Linseed Paint

Have you ever wondered why you have to re-paint windows and doors so often?

Why timber windows rot so quickly when painted with plastic paints?

It's because modern paints are NOT breathable. They are often sold as such, but when we ask for test methodology, they refuse. If the manufacturer wont tell you how they arrive at a result, you have to assume it's because they are either lying about it, or they've never actually tested it and made up the result. This certainly seems to be the case with the test organisations like BBA. 

If a paint isnt breathable, it traps moisture. Where does that moisture come from? Put very simply, it accumulates slowly over time. Water can get into most things as a gas, so it gets through tiny gaps, splits, holes, and through timber and walls. When the temperature of the painted object drops below dew point, that moisture condenses and forms a liquid, which is then essentially trapped, and the timber gets wet. Over time this begins to rot. That moisture also pushes paint off the timber in its attempt to escape - hence the peeling and bubbling seen on window sills, frames and doors. 

Thankfully there is a type of paint which DOES allow moisture to move freely into and out of timber - and its been used one way or another for hundreds of years. I've linked on this page to the excellent book by Michiel Brouns that explains this in more detail.  That paint is linseed.  It's lovely stuff to use - easy to clean up, smells nice, and doesn't trap moisture. Years ago we worked with Chatsworth Estate to look at their external joinery costs, and find ways to reduce them. Linseed was the answer. Now they paint most of their joinery in this way - after stripping back to bare timber. Detailed maintenance logs show that their external joinery repair costs have plummeted since using linseed, to a figure nearly 75 percent less than when they used conventional weathershield paints.

Linseed Paint and Oil: A Practical Guide

We recommend linseed paint to all of our survey clients.  There's a couple of really good suppliers of these - we love the Ingilby Paints website. They're a small family company in Suffolk who hand make their paints and provide superb service. They're really helpful on the phone as well! The book author Michiel also supplies linseed paints. We really recommend you get the book..