External timbers

[katefshaw]

Hi there,

I am wondering whether I could get some advice. I live in a Grade 2 listed property. I have planning permission to repair the roof which is currently underway. The external timbers appear to have been painted with a black paint which is peeling and looks terrible. I'm sorry the images don't show the damage but it is pretty bad. I reckon that this paint is not breathable. Whilst the scaffolding is up I am hoping to restore the timber frames. How am I best going about this. I do not want to damage the fabric of the building. I am hoping to complete this work myself as the roof itself is costing me 60k to repair as it is in such a terrible state. I have been in touch with a heritage consultant who said that I should be allowed to do this so long as I don't affect the appearance and it is in-keeping with the property. I would greatly appreciate your help and advice, particularly with regards to whether the paint should be sanded to be removed (although I'm worried about damaging the wood if I do this) and whether I should use a linseed based paint.

Kind regards

Katie

 

[Cubist]

There are several techniques available to you to remove the old paint but... all of them are messy and some present some risk to the timber and to the user. The most dangerous to the timber is sand/media blasting as this, whilst quite quick, will also remove much of the softer tissues of the wood - and any surrounding materials such as plaster or mortar - and leave it looking like driftwood washed up on a beach. Chemical strippers can be reasonably effective but several applications can be needed to remove all traces. Heat guns and scrapers can be very effective where the timber is mostly reasonably flat but can become tedious if the timber has been frequently painted over many years and the paint is embedded in minor cracks and crevices.

There will be others here who may share or offer other suggestions regarding how to get rid of the extant paint but.... I suspect that all of the contributors would agree that you should not re-paint those timbers once they have been stripped. Better to simply give them an occasional coat of a thinned linseed oil and leave them to weather naturally.

 

[katefshaw]

Thank you for your advice, it sounds like it is going to be a nightmare to remove. I'm not quite sure whether it's within my scope by the sounds of things.

 

[malcolm]

It's worth doing tests to figure out the best way to remove the paint. I tried strippers. One discoloured the wood and they were all a bit slow. Since mine was painted on top of older linseed paint a heat gun worked best, melting the linseed underneath and allowing the paint to be scraped off.

For repainting you can buy linseed paint but it will go matt and dust over time. My black linseed paint still looks fine but the run off from rain is staining the limewash. Would work better if the linseed paint is overpainted in boiled linseed oil. Any paint does need to be properly breathable.

 

[Kearn]

It’s certainly not a DIY job, not externally or on that scale.

However, I’m curious about the timbers and building age - the style of building - lower story stone and the apparent condition of the timbers (very uniform, smooth and complete) lead me to believe that this may not be a structural timber frame, but face timbers as per the Victorian revival of Tudor styles. If that’s the case, then they will likely be softwood - little point removing paint if they’re rotten, better to replace the timbers. And they should be painted as the timber needs protection unlike an ancient oak frame…

 

[Flyfisher]

Kearn beat me to posting basically the same thing - are they really structural timbers? It looks as if they are sitting slightly proud of the stonework below as if they could have been fixed to similar stonework construction for the upper storey.

 

[katefshaw]

The building was built in 1876 by a famous architect, john duglas, as a model farm. I know a lot of the building has pine in it rather than oak and I think you might be right Kearn in that they aren't structural.