OT...Exterior Paint for Covered Porch...OT

Photo Egg

Looking for someone with a good recommendation on paint.
Replacing the wood on my front covered porch with 5/4” tongue and groove wood boards.
Anyone have a good recommendation for a brand of paint? Is oil based still the best option?
Thanks in advance.

Sorry for posting again, but Off Topic side of this forum just doesn’t see much action.

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To be more specific.
What I need to paint are the actual porch deck boards that you walk on. It’s a covered porch but I do not need to paint the ceiling. 

I know Sherwin Williams makes great house paint. Unfortunately their porch board paint gets terrible reviews.
https://www.sherwin-williams.com/painting-contractors/products/porch-floor-enamel

GregW

Have you considered staining the ceiling?  My screened in porch is stained and coated in a polyurethane. It really looks good.
As far as paint goes, I have a covered area where the cars park, I used a Sherwin Williams latex. The base was a higher end base. It has held up very well.
Both areas are grooved cabinet grade plywood. 

WeberWho

We painted out house two years ago. We also went with Sherwin Williams. Duration to be specific. Not necessarily cheap but highly recommended by a friend who painted professionally. You can usually find a sale with Sherwin Williams to get 20% off. 

GregW

Around my area, Sherwin Williams goes on sale for 30% off. The sale changes weekly.
I have used the Duration line. It is really good,

HeavyG

The top four exterior paints on the Consumer Reports testing program at the moment.

Tried to place a screenshot of all the paints listed but during uploading it gets shrunken to illegibility. I miss the good ole days before things got all "Botched up" when you could still click zoom the original file size. Sigh...

If you want any of their info on any of those paints I'll be glad to copy/paste.

Photo Egg

To be more specific.
What I need to paint are the actual porch deck boards that you walk on. It’s a covered porch but I do not need to paint the ceiling. 

I know Sherwin Williams makes great house paint. Unfortunately their porch board paint gets terrible reviews.
https://www.sherwin-williams.com/painting-contractors/products/porch-floor-enamel

Wooden porch boards needs to be a special, high traffic, durable paint. Not just standard house wall paint.
Thanks 

poster

Personally i would stay away from anything solid. Stain it with a semi-transparent. Moisture will always play havoc on a solid and it will eventually peel. At least with a semi, every few years you can go back over top as it usually just fades

nolaegghead

The opaque stains always outlast the tints or clear sealants.  That's because they block UV better.

Photo Egg

poster said:

Personally i would stay away from anything solid. Stain it with a semi-transparent. Moisture will always play havoc on a solid and it will eventually peel. At least with a semi, every few years you can go back over top as it usually just fades

I get your point. But this is a porch deck on a historical style house from the early 1900s.
It needs to be painted a traditional gray color. If it were just my backyard bbq deck I would definitely just stain it.
Just a google image below as example.

PigBeanUs

You literally want what is known as “deck paint”

Oil based if you can get it. Oil-based lead would be better, but. Well. They don’t make it any more. 

Sherwin Williams should have good options

especially with a covered porch, a true paint (vs solid stain or stain) should wear well

semigloss too. Harder the surface the better. Not sure if they are enamel. The traditional finish is not flat, or a stain (semi-solid or transparent)

prep prep prep

GregW

Photo Egg said:

To be more specific.
What I need to paint are the actual porch deck boards that you walk on. It’s a covered porch but I do not need to paint the ceiling. 

I know Sherwin Williams makes great house paint. Unfortunately their porch board paint gets terrible reviews.
https://www.sherwin-williams.com/painting-contractors/products/porch-floor-enamel

Wooden porch boards needs to be a special, high traffic, durable paint. Not just standard house wall paint.
Thanks 

Sorry, I jumped to the wrong assumption. I thought you were doing the ceiling.

HeavyG

Photo Egg said:

To be more specific.
What I need to paint are the actual porch deck boards that you walk on. It’s a covered porch but I do not need to paint the ceiling. 

I know Sherwin Williams makes great house paint. Unfortunately their porch board paint gets terrible reviews.
https://www.sherwin-williams.com/painting-contractors/products/porch-floor-enamel

Wooden porch boards needs to be a special, high traffic, durable paint. Not just standard house wall paint.
Thanks 

Considered epoxy paints?

nolaegghead

nolaegghead

Prep and wood selection is everything.  Paint on decks usually flakes or peels off long before it chalks or degrades. 

Treated wood doesn't hold paint well.  If you get treated, buy the kiln dried.  Paint all sides of each board before you assemble it so it doesn't cup (dry unevenly).  You can put an extra coat or two on top once it's installed. 

Follow the instructions on the deck paint - if it says sand between coats, do it.  Glossy lasts longer than matte.

Like my troll account said.

PigBeanUs

You dont want treated wood. The best treated wood is still just fast-growth crappy pine

sounds like he already has the deck. 1x4 fir by the looks of it, vertical grain (bc they really don’t sell 1x4 fir decking otherwise, typically)

that sh!t will last longer than the best pressure treated cr^p. 

The best thing you can do for yourself is pay the minor increase in material costs. For the wood, and the paint. 

Just refinished a mahogany deck. I can’t imagine walking around on that plastic Trex junk. 

And they cost about the same, initially, when i priced them. 

Photo Egg

nolaegghead said:

Prep and wood selection is everything.  Paint on decks usually flakes or peels off long before it chalks or degrades. 

Treated wood doesn't hold paint well.  If you get treated, buy the kiln dried.  Paint all sides of each board before you assemble it so it doesn't cup (dry unevenly).  You can put an extra coat or two on top once it's installed. 

Follow the instructions on the deck paint - if it says sand between coats, do it.  Glossy lasts longer than matte.

Like my troll account said.

Boards were delivered today.
Have them standing on the groove side down and sandwiched between two 4x4 posts on my back deck. Boards are stamped with instructions to paint all sides before installing just like you recommended.
They are kiln dried and they did cost a premium but they seem pretty straight and dry.
When you go into a paint store in this area and ask for deck paint they immediately start pushing the thick deck paint used to cover imperfections and small cracks. The paint used on typical backyard uncovered decks. Many have a non slip additive. Valspar has both an oil based and a latex with pretty good reviews. 

Photo Egg

PigBeanUs said:

You literally want what is known as “deck paint”

Oil based if you can get it. Oil-based lead would be better, but. Well. They don’t make it any more. 

Sherwin Williams should have good options

especially with a covered porch, a true paint (vs solid stain or stain) should wear well

semigloss too. Harder the surface the better. Not sure if they are enamel. The traditional finish is not flat, or a stain (semi-solid or transparent)

prep prep prep

What I want advice on is normally not called deck paint. It normally has Porch in the name and not Deck.

nolaegghead

Behr Ultra is the top rated exterior house paint on CR.  It's an "oil" enamel.  They don't test porch paint specifically.  I don't know who to trust on the web, but I would think that formula for decks is very similar.  It's a "recommended buy".

Maybe more important is making sure you paint it when it's dry and stays dry until it cures and the temp is in the recommended range.

@YukonRon is a paint chemist and expert in paints, although he mostly works on industrial coatings, I'm sure he could offer some good advice.

The main going "above and beyond" thing I can think of is to hit the wear surface of the lumber with a sander so you have extra adhesion where you need it.  I'm talking quick, run-it-down-the plank with a DA or orbital to rough up the surface. This is optional, but I find paint has a hard time sticking to treated stuff and anything you do to help will pay off.  Dont' worry about the underside, sides.

Kayak

Wow Photo Egg, I've never seen a post generate more miss-the-point responses! This must be a record. And so confident too.

Sorry I can't help, but I like stone instead of wood outdoors.

nolaegghead

Kayak said:

Wow Photo Egg, I've never seen a post generate more miss-the-point responses! This must be a record. And so confident too.

Sorry I can't help, but I like stone instead of wood outdoors.

Probably related to the quick responses before the edit that listed more (relevant) information to the original post.

ryantt

We used Behr premium a few years ago on our steps and it’s held up well I like the fact it has grit to it to help prevent falls, as my daughter and her friends are constantly running up the steps after being in the pool. 

The only thing I noticed with the textured paint when rolling it, is it covered about 2/3 the sq footage they claimed.  

  

nolaegghead

There's enough natural texture in wood decking for traction where you shouldn't need the grit.  You can also add grit to any paint.

Yours truly, self-loathing NOLA-it-all

hoosier_egger

We need to refinish our 14x32 deck. They used a solid red stain from Cabot. That leaves my options limited on refinishing it as I prefer a more transparent stain. We will replace it within a few years with Trex.

PigBeanUs

Photo Egg said:

What I want advice on is normally not called deck paint. It normally has Porch in the name and not Deck.

I gave you advice on porch paint. 

Porch, deck. Deck, porch. 

Same thing. 

You don’t want that heavy crack-filling stuff. 

Read the label. Just make sure it is semi to gloss enamel. Oil

it may be “porch” paint now. But deck paint was what they specifically used to call the gray stuff. 

They literally had one color. That’s it.

Guy in apron at the hardware store: “You painting a porch?” (points) “go get some deck paint”.

Joe Homeowner didn’t even have a color choice. 

It’s the old vs new. Half the time when I ask at Home Despot for something, they have never heard of it. 

But if I walk into the corner hardware store (usually an Ace these days), the guy knows what you want. 

Buy a premium oil-based gloss (or semi, but gloss was the “old way”) enamel. Prep and apply it per the directions. Porch, deck. Who cares what they marketers call it. 

It will wear like a battleship, especially under cover. 

In fact, I *believe* it is (or was) called deck paint bc it was used in marine applications. But that is pure speculation

As a kid, we had a 1x4 fir deck (ok, “porch”) (vertical grain) with that standard dark gray oil paint. It wore like iron. 

The structure rotted out from under it. 

We rebuilt it late 80’s with PT 5/4x6 decking. 

That stuff was fast growth and plain sawn (grain parallel to width).  He tried semisolid stain, paint, everything. Nothing grabs. Looks like hëll. 

Not sure if he sanded the top side to remove any mill glaze (the planer can sort of polish the surface too much). Or maybe his first coat went on when the PT was still damp 

Just follow the prep instructions like a mindless robot, as onerous as they may be. 

fishlessman

not a painter, but the marine deck paints have lasted along time on my boat and there are stil oil bases available. i got about 20 years with a plywood deck and an oil based non skid deck paint and replaced the deck with a composite. the composite is about 10 years and i believe they used an acrylic marine paint that still looks new but is a little slippery with fish slime on it almost want to say to look at the marine paints, with what my boat goes thru with things sliding, fresh and salt water, sun, dropping 10 pound lead weights on it etc, its really stood up over time. neither floorings ever peeled but i think thats do to new materials and prep.

Langner91

*scribbles feverishly on page 17 in notebook titled "Topics to NEVER click on @ BGE Forum"*

Deck / Porch paint

Photo Egg

fishlessman said:

not a painter, but the marine deck paints have lasted along time on my boat and there are stil oil bases available. i got about 20 years with a plywood deck and an oil based non skid deck paint and replaced the deck with a composite. the composite is about 10 years and i believe they used an acrylic marine paint that still looks new but is a little slippery with fish slime on it almost want to say to look at the marine paints, with what my boat goes thru with things sliding, fresh and salt water, sun, dropping 10 pound lead weights on it etc, its really stood up over time. neither floorings ever peeled but i think thats do to new materials and prep.

We have a small local Industrial Supply Store that is owned by a Steel Fab company.
I know they sell industrial paint for oil platforms and ships. I'm going to make a run by there tomorrow. They have been very helpful finding obscure things in the past.

Photo Egg

Kayak said:

Wow Photo Egg, I've never seen a post generate more miss-the-point responses! This must be a record. And so confident too.

Sorry I can't help, but I like stone instead of wood outdoors.

The biggest and most common misinformation I see is when a member asks a question specific to the XL and it's answered by people that do not own or have never cooked on the XL.lol
Ohhh, and responding to someone's beautiful food post by saying I would never eat that because it has too much fat, salt or calories. 

Photo Egg

nolaegghead said:

Behr Ultra is the top rated exterior house paint on CR.  It's an "oil" enamel.  They don't test porch paint specifically.  I don't know who to trust on the web, but I would think that formula for decks is very similar.  It's a "recommended buy".

Maybe more important is making sure you paint it when it's dry and stays dry until it cures and the temp is in the recommended range.

Thanks again!
So far, I'm leaning towards the Behr Oil Base.
Agree on waiting for a good weather day. Like you, we are in a high humidity area. Everything rusts and rots.

fishlessman

Photo Egg said:

fishlessman said:

not a painter, but the marine deck paints have lasted along time on my boat and there are stil oil bases available. i got about 20 years with a plywood deck and an oil based non skid deck paint and replaced the deck with a composite. the composite is about 10 years and i believe they used an acrylic marine paint that still looks new but is a little slippery with fish slime on it almost want to say to look at the marine paints, with what my boat goes thru with things sliding, fresh and salt water, sun, dropping 10 pound lead weights on it etc, its really stood up over time. neither floorings ever peeled but i think thats do to new materials and prep.

We have a small local Industrial Supply Store that is owned by a Steel Fab company.
I know they sell industrial paint for oil platforms and ships. I'm going to make a run by there tomorrow. They have been very helpful finding obscure things in the past.

just make sure they get you something user friendy, i wont touch some industrial paints and will find someone that knows how to handle it. some of the metal paints will knock you on your arse

Photo Egg

fishlessman said:

Photo Egg said:

fishlessman said:

not a painter, but the marine deck paints have lasted along time on my boat and there are stil oil bases available. i got about 20 years with a plywood deck and an oil based non skid deck paint and replaced the deck with a composite. the composite is about 10 years and i believe they used an acrylic marine paint that still looks new but is a little slippery with fish slime on it almost want to say to look at the marine paints, with what my boat goes thru with things sliding, fresh and salt water, sun, dropping 10 pound lead weights on it etc, its really stood up over time. neither floorings ever peeled but i think thats do to new materials and prep.

We have a small local Industrial Supply Store that is owned by a Steel Fab company.
I know they sell industrial paint for oil platforms and ships. I'm going to make a run by there tomorrow. They have been very helpful finding obscure things in the past.

just make sure they get you something user friendy, i wont touch some industrial paints and will find someone that knows how to handle it. some of the metal paints will knock you on your arse

Thank you.
I will keep it safe.