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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Oil Based Paint on Exteriors Oak Forest IL

With the advent of Latex based Paints, the usage of Oil based paints for exteriors has dropped drastically. Earlier, latex based paints had a number of disadvantages over oil based paints. However, in recent years, the environmental benefits of Latex based paints have been recognized and this has spurred further innovation.

Nonetheless, Oil based paints still have a role to play in Exterior Painting. Let us look at these advantages one by one.
Durability.
Even though Latex based paints have come a long way, Oil paints still have the edge when it comes to real durability. This means that it’s preferable to use Oil Based paints on areas where you are apt to get a lot of traffic like the railings.

Also, Oil based paint is impervious to water, unlike latex which is more easily affected.
Protection.
Oil forms a very solid impervious layer of the substrate. For many materials like wood, this is not a good thing as it doesn’t allow moisture to escape and will cause the paint to form bubbles and lose adhesion in addition to looking unsightly.

However, this means that it provides a little more protection against rust for metal surfaces. If you have a surface with a lot of nail heads, then a coat of Oil Paint will prevent them from rusting and spoiling the look of the finish.
Drying time.
Oil based paints take a much longer time to dry. This is because they’re not really drying in the common sense of the word, but curing. The paint has to go through a chemical process in order to form a solid layer.

Once more, what could be a disadvantage under some circumstances, can be an advantage under others. The slow drying oil paint allows the paint to settle and spread out, which means that you get a much smoother finish without any brush strokes across the wall or siding.

Latex paint dries so fast, often the paint job can be ruined by the finish being streaked with fine brush strokes.
When not to use Oil Paint.
There are several reasons when not to use oil paint. This situation can occur if you’re repainting over a coat of latex paint. Since latex paint freely expands and contracts as opposed to Oil Paint, the top layer of oil paint will crack and peel off.

Oil is not recommended on wood surfaces due to the tendency of the wood to let off moisture that the oil paint will not allow to escape. The consequence of this, is bubble formation and possible destruction of the paint job.

Also keep in mind that Oil Paints are not Environment Friendly and contain a large number of Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOC’s). They are more difficult to dispose of and can cause significant health problems. For this reason, Oil Paints are not recommended for heavy indoor use.

Oil Paint is also flammable due to the nature of the volatile chemicals and must thus be handled with care.

Posted on 12/31 at 01:39 PM
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