Larry Hoppe writes:
> Idaho, namely, low humidity and extreme cold in winter; and snow 4' to
> 6' deep standing most of the normal winter.
>
> The paint here doesn't seem to last more than a few seasons ( Five
> years is typical) regardless of quality from what I've been advised by
> citizens who have lived here much longer than I.
>>Are there any internet resources you can recommend that our Historic =
Preservation Commission might use to add to our self-help education =
efforts. <<

Dan Becker writes:
> Calling all extreme northern pinhead brethren in from the cold...CP in
> BC, Callan, Leeke.

Larry:

You are on the right track with "self-help education efforts." After four
decades of working on older buidings I have learned that when it comes to
exterior paint I get much better results with the self-help education
approach rather than depending on the construction industry and standard
paint trades practice.

Your climate sound a lot like we have here in Maine. Your situation of
typical paint jobs lasting 3-5 years on older buildings is also like here in
Maine and just about everywhere else in the country. The length of life of a
paint job has much more to do with painting methods than with the climate.
Here in Maine (and elsewhere) we are able to get effective performance by
using effective methods (which don't seem to be standard practice in the
paint trade). Consider the links to the Historic HomeWorks library below and
let me know if you have further questions.

Here I summarize my comments in the Certified Local Governments maillist a
couple months ago:

Effective painting methods are far, far more important than the specific
brand, which makes very little difference. For further details see "Peeling
Paint Looks Shabby" in the Library at Historic HomeWorks,
http://www.historichomeworks.com/hhw/QA/qa07.htm, which describes why the
paint on our older buildings is peeling and why the building industry does
not help us deal with it effectively. (hint: it's more profitable to sell us
vinyl siding and it's easier for us to write the check for vinyl siding than
it is to assure we get an effective paint job)

For detailed paint treatments that work see the series of articles edited by
the Joint Coatings/Forest Products Committee, also at Historic
HomeWorks.com,
http://www.historichomeworks.com/hhw/library/coatings/articles.html

Here my meaning of "brand" is the name of the maker, such as "Benjamin
Moore" and "Sherwin-Williams," which does make little difference. It is the
paint manufacturers and marketers who mislead us when they try to develop
brand-loyalty in us so that we will not consider what really does make a
difference: product type and product quality. The type of product, such as
oil-base alkyd resin, or water-base acrylic emulsion, makes quite a bit more
difference. And, as Dan says, the quality of the product is also extreemly
important. But, I have found, time and again, over the decades, that we
cannot depend on the brand name to always give us the product type and
quality needed for effective performance. Paint product marketing is so
comeptitive that you do almost always get what you pay for. Good quality
exterior house paint from the ordinary consumer supply line now seems to
cost $30-40/gal. retail. Paint industry insider, John Stauffer of the Paint
Quality Institute, informed us at the Exterior Wood Conservation and
Protection Workshop (APTI Conference, 1999) that the service life of an
acrylic coating is directly related to the quality of acrylic binders in the
paint, and that the cost of the paint is directly related to the quality of
the binders. The paint marketers tell the paint chemists what price the
market will bear, and the chemists select a binder that fits that price. If
we, in the market, would readily pay $100 for a gallon of paint then the
paint would have better quality binders and would have a longer service
life. Some of us will only pay $10-15/gal. and when we do we get paint that
will not last as long.

If we understand how the paint industry operates, we can advise our clients
and constituients in a way that will actually help them get a better paint
job.


John Leeke, Preservation Consultant

26 Higgins St.
Portland, Maine 04103
207 773-2306
[log in to unmask]
www.HistoricHomeWorks.com

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