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finishing barnboard

3K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  slickshift 
#1 ·
I have recently acquired some actual barnboard (as opposed to the building centre type) to be used as siding on the gable ends of a strawbale house I am building. Interested to know if anyone can give me a bit of advice re: finishing barnboard with linseed oil for wood protection. Does linseed oil help to prevent insect (ie: wasp) infestation? I wish to use the least harmful product possible.

Note: I have found a recipe for Milk Paint but I wish to have the basic colour of the wood remain in tact. Can this be used without tinting? Will it provide the protection I'm looking for?

Thanks for the help.
 
#2 ·
The only problem with linseed oil is that it's food for mildew. If you live in a damp or humid environment where mildew grows on the exteriors of houses, your house will have more than it's fair share of mildew on that wall if you paint it with linseed oil.

If it wuz me, I'd be inclined to paint any areas that may get wet and stay wet for a long time with a paintable wood preservative, and then paint it with an exterior alkyd paint tinted to a colour that calls for only inorganic pigments in it's tint formula. (These are pigments that are essentially coloured rocks pulverized into a fine enough powder that they're invisible to the naked eye.) This will give you the best hide and the best colour fastness you can get in a paint.
 
#3 ·
Linseed oil, or a linseed/thinner mix, can be used as a wood coating
Linseed oil, as far as I know, doesn't provide any more or less protection from wasps then most other coatings
Insecticides can be added to most exterior coatings at the point of purchase
(If you are not in an area where this is needed or common, they will be harder to find)

Barnboard means different things in different parts of North America
You could mean the rough hewn (splintery) New England kind, or the smoother, wide, knot filled pine kind often called Barnboard in the more midwest type regions
I'd say it's more common on the rough hewn, but certainly would work on either
And "more common" would be a relative term, as it's really not all that common to use linseed oils today

As for a least harmful product...I'm not sure what you mean
Least harmful to what or to whom?
What is meant by least harmful?

Although I might encourage a milk paint for an interior wood/furnishing project, I would not suggest it for an exterior finish
Although you don't specify what "protection you are looking for", it really doesn't stack up well in the exterior protection category, so I'd say it's a good bet that it won't
 
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