many are skeptical about them.

Meanwhile, modern technologies have brought them to a fundamentally new level long ago, and with the right approach to the preparatory work, the result is unlikely to disappoint.

• In any case, the question: “How to paint the frame house outside?”, We can safely answer - with oil paint. The base surface in such a house is the sheathing of wood-polymer boards (OSB), and this type of paint is perfect for her, as well as for any wooden surface.
• In addition to oil paints, the following synthetic paints are used for facades: perchlorovinyl (HV), organosilicon (KO), pentaphthalic (PF), and paints based on chlorosulfonated polyethylene (CP). All of them are toxic, have a pungent odor, and therefore are suitable only for outdoor use.

Oil paints do not lose ground

• Some of the synthetic paints can even be used at low temperatures, which is why they are used in large-scale construction, which is conducted year-round. We will not go into the technological details of their manufacture, but we will pay a little attention to their compatibility. In cases where you have to update the old paintwork, this is very important.

In the table below, we note on which old coating one or another type of paint cannot be applied, and we will rely on the requirements of the current standard:

• Among the whole variety of facade paints, I would especially like to note the compositions based on siloxane. They also represent an aqueous medium in which silicone resin is integrated, therefore, they can rightfully be called water emulsion. The structure of silicone is similar to quartz sand, but organic compounds are also attached to it.
• This substance can equally well be attributed to both the inorganic and organic groups - that is, it is a kind of intermediate form. Among facade paints and varnishes, silicone paints occupy a very special place. They form a surface that does not absorb water to any degree, and, by the way, does not attract dust at all.

Siloxane paint - the best option for plastered facades

• In terms of vapor permeability, they may well "compete" with silicate paints. Most importantly, paints based on siloxane do not contribute to the appearance of surface tension on plastered surfaces, which makes such a coating the most durable.

Silicone dispersions fit well on almost all types of surfaces, and are also compatible with most organic and inorganic paints. Thanks to this, they are equally good both for the initial painting of the facade and for its repair. High cost is the only drawback of this option, but, given the quality and durability of the coating, in the end, the consumer only wins.